His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, called the world in his Christmas message to respect the rights and integrity of children.<\/p>\n
In his message, the Ecumenical Patriarch says that the Gospel of the Nativity of the Lord, though representing a great joy for humans, is proclaimed today in a world where the racket of weapons is heard\u00a0<\/em>and where\u00a0inequality and social injustice prevail<\/em>.<\/p>\n He also referred to his meeting with pope Francis and Archbishop Hieronymos of Athens in the island of Lesbos, where they could witness with their own eyes the tragic circumstances of refugees and immigrants.<\/p>\n Furthermore, the Ecumenical Patriarch draws attention that the Feast of the Nativity of Infant Jesus Christ represents an\u00a0invitation for us to care for children<\/em>, who are nowadays vulnerable victims of conflicts and crises in the world.<\/p>\n He also draws attention to the bad influence television and internet have on children’s minds. Patriarch Bartholomew warns that the souls of children are affected by the influential consumption of electronic media, which\u00a0rapidly vanishes their innocence.<\/p>\n Given the constant threats to which children are exposed,\u00a0His Holiness Bartholomew\u00a0<\/em>declares 2017 as\u00a0the Year of Protection of the Sacredness of Childhood, inviting everyone to recognise and respect the rights and integrity of children.<\/em><\/p>\n The Ecumenical Patriarch closes his Christmas message by urging to continue the good struggle in the Church, respecting the commandments of the Lord.<\/p>\n B A R T H O L O M E W \u201cChrist\u2019s incarnation is my own recreation\u201d<\/p>\n Beloved brothers and sisters, dear children in the Lord,<\/p>\n We praise and glorify the God in Trinity, who deemed us worthy once again this year to reach the great feast of the Nativity in the flesh of the Son and Word of God the Father in \u201clittle Bethlehem.\u201d<\/p>\n The holy Church is celebrating with fullness of joy, for Christ \u201cassumed flesh\u201d through His incarnation and rendered the Church \u201can adornment for the world.\u201d Indeed, the entire human race, and even \u201call of creation,\u201d rejoices over this divine blessing. \u201cAll of creation is today filled with joy because Christ is born of a Virgin.\u201d<\/p>\n In contrast to the \u201cunmoved mover\u201d of the ancient Greeks, our God is the communion of love and lovingly moves in time toward humankind and the world. \u201cIn this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us.\u201d (1 John 4.10)<\/p>\n The pre-eternal Word of the Father, who granted \u201cbeing\u201d to humankind, now grants us \u201cwell being\u201d through His incarnation. \u201cThis is the reason behind the feast; this is why we celebrate today: namely, God\u2019s descent to us so that we might ascend\u2014or return\u2014to God . . . in order that, by laying aside the old man, we may assume the new man; and in order that, by dying to Adam, we might therefore live in Christ; in order that we might be with Christ, be crucified with Him, be buried with Him, and arise with Him.\u201d The way of deification through grace is henceforth open to everyone coming into the world. All of us are \u201ccapable of containing God.\u201d \u201cThere is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free man, neither male nor female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.\u201d (Gal. 3.28)<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the Gospel of Christmas is once again proclaimed to a world where the racket of weapons is heard, where unprovoked violence against individuals and peoples is enacted, and where inequality and social justice prevail. It is unbearable to witness the state of countless children, victims of military conflict, irregular situations, manifold exploitations, persecutions and discriminations, as well as hunger, poverty and painful dispossession.<\/p>\n Last April, we had the opportunity in Lesbos to witness with our own eyes\u2014together with His Holiness Pope Francis of Rome and His Beatitude Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece\u2014the tragic circumstances of refugees and immigrants, and especially the acute problems of the suffering children, innocents and defenseless victims of military violence, as well as the racial and religious discrimination and injustice, all of which are constantly increasing.<\/p>\n The feast of God\u2019s Word, who became an infant\u2014the child Jesus, whose disappearance is pursued by worldly authority, according to the Evangelist Matthew (Matt 2.13)\u2014is a reminder and invitation for us to care for children, to protect these vulnerable victims and to respect the sacredness of childhood.<\/p>\n Of course, children and sensitive souls are also threatened in economically developed and politically stable countries of the world, whether by the immense crisis of marriage and family, or by diverse interventions as well as the use of physical or spiritual force. A child\u2019s soul is altered by the influential consumption of electronic media, especially television and the internet, and by the radical transformation of communication. Unbridled economics transfigures them from a young age into consumers, while the pursuit of pleasure rapidly vanishes their innocence.<\/p>\n In light of these dangers, the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church addressed children and young people \u201cwith particular love and affection\u201d (Prov. 8) by including the following in its Encyclical:<\/p>\n Amid the medley of mutually contradictory definitions of childhood, our most holy Church presents the words of our Lord: \u201cUnless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven\u201d (Matt 18.3) and \u201cwhoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it (Luke 18.17), as well as what our Savior says about those who \u201cprevent\u201d (Luke 18.16) children from approaching Him and about those who \u201cscandalize\u201d them (Matt 18.6).<\/p>\n The mystery of Christmas is crystallized in the words of the festive Kontakion: \u201cFor us, a new child was born, God before all ages.\u201d The divine Word as child and the child as God is revealed to the world with \u201cthe pure heart\u201d and simplicity of a child. Children comprehend truths, which \u201cwise and prudent\u201d people are unable to approach. As Elytis observes in his poem From one\u2019s neighbor: \u201cYou can build Jerusalem out of children alone!\u201d<\/p>\n Beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord,<\/p>\n We appeal to all of you to respect the identity and sacredness of childhood. In light of the global refugee crisis that especially affects the rights of children; in light of the plague of child mortality, hunger and child labor, child abuse and psychological violence, as well as the dangers of altering children\u2019s souls through their uncontrolled exposure to the influence of contemporary electronic means of communication and their subjection to consumerism, we declare 2017 as the Year of Protection of the Sacredness of Childhood, inviting everyone to recognize and respect the rights and integrity of children.<\/p>\n As underlined in another significant document of the Holy and Great Council, the Church of Christ does not look to \u201cjudging and condemning the world\u201d with its word (John 3.17; 12.47), \u201cbut rather to offer to the world the guidance of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, namely, the hope and assurance that evil, no matter its form, does not have the last word in history and must not be allowed to dictate its course.\u201d<\/p>\n Therefore, we venerate our Savior with humility and compunction, for He has visited us from on high; we praise with divine song the immensity of the sacred Incarnation; we kneel down before the All-Holy Theotokos, who holds the child Jesus; and we address from the sleepless Phanar the festive greeting to all children of the Church of Constantinople, both near and afar: \u201cChrist is born; glorify Him. Christ has come from heaven; come out to meet Him,\u201d together with our paternal wishes and patriarchal prayer.<\/p>\n \u201cBe strong in the grace of Christ Jesus.\u201d (2 Tim. 2.1) Let us all strive together with faith and sincere love in the good struggle of new life in the Church, adhering to all that the Lord has commanded. For He is with us \u201call the days of our life, to the end of the ages.\u201d (Matt 28.20)<\/p>\n Christmas 2016 His Holiness Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch, called the world in his Christmas message to respect the rights and integrity of children. In his message, the Ecumenical Patriarch says that the Gospel of the Nativity of the Lord, though representing a great joy for humans, is proclaimed today in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":153219,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[89,4732,4761,67,4763,4733,1719,2368,4762,2370,2371],"class_list":["post-153220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autocephalous-orthodox-churches","tag-children","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-message","tag-ecumenical-patriarch","tag-integrity","tag-nativity","tag-patriarch-bartholomew","tag-patriarhul-ecumenic-en","tag-rights","tag-sfantul-si-marele-sinod-en","tag-ss-bartolomeu-en"],"better_featured_image":{"id":153219,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1024,"height":680,"file":"2016\/12\/Patriarhul-Ecumenic-face-un-apel-\u00een-Mesajul-de-Cr\u0103ciun-pentru-respectarea-drepturilor-\u015fi-integrit\u0103\u0163ii-copiilor.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Patriarhul-Ecumenic-face-un-apel-\u00een-Mesajul-de-Cr\u0103ciun-pentru-respectarea-drepturilor-\u015fi-integrit\u0103\u0163ii-copiilor-890x591.jpg","width":890,"height":591,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Patriarhul-Ecumenic-face-un-apel-\u00een-Mesajul-de-Cr\u0103ciun-pentru-respectarea-drepturilor-\u015fi-integrit\u0103\u0163ii-copiilor-890x591.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Patriarhul-Ecumenic-face-un-apel-\u00een-Mesajul-de-Cr\u0103ciun-pentru-respectarea-drepturilor-\u015fi-integrit\u0103\u0163ii-copiilor-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Patriarhul-Ecumenic-face-un-apel-\u00een-Mesajul-de-Cr\u0103ciun-pentru-respectarea-drepturilor-\u015fi-integrit\u0103\u0163ii-copiilor-360x360.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"post":153207,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Patriarhul-Ecumenic-face-un-apel-\u00een-Mesajul-de-Cr\u0103ciun-pentru-respectarea-drepturilor-\u015fi-integrit\u0103\u0163ii-copiilor.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153220\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=153220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153220\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153219\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=153220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=153220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=153220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Please find below the full text of the Christmas Message of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew addressed to the plenitude of the Church:<\/em><\/h3>\n
\nBy God\u2019s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
\nto the Plenitude of the Church
\nGrace, Mercy and Peace from the Savior Christ Born in Bethlehem<\/p>\n
\nBARTHOLOMEW of Constantinople
\nFervent supplicant of all before God<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"