December 1st, 2013
Dear brothers and friends,
Rejoice and exult in the Lord!
I am happy, because for one more time I have the opportunity to communicate with you, on the occasion of the completion of fifty years of dynamic presence of your Fraternity in the missionary course around the world and the struggles and sacrifices of silent and dedicated workers of the Gospel.
Today, my dear brethren, my soul exults, because I have been, since my puberty, a fellow traveler of your holy endeavors, through the continuous and most sincere communication I had, by grace of God, with the unforgettable pioneer and spiritual founder of your Fraternity, fr. Chrysostomos Papasarantopoulos, since the very first time he stepped onto the sanctified soil of the African continent. My relevant correspondence was published in your magazine (December 1986, pp. 170-174 and October-December 1989, 595-599). Was then this relationship of mine just a coincidence or a direct interference of the divine providence? Even from afar and despite my young age, I received your enthusiastic messages.
Therefore, I have the right to give immediately and easily my personal testimony for your offer and your contribution to the huge missionary work of our Church. I have been, since then, a close collaborator and fellow traveler of your Fraternity.
I know how much you strived to fulfil the holy heritage, which was founded by the first inspirers of a new opening to the Nations, the whole world that was really thirsty for the salvific messages of the Church of Christ, our Orthodoxy. Then, with meager means, your Fraternity started a struggle of many difficulties, pains and sacrifices. And today, you are in the first line to give the best and most valuable, to comfort, spiritually and materially, our suffering, disprivileged, downtrodden brothers. And you pulled it off. You have faith and firmness in your aims and pursuits.
We also brighten up and rejoice today with you, because you have been truly backing and supporting us for five decades now. Our thought and prayer humbly travel to you from the missionary field of the black continent, where the spirit of your love and disinterested offer daily advances the hope of people of every tribe and age.
Constant needs
As you know, the Holy Metropolis of Kenya, which has basically been the bulwark and center of your endeavors and your struggles with the late fr. Chrysostomos, continues its humble ministry, despite the current financial difficulties. With stability and faith, we strive under adverse conditions to fully meet the mission we have been entrusted by the Church.
Today, we address you all to come for one more time, as a helper in the efforts we make in the Republic of Kenya to support with common meals the really starving and suffering little children. Today, we stand by and worry by these children, who lack in the rudimentary and essential provisions to live at least a little easier. They lack in the most important means of survival: food. We do what we can. There are many and various needs.
We humbly resort to your Fraternity, who has always been a supporter of our work, and we fervently ask you to help us in this program of catering to children.
We thank you in advance. For one more time, we congratulate you on the completion of fifty years of missionary offer.
With missionary greetings and cordial wishes,
Makarios of Kenya
