To The Synod of Hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church
(
05.12.2008
)
For we know that if our earthly house
of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God,
an house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. (2 Corinthians 5,1)
Your Eminences,
Dear Brothers in Christ the Godchild,
With a cordial regret we have heard the news that His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, the Head of the Holy Russian Orthodox Church, passed away.
To You, our brothers, Hierarchs of the Holy Moscow Patriarchate, to all the clergy, monks and faithful of your Holy Church, we express our sadness and pain, on behalf of the Holy Hierarch’s Synod of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, our clergy, our monastics and the people of Macedonia, and we pray to Merciful God and our Saviour Lord Jesus Christ, to receive the soul of his Arch-shephard, Patriarch Alexy II, and give it an enlightened and pleasant place, together with His Saints.
Not only Your Holy Church and the Orthodoxy in Russia, but the whole Orthodox world lost a very important person, godly adorned Arch-shepherd and Hierarch in the likeness of Christ, who lived for Christ and ”worthy for Christ’s Gospel” (Philippians 1, 27), filled with godly and brotherly love, till complete readiness for sacrifice, working on the field of God, for salvation of his congregation, for salvation of all Orthodox Christians and all the people.
He showed his godly manner and brotherly love as well to us, through his Evangelistic love toward the Macedonian Orthodox Church, always interceding in favour of the just solution of the problems that our
Let the memory of Him be eternal, and God bless him.
Head of Macedonian Orthodox Church
Archbishop of Ohrid and