To the Venerable Pastors, God-loving Monastics and Devout Faithful of the Orthodox Church in
America
Dearly Beloved in the Lord:
Christ is Risen!
Together with those who came before the dawn with Mary, we have come to that first day of the
week and have found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. With astonishment, we ponder
the question of the Angel: “Why do you seek among the dead, as though He were mortal man,
Him who abides in everlasting light?” And with wonder, we behold the grave-clothes lying in
the empty tomb as a powerful sign of the reality of the resurrection of Christ, the Conqueror of
Death.
Like the Myrrhbearers and the Apostles who ran to the sepulcher, all of us have taken a journey
from the darkness and confusion of this world to the light and truth of the resurrection. We have
sailed across the great sea of the Fast, asking the Lord to take from us sloth, despair, lust for
power and idle talk so that we might replace them with love for Christ, compassion for our
fellow human beings and care for all creation. We have been pilgrims with the Lord through the
barrenness of His life-giving Passion and have tasted the wonder that is the “universally
nourishing work of the Cross” (St Timothy of Antioch).
