THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHTO HER SPIRITUAL CHILDREN ON THE FEAST OF CHRISTMAS 2025
PORPHYRIOS
Orthodox Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade–Karlovci and Patriarch of Serbia, together with all the hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church—to the clergy, the monastics, and all the sons and daughters of our Holy Church: grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit, with the all-joyful Christmas greeting:
Peace of God—Christ is born!
Dear brothers and sisters,
This year as well, in the year of the Lord’s mercy, sharing with all of you the joy of the Nativity, we proclaim again and again the only thing that is new under the sun: the meeting, the embrace, and the kiss of the transient and the eternal, of heaven and earth, of God and man—the Birth of the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10–11). Let us proclaim it with the shepherds, worship with the Magi, and sing with the angels: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among men!” (Luke 2:14). This angelic hymn tells us that peace is a gift from God; it calls us to receive it and to partake in that gift.
Such peace is not the consequence of human agreements nor the result of a balance of powers; rather, it is the state of a transformed person who believes, lives, and walks the path of Christ and who, having peace with God and with oneself, spreads peace among brothers and sisters. Since, by His Birth, Christ the God-Child bestowed upon her the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:18), the Church of God has ceaselessly healed the wounds of divisions, restored broken bonds, re-established communion that knows no human boundaries, and blessed peace and peacemakers. This blessing of the Church obliges us ourselves to spread peace. Therefore we address all of you, dear spiritual children, and everyone who listens benevolently to our words. Christmas is the feast of peace, and the angelic Christmas hymn is a prayer for peace, unity, and reconciliation, founded upon faith in God and life according to God.
Today humanity needs more than ever to return to that source of peace which is not imposed by force but is revealed in humility, in love that “does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5), and in relationships that build trust, communion, and respect for every human person. For it is precisely through the Birth of Christ that the world receives the measure by which it can understand itself; therefore we sense all the more clearly the gravity of the time in which we live. We live in an age of ever-deepening religious, ethnic, and cultural divisions, in a world in which geopolitical tensions continually escalate and in which wars increasingly become a means of resolving economic and political conflicts. Changes in the global order and the struggle of great powers for dominance give rise to instability, security crises, and fear of an uncertain future.
To this are added economic insecurity, inflation, growing inequality, poverty, hunger, and the uncontrolled depletion of natural resources. Technological transformations, in turn, bring new ethical dilemmas and give rise to digital isolation—an apparent presence without genuine communion. All this leads to a crisis of trust in institutions and the media, to the relativization of truth, to rising anxiety and loneliness, and even to a loss of the meaning of life for many people today. And thus many of us greet this holy night and this holy day with unease in our hearts, worrying about our children and their future, about daily bread, about health, about tomorrow.
The situation in Serbia, upon which our entire people look, is no less complex or difficult. Internal political tensions have led to deep divisions within society and to mistrust among people, while differences of opinion increasingly turn into irrational hatred. Particularly troubling is the loss of national and cultural identity, which calls into question the continuity of our people’s historical and spiritual self-understanding and cannot be explained solely by external influences. Alongside this come economic insecurity and demographic decline: Serbia faces a markedly negative natural population growth and, consequently, one of the fastest depopulations in the world, as well as an increasingly pronounced ageing of the population.
Bearing all this in mind, with eyes open as we look upon the dark clouds gathering over us—without closing our eyes to the enumerated problems and dangers and without fleeing from them—we today, as living witnesses of the angelic word to the shepherds, proclaim once again to all of you, our spiritual children: “Do not be afraid!” (Luke 2:10). Why? Do not be afraid, for the world in which we live, with all its fractures, conflicts, and fears, is no longer self-sufficient or self-explanatory, nor is it abandoned to the blind forces of history. By the Birth of Christ, God has entered into the very heart of human history and has shown that evil, however aggressive and widespread it may be, does not have the final word. Fear is born where a person believes oneself to be alone—and the Birth of our Saviour Christ reveals to us that we are no longer alone and that we never again will be alone.
Therefore neither the crises of our time, nor wars, nor the loss of trust can be the ultimate measure of human life or the final word about humanity. Fear still exists, but it no longer shackles life; it has been deprived of its ultimate authority over the human person. This transformation has its source and foundation in Christ Himself, who reconciled humanity with God and thereby laid the foundation of a peace that fear cannot annul (2 Cor. 5:18). By destroying the dividing wall of hostility, He breaks down the divisions that separate individuals and nations (Eph. 2:14). This reconciliation is manifested in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church as a reality in which ethnic and social, and even natural, differences among human beings (Gal. 3:28) no longer have decisive significance. From this truth of reconciliation also flows our attitude towards the time and the world in which we live. Ninety-five years ago, the hermit and poet of Ohrid, Saint Bishop Nikolaj, wrote: “When did the Lord appear to the world? He appeared in a time of suffering, when God was not glorified, when there was no peace on earth, and when, instead of good will, ill will prevailed among people.” Thus it is today as well—in many respects.
Our own time likewise bears profound similarities to the time of Christ’s Birth. Then, in our broader world, there existed one great global power—a dominant empire that shaped the world order of that era. Today there are several such powers. They govern the world and direct the destinies of smaller nations, whose authorities, like Herod’s at the time of Christ’s Birth, possess formal autonomy but are in essence dependent upon the economic, energy, political, and military interests of the great powers. Let us recall that even the census at the time of Christ’s Birth was a political-economic instrument of control: whoever was registered acknowledged authority and paid taxes. Very similar conditions exist today, when personal data—while used for beneficial purposes—are increasingly employed to control and restrict the freedom of each individual.
The very Birth of Christ, by its manner, place, and time, becomes a ministry of unity: in it, history ceases to be a sequence of accidents and becomes a space of salvation. The place and time of Christ’s Birth speak with powerful symbolism: the God-Child is not born at an ideal moment; He enters wounded history in order to open from within the perspective of its healing and fulfillment. He is born in a cave and laid in a manger—not to emphasize human poverty, but to reveal the state of a world in which there is room for everyone and everything, yet no room for God. For this reason, Christ could not be born amid the warmth and security of prosperity. By the very nature of the event, He is born in a cold and desolate place—in a place hungry for God. Every human heart is such a cave until Christ is born within it. Christ’s Birth in poverty reveals that before Him and in Him the divisions by which the world measures human worth come to an end. The family is the first place where a person learns what peace means—or what its loss entails. A home becomes true manger of the Nativity of Christ when there is room within it for forgiveness, patience, and common prayer.
The Lord is born in the silence of the Bethlehem night, far from the noise and self-sufficiency of the world. In that silence, through prayer, the human person once again hears the voice of God, which calms the heart and dispels fear. In that silence and prayer, a person once again becomes truly human, and the family once again becomes a family. Thus, in the Bethlehem cave, shepherds and wise men meet—not so that some might be exalted and others humbled, but so that both, in Christ, might become brothers. He comes both to those who have nothing and to those who have too much, for both alike lack God. Ultimately, Christ does not dwell either in a palace or in a cave, but in every human being who receives Him into the heart. And this reconciliation, which God the Father grants to the world through Christ, does not stop with humankind alone, but embraces the whole of God’s creation—“both what is on earth and what is in heaven” (Col. 1:20).
Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us remember this: the feast of the Nativity of Christ bears two essential messages, two truths. The first is that God became man for us and for our salvation. The second, which flows from the first, is that every human being, precisely for this reason, can and must become our brother. For only in Christ, the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29), do we once again receive the other as our neighbour and brother. Thus, before the mystery of Christ’s Birth, God’s question is once again posed to each of us, as old as humanity itself: “Where is your brother?” (Gen. 4:9). Not where is your interest, nor where is your side, nor where is your party, nor—ultimately—where are you yourself, alienated and turned only towards yourself, but rather—where is the human being given to you so that, by loving him, you may pass from death to life (1 John 3:14). This, and this alone, is our fundamental question and our central task—of this and of every Christmas. Love is from God (1 John 4:7, 21). Therefore, brothers and sisters, let us love one another “not in word or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18), for the one who hates his brother is in darkness, while the one who loves his brother abides in the light (1 John 2:9–11).
Into that light, and into a life of peace and concord, inspired by the ineffable joy of Christmas and by the peace of Christ, we call upon all to overcome divisions, to embrace one another, to extend a hand to one another, to understand that, in a word, we are indispensable to one another. For the Christian faith does not teach us, in times of crisis, to wait passively for better times, but to become ourselves living signs of the coming Kingdom of God—people who already now live differently, who do not heal fear with fear, nor hatred with hatred.
Finally, brothers and sisters, children of Saint Sava and of all our venerable ancestors, of all the holy Fathers and Mothers of the Serbian people, wherever we may be across the face of the earth, in the Homeland or in the diaspora, and especially in crucified Kosovo and Metohija, with one voice, with one mouth and one heart, together with the angels, let us sing the Christmas hymn, the song of peace:
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill among people!
Peace of God—Christ is born!
Given at the Serbian Patriarchate in Belgrade,
at Christmas of the year of the Lord 2025.
Your intercessors in prayer before the God-Child Christ:
Archbishop of Peć, Metropolitan of Belgrade–Karlovci and Patriarch of Serbia, PORPHYRIOS
Archbishop of Sarajevo and Metropolitan of Dabar-Bosnia, CHRYSOSTOM
Archbishop of Cetinje and Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral, JOANIKIJE
Archbishop of Sirmium and Metropolitan of Srem, VASILIJE
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Banja Luka, JEFREM
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Buda, LUKIJAN
Archbishop of Vršac and Metropolitan of Banat, NIKANOR
Archbishop of New Gračanica–Chicago and Metropolitan of Midwestern America, LONGIN
Archbishop of Toronto and Metropolitan of Canada, MITROPHAN
Archbishop of Novi Sad and Metropolitan of Bačka, IRENEJ
Archbishop of Stockholm and Metropolitan of Scandinavia, DOSITEJ
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Žiča, JUSTIN
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Vranje, PAHOMIJE
Archbishop of Kragujevac and Metropolitan of Šumadija, JOVAN
Archbishop of Požarevac and Metropolitan of Braničevo, IGNATIJE
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Zvornik–Tuzla, PHOTIUS
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Mileševa, ATHANASIUS
Archbishop of Düsseldorf–Berlin and Metropolitan of Germany, GRIGORIJE
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Raška–Prizren, THEODOSIUS
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Kruševac, DAVID
Archbishop of Romuliana–Zaječar and Metropolitan of Timok, HILARION
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Niš, ARSENIJE
Archbishop of Sydney–Wellington and Metropolitan of Australia and New Zealand, SILUAN
Archbishop of Zadar–Šibenik and Metropolitan of Dalmatia, NIKODIM
Archbishop and Metropolitan of Budimlje–Nikšić, METHODIUS
Archbishop of Mostar–Trebinje and Metropolitan of Zahumlje–Herzegovina and the Littoral, DIMITRIJE
Archbishop of Los Angeles and Metropolitan of Western America, MAXIM
Archbishop of Upper Karlovac, GERASIM
Bishop of Washington–New York and Eastern America, IRENEJ
Bishop of Pakrac and Slavonia, JOVAN
Bishop of Switzerland, ANDREJ
Bishop of Bihać–Petrovac, SERGIJE
Bishop of Buenos Aires and South-Central America, KIRILO
Bishop of Osijek-Polje and Baranja, HERUVIM
Bishop of Valjevo, ISIHIJE
Bishop of Šabac, JEROTEJ
Bishop of Paris and Western Europe, JUSTIN
Bishop of London and Great Britain–Ireland, NEKTARIJE
Bishop Emeritus of Zvornik–Tuzla, VASILIJE
Bishop Emeritus of Canada, GEORGIJE
Bishop Emeritus of Central Europe, KONSTANTIN
Bishop Emeritus of Slavonia, SAVA
Bishop Emeritus of Mileševa, FILARET
Bishop Emeritus of Niš, JOVAN
Vicar Bishop of Remesiana, STEFAN
Vicar Bishop of Mohács, DAMASKIN
Vicar Bishop of Marcha, SAVA
Vicar Bishop of Hum, JOVAN
Vicar Bishop of Hvosno, ALEKSEJ
Vicar Bishop of Novo Brdo, HILARION
Vicar Bishop of Lipljan, DOSITEJ
Vicar Bishop of Toplica, PETAR
Vicar Bishop of Jenopolje, NIKON
Vicar Bishop of Moravica, TIHON
Vicar Bishop of Dioclea, PAISIUS
Vicar Bishop of Kostajnica, SERAPHIM
Source: Serbian Orthodox Church
