On the occasion of the Beginning of the Indiction, the start of the new Church year, from my heart I pray for all the tireless workers and Missionaries of the love of Christ,  the Metropolitans and Bishops of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, the Priests throughout Africa and our blessed children, Greeks, Arabs, Africans, Serbs, Russians and Romanians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians and other nationalities, that the Grace of the Most Holy God will strengthen your lives always.

My heartfelt prayer is addressed to the Leader of Peace, our Lord Jesus Christ, that the peace we all long for will reign in the Middle East and everywhere where there is suffering and a senseless loss of blood, that civil wars will cease and love will abound, together with harmony, justice, solidarity and humanity.

Now that the new period of Missionary and Catechetical work is about to start, we are all geared towards the sowing and harvesting of the Word of God in the hearts of the people. The evangelization of the nations, the teaching of the people of God regarding the important issues of faith and Christian life, the great problems of the world and of society, joblessness, narcotics, diseases, wars, the ecological problem, destruction and pollution of the environment and many others, create in us all a huge problem and an internal need for prayer, strong prayer, so that solutions can be found for all levels.

Having our faith in Christ as a rule, the joy and optimism which stem from this perspective, we will continue with the “good fight”, we will remain in the battlements and we will all be humble Missionaries of the good and the beautiful, that which our Orthodox Church teaches us, applying the exhortations of St Paul, which is contemporary and beneficial for us all.

I send to you all the heartfelt Patriarchal blessing of the Apostle Mark and my Paternal prayer, that the Almighty God “who holds the times and the seasons in His own authority” , may protect and bless the whole world, the blessed and suffering land of Africa, the continent of the future, the crossroads of civilizations, ranting health and happiness.

Many Missionary and blessed years!

† Theodoros II,

Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa

In the Great City of Alexandria

2st September 2009