Dear President and members of the board of directors of the Orthodox Foreign Missionary Brotherhood, Christ is risen! Despite all our financial difficulties, the missionary struggle continues in the beautiful and tormented island of Madagascar. Our Church is growing day by day, both in manpower and in terms of building facilities, namely with the construction of Holy Churches, the orphanage in the capital, which is also financed through the generous donation of your Brotherhood, a university-level school, and all this of course always combined with the general charitable action towards the needy, the sick and those in general need of love and moral and material support. We have said many times that the Mission is not only the proclamation of the Divine Word and the evangelization of the people, but also an offer of charity and practical material assistance. And all this regardless of religious beliefs, colour and racial or ethnic characteristics. Our Faith is as living and pure as solid gold and must be offered as we have received it; “If thine enemy be hungry, feed him; if thirsty, give him drink, for whom thou shalt heap the coals of fire upon his head” (Rom. iv, 20).
This is the greatness and the differentiating force of Orthodoxy, which is increasingly embraced by our brothers and sisters in the Third Continent – selfless love. Love without expectation of reciprocation and with the sole expectation of enlightenment and spiritual salvation, which are also the aforementioned “coals” of Faith mentioned by the Apostle of the Nations. It is therefore with great joy that we announce to you that
the missionary work, always in collaboration with our priests, is progressing and we are now ready to begin the construction of the Holy Church in the city of Diego in the North.. It is a city in which the first baptisms took place a few years ago, and at the moment there is a sufficient number of baptisms. The Holy Church will be intended to meet the needs of our Church in a region where the Orthodox Faith is only now making its presence felt, especially since the first Orthodox Church will be built. Its construction will cost about 25.000 €.
We are aware of the economic difficulty that our country is going through. But we are also aware of the good and generous disposition of the Greeks, who, in the economic crisis they are experiencing, are pioneers in charity and missionary activity. From a poor and small country today, a great continent is being evangelised, which until yesterday lived in the darkness and delusion of idols, paganism and heresies everywhere. And this, after all, is the mission that can make us pioneers of the faith on the world stage. We thank once again once again both the Brotherhood of Orthodox Foreign Missionary Work and the generous donors who have contributed and continue to contribute to the continuation of the Missionary Work, which together we always begin and hope by the grace of God to finish.
† Ignatius of Madagascar
