An Open Letter to Orthodox Monasteries From The Faithful Children of The Orthodox Church of Jerusalem (Updated)

A Letter to Orthodox Monasteries-English

A Letter to Orthodox Monasteries – Greek

A Letter to Orthodox Monasteries – Arabic

A Letter to Orthodox Monasteries – Russian

A Letter to Orthodox Monasteries – Romanian

22/6/13

“O Lord, O Lord, look down from heaven and behold, and visit this vine, and perfect that which Your right has planted”

 

“In the world you will have tribulation;

but be of a good cheer,

I have overcome the world” (John 16:33)

Our Fathers and Mothers in Christ; the Blessed Abbots and Abbesses,

 On the feast of the Holy Pentecost, we, the Faithful Children of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem convey to you our greetings on this blessed feast, beseeching the Lord to keep you in good health and grant you grace and holiness.

The Blessed Elder Paisios the Athonite points out in one of his letters that the monk distances himself from the world, not out of hatred, but out of love to the world. In this sense, through his prayer he will present more help to the world to resolve issues, that can’t be resolved by human effort, but only through divine intervention; and thus God saves the world. The monks, through their prayers, are steered by divine power, not by their illusive individual power. In view of our current time where evil prevails, we are in absolute need for divine intervention in our lives.

Therefore, we write to you in the midst of this turbulent world and specifically, from the afflicted Middle East. Our hearts are grieving from the conflict, destruction and persecution that surround us constituting a threat to Christian existence in the region. Nonetheless, in view of our consciousness to the Church role in the salvation and sanctification of man and the entire universe, we deemed appropriate to address you and address all the Orthodox monasteries in the world, our messengers to God, holding onto the unity of our faith and love and communion in the Body of Christ. We ask you reverently to help us with your prayers to our Lord Jesus Christ for the sake of the Christians in the Middle East in general and our Orthodox Church of Jerusalem in particular.

The status of our Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, the sole national Church in Jordan and Palestine, has declined to an extreme degree of neglect and deterioration due to the cumulative lack of spiritual guidance and care, as well as the absence of any indicator of a spiritual renaissance; this has resulted in stagnation of the Church’s pastoral, spiritual, institutional and social activity. Throughout the years, this has also caused the departure of large numbers of Orthodox parishioners from their Mother Church to join churches, sects and heresies contrary to the spirit, doctrine and teachings of the Orthodox Church.

Accordingly, there is an urgent need in our Church to nourish the monastic life by founding new monasteries and convents as well as admitting new male and female candidates to be tonsured in the monastic order in their respective countries, Jordan and Palestine, instead of travelling to other countries for such a monastic tonsure. Moreover, the existing monasteries of Palestine should be revived as several of these monasteries are without abbots, even without monks, and neither liturgical services nor spiritual activities are held in them, whereby most of such monasteries have only become places for selling souvenirs! How we hoped that such sacred places would become a beacon of spiritual and theological enlightenment in service of the Church members.

Furthermore, our Church lacks having diocesan bishops heading their Churches with full ecclesiastical, pastoral and episcopal authorities. Therefore, there is an imperative necessity to implement the diocesan system in our Church, as foreseen in the Holy Canons, following the example of all other Orthodox Churches around the world. And to grant the bishop in each diocese his full ecclesiastical authority to carry out his obligations towards the faithful parishioners, and to enable him to represent his flock before the Holy Synod so that he may express their sufferings and needs and fulfill their expectations and demands.

May your love and devotion allow us to place in your hands this message, which reflects our painful reality after having exhausted all ecclesiastical means to make our voice and the voices of many other priests, who were persecuted for speaking out the truth, heard by our ecclesiastical leadership but all in vain. However, our faith in God’s justice along with our justified spiritual ecclesiastical demands, which are of the ecclesiastical leadership obligation towards their entrusted souls of the faithful by virtue of the Holy Canons in our Holy Orthodox Church, has motivated us to write to you, reverently requesting your prayers in order to attain a full spiritual renaissance in our Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem.

We also reverently request from you to pray to our Lord to protect and preserve the first and sole Orthodox Monastery in Jordan which was established twelve years ago, Monastery of the Theotokos The Life-Giving Spring for nuns, along with the sisterhood and the spiritual father: the founder of the monastery. And for the recognition and confirmation of the internal bylaws of the monastery, in order, to continue the monastic journey on the principles and regulations of cenobitic life and to keep this Holy Monastery as a beacon radiating its spirituality to all believers.

We all uphold the faith that your constant prayers shall surround us like a protective barrier against the visible and invisible enemies, so that we may surpass with prayer, faith and hope the path of the cross to the resurrection of our Orthodox Church of Jerusalem with our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ who has risen from the dead. Thus, enjoy the prospective spiritual renaissance so that our Church may regain its lost ecclesiastical and monastic brilliance, and its distinguished position as the Mother Church, and as source of spiritual enlightenment for the entire world.

We thank your love and support, raising our hearts in prayers with you!

 

,Asking for your blessings and prayers

The Faithful Children of the Orthodox Church of Jerusalem

 in Jordan and Palestine

The Feast of the Holy Pentecost – 2013

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OCP News Service