Archpastoral Encyclical

I greet you, dear children of God, with this Pastoral letter, asking and praying that all of us in this God protected Diocese of Western America, will spend the salvific season of Great Lent in mutual forgiveness and love; in fasting and prayer; in charitable and other good deeds; in fervent church attendance; in participation in the Divine services, and with humility and repentance, in the partaking of holy communion at the Divine Liturgy, so that it be unto our salvation, both on a personal and community level. No one is saved alone but in the community of faith and love in Christ, with our brothers and sisters in the Church of the Living and True God.

Therefore, fatherly and brotherly, I ask at this time before Christ’s and our Pascha, that all those unbaptized – both children and adults – be baptized; those married but not sacramentally, to be united in the Sacrament of Matrimony; those who have not received the Sacrament of Holy Confession to do so; that we properly bury those who did not receive Christian burial; that those who are quarreling be reconciled; and those who have not received Holy Communion, to receive it frequently during these Holy forty days of lent with passion week and the Resurrection of Christ our Savior.

I especially ask the brother priests and members of church boards to nurture mutual love and respect, trust, and cooperation in their parishes, working together in the Lord’s Vineyard. For all of us, each in his own place and in his God-entrusted service, are of the same flock of Christ the Archpastor, branches on the same Vine, and members of the same living God-Man, the Body of Christ.

Bishop Maxim