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Published by the
Orthodox Church in America,
June 16, 2005
Archpastoral
Message of Metropolitan Herman for The Feast
of Pentecost |
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Pentecost 2005
To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy,
Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in
America
Dearly Beloved in the Lord:
As we celebrate the Feast of Pentecost, we glorify
God and give thanks for the gift of the Holy
Spirit, given His Church at the beginning of its
mission of proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ
“to the ends of the earth.”
At the Divine Liturgy of Pentecost we hear the
wonderful account of the coming of the Holy Spirit
upon the Apostles, “And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven… and it filled the whole house
where they were sitting. Then there appeared to
them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon
each of them. And they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit…” (Acts 2:2-4). In that moment the
lives of the Apostles were dramatically changed.
Simple fishermen had been transformed into bold
preachers and zealous evangelizers. Having
received the Holy Spirit, they now inaugurated
their mission of announcing the good news of
salvation in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Before the Apostle Luke recounts the marvelous
events of Pentecost, he makes a simple observation
about the Apostles. He informs his readers, “When
the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place” (Acts 2:1). Before
the gift of the Holy Spirit was given them, the
apostles were of one accord. It is to this
singleness of mind and heart that we, who have
also received the gift of the Holy Spirit, are
also called. It is our unity in faith and in love
that enables us to live the Gospel and to preach
it with credibility. In the Divine Liturgy we
receive the admonition, “Let us love one another,
that with one mind we may confess: Father, Son and
Holy Spirit! The Trinity, one in essence, and
undivided!” It is our unity in faith and love that
makes it possible for us to fulfill our mission of
proclaiming the Gospel to the world in a manner
that is both sincere and credible.
As we look ahead to the Fourteenth All-American
Council, soon to be convened in Toronto, Ontario,
let us pray that our unity in faith, our love for
one another, and our shared commitment to the work
of the Church will be blessed by the Lord so that
we, like the Apostles on that first Pentecost
morning, will also be empowered by the gift of the
Holy Spirit to go into the world and transform it
with by our proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.
With love in Christ,
+ HERMAN
Archbishop of Washington and New York
Metropolitan of All America and Canada
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