MOSCOW: 26 November 2024
Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia congratulates His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America on his 70th birthday

To His Eminence, His Eminence Kyrill, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America

Your Eminence:

I cordially congratulate you on a significant personal date – your 70th birthday.

Having devoted your lives to the service of the Lord, you have been vouchsafed to fulfill many responsible obediences in the Church of Christ, and you have labored a lot in the teaching field and in the field of spiritual enlightenment.

Your zeal for the glory of God and the preaching of the Gospel has found favor in the eyes of the Creator, Who has entrusted you to become the successor of the Apostolic work and has placed on your shoulders the episcopal omophorion, so that you, “taking heed of yourself and all the flock” (Acts 20:28) and constantly “stirring up the gift of God” (2 Timothy 1:6), preach the word and exhort your flock with all “aptness to teach, patience” (2 Timothy 2:24), tending to the development of full-blooded church life in the Diocese of San Francisco.

I prayerfully wish you good health, good spirits and generous help from the Lord in your further episcopal service for the benefit of Holy Orthodoxy.

With Love in Christ,

+KIRILL,
PATRIARCH OF MOSCOW AND ALL RUSSIA