Upon learning of His Beatitude Kyril's election as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sent the following congratulatory Message:

Your Beatitude Kyril, Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia,

On the occasion of your well-deserved election today as the new Head of the most holy sister and chosen daughter Church of Russia, we convey to you our heartfelt brotherly salutation, both of  the Church of Constantinople, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and of our Modesty personally.  We also congratulate the notably faithful members of your holy Church, the distinctly pious clergy, and the Hierarchy of your Holy Church illumined by the Holy Spirit, for electing in a zealous unanimity a Patriarch with the honor and high standing of your venerable Beatitude. 

We are certain that in the course of Your Patriarchy, which we pray will be long and glorious, we shall work together in harmony for the glory of God and for the shared witness of Orthodoxy in our contemporary troubled world.

We are anticipating your presence in the upcoming months at the Mother Church, so that we may inaugurate, through a holy concelebration, our common journey towards the future.  We embrace your Beatitude, our most venerable brother, with a holy kiss and exclaim with our brother Hierarchs in Christ who surround us, ‘You are worthy, Axios!'"


Bartholomew of Constantinople
Phanar, 27.1.09

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