Dearly Beloved in the Lord,

A new ecclesiastical year always begins with great promise and great hopes. Energized and revitalized by the summer months, we are ready to return to the routines of family, school, and parish life expecting that this year will be better than the previous. On September 1, we will pray for the protection of our environment, following the guidance of our Ecumenical Patriarch. In just a week, the liturgical cycle of Feasts will commence with the Nativity of the Theotokos and in that cycle, we see the great promise of our Heavenly Father to send the world a Savior being fulfilled.

Because we have seen the promise of the Father fulfilled in His Son, we are empowered by His Holy Spirit to go out into the world proclaiming His loving kindness. As Christ told His disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you,” John 20:21. We have been commissioned by Christ Himself to be messengers of the kingdom of God, to continue Christ's mission of preaching good news (Luke 4:18, Isaiah 61:1) to the world. This new ecclesiastical year, with all of its beginnings of ministries, of feasts, of events and programs, provides us with the opportunity to recommit ourselves to Christ's call.

Yet we attempt to live our faith and minister through our parishes in a new time and context. While “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), the institutions of the Church face many changing circumstances. As one commentator put it recently, “We are in the beginning of a time whose lasting characteristics have yet to be defined” And so the Church  must find new ways to continue its historic and saving work to provide for the faithful to encounter these changing times effectively.

Our Metropolis for the last year has been actively involved in developing a Strategic Plan of goals and initiatives so that our faithful can go out into the world, utilizing their tremendous talents and gifts to share the Gospel and the message of our Holy Orthodox Church. Our Strategic Plan has many goals, from improving the quality of our worship and liturgical life, developing new structures for education and evangelism, and expanding our stewardship and philanthropy. These are the means for building up of the people of God, the Body of Christ. We have set forth an ambitious agenda in this plan. But when hasn't the Church's agenda been ambitious? In this coming year, as we release the plan and begin its implementation, I encourage you to see it not as “business as usual” but as an instrument for finding those new ways to preach and live the Gospel.

In the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, an exclamation and prayer that is reserved for the bishop goes as follows: “Lord, Lord, look down from heaven and behold and visit this vineyard and perfect that which Your right hand has planted.” (Psalm 79(80):15-16) Every day I include these words in my prayers for every parish and our Metropolis, and indeed the Church as a whole. May they be our words as we work together to build up the Body of Christ in this new ecclesiastical year.

With Love in Christ,
+ G E R A S I M O S
Metropolitan of San Francisco