DIOCESE OF SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: July 24, 2008
The Primate of the Russian Church Abroad Sends a Greeting to Archbishop Amfilohije of Montenegro and the Coastal Lands on the 40th Anniversary of His Priesthood

To His Eminence Metropolitan Amfilohije 

Your Eminence, Eminent Vladyko! 

I send my heartfelt greetings to you on the 40th anniversary of your acceptance of the fiery grace of priesthood and prayerfully wish you good health, boldness of spirit and Divine aid in your further successes in the service of the Holy Church of Christ! 

I ask you to fervently pray for our dear Russian Church Abroad, the roots of which lie in Sremsky Karlovci, where the first and second All-Diaspora Councils were held. I believe that all the participants of the IV All-Diaspora Council listened with great interest to your speeches and report on the experiences of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which was able to overcome divisions of its own in 1992, on its attitude towards Orthodoxy's participation in the ecumenical movement and on the situation in today's World Council of Churches. Thanks to your words of wisdom, many of the reverend members of our Church Council began to understand the need for a universal spirit of participation in the Holy Church of Christ, for the reestablishment of ecclesiastical unity and the fullness of brotherly communion. For only in unity with the entire Church, as you properly noted at our Church Council can we influence the resolution of problems in the Orthodox world. 

May the Lord save you! 

With brotherly love in the Lord and beseeching your prayers, 

+Hilarion

Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia