From Monachos.net

To the Venerable Hierarchs, Reverend Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America:

Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!

Let no one fear death, for the Savior's death has set us free! (Paschal Homily of Saint John Chrysostom)

Dearly Beloved in Christ:

With these words of the great preacher, I greet you on this radiant day of our Lord's Resurrection. Today the fear of death is dispelled and the human race is no longer bound by the tyranny of sin and mortality. Today the living and the dead raise their voices in unison, praising the three-day Pascha of the Lord. Today the Churches of the risen Christ are ablaze with the healing light of the Resurrection by which all creation is being regenerated. Indeed, the old is being made new as the crucified and risen Messiah calls all to abundant and transfigured life.

Entering the Feast of Feasts, we encounter the uncontainable love of God who desires "all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4). Proclaiming the mystery of the three-day Pascha and endowed with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Church is compelled to offer all people the healing and saving Word of Life. As the very living and resurrected body of Christ, the Church, and therefore every local parish and community, is commissioned to invite all people to share in the joy of His victory over sin and death.

In the mystery of the Lord's Pascha we are clothed with the life of the Kingdom that is to come. We "have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven..." (1 Peter 1:3-4). This is the inheritance we have received. This is the inheritance which we proclaim and live and in which we now rejoice.

With love in the Risen Lord,

+THEODOSIUS
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada