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Relic of the True Cross to visit Britain
Dearly Beloved in the Lord,I take great joy in informing you of some wonderful news. Following the request of our holy
Archdiocese, and that of the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain, His Beatitude the Patriarch
of Jerusalem, Theophilos, and the Synod of the Holy Sepulchre, have agreed to bless the
visit of the Precious and Life-giving Cross to the United Kingdom for our people to venerate.
Attached you will find the programme for the Holy Cross’ visit to our churches.
I invite all Orthodox Christians to come to church to venerate the Cross, to be blessed and
edified by it, and to find through the grace of the Precious and Life-giving Cross health,
happiness, forgiveness and remission of sins, the guidance and protection of their children,
the strengthening of their family, and divine enlightenment of young and old.
Needless-to-say this relic is a piece of the Cross upon
which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on
Golgotha and upon which He shed His most holy
Blood for the salvation of the human race. Rightly
does the hymnographer sing:
“Rejoice, O life-bearing Cross, invincible triumph of
true worship; O gate of paradise, constancy of
believers, and wall of the Church, through which...
we have ascended from earth to heaven.”
With profound theological poetry, the Church invites
the people of God to venerate and pray before the
Precious and Life-giving Cross:
“Come, all ye nations, let us adore the blessed Tree,
through which everlasting justice hath come to
pass… And by the blood of God the venom of the
serpent was washed away; and the curse was undone
by the righteous sentence when the just One was
condemned unjustly… But glory to Thy fearful
dispensation towards us, O Christ, wherewith Thou
hast saved all, since Thou art good and the lover of
mankind.”
With great joy we expect to see you come to our
churches with devotion and holy humility to pray and bow down before the Holy Cross,
which will be here in the United Kingdom for the first time to bless our churches, their
leaders and congregations, and all who come with faith and the desire to find redemption and
the salvation of their souls from Him who was crucified and suffered for us, our Lord Jesus
Christ. To Him be dominion, glory and boundless mercy for ever and ever. Amen.
London, 1st November 2013
Gregorios, Archbishop of
Thyateira & Great Britain
