The Message of His Beatitude DANIEL, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, addressed on the occasion of the enthronement of His Beatitude Neofit, Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (24 February 2013):
Your Beatitude,
Dear Brothers Hierarchs,
Members of the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church,
Distinguished Audience,'This is the day the Lord has made,
let us rejoice and be glad in it' (Psalm 118:24)
It is with great joy in Christ the Lord that the Romanian Orthodox Church has learned of the election of Your Beatitude as the Primate of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. We are fully confident that you will be a worthy successor of the late Patriarch Maxim, who has cultivated, for forty years, brotherly and friendly relations with all Sister Orthodox Churches.
The leadership of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, to which you were called by the will of God, represents a high dignity and a great pastoral responsibility for the Orthodox Church of the Bulgarian people. Certainly, in this work, support comes primarily from Jesus Christ, the High Priest (cf. Hebrews 4:14), the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the world. He callsall of us, servants of His Church, now, at the beginning of a new Christian century and millennium, to bring,by word and deed, our common panorthodox witness in an unstable and spiritually disoriented world. Therefore, we need greater cooperation between all Sister Orthodox Churches.
With great joy, we wish that Christ the Lord,
'Shepherd and Bishop of our souls' (1 Peter 2:25), enlighten the work of Your Beatitude as Patriarch in order to bear rich fruits to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity, the wellbeing of the Church entrusted to your pastoral care and of the entire Orthodoxy.
In our fraternal message, sent through His Eminence Metropolitan Nifon, the hierarchs, clergy and faithful of the Romanian Orthodox Church express their joy to share in this great celebration of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and of the whole of Orthodoxy.
On behalf of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the clergy and the faithful Romanian people, we wish Your Beatitudemany and blessed years to come!
With brotherly love in Christ and great esteem,
†DANIEL
Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church
