The Head of the Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC), the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia HH Stefan sent a Christmas message for peace and God’s blessing to Orthodox believers.

Today is the day of joy, the day when we experience the truth and beauty of our faith; this is the day of goodwill, the day when the Gracious God humbled himself for us and for our salvation, the day when the Peacemaker bestowed peace and reconciliation on the human race and on the world… Today, the One who created the world and man becomes Godman is born as man, for man to save him.

Today we celebrate Christmas, like all the great holidays, to recover spiritually and to rise spiritually, remembering the great events of the history of salvation. The ecclesiastical chants of this great holiday invite us with our minds to move on that unique night to Bethlehem, to understand the gifts of that salvation event for the human race, to understand the divine truth – that we are no longer slaves, but have become sons; heirs of God. With the birth of the Son of God, reconciliation with God came and the secret of salvation and the gospel of eternal life was revealed. That day is the day announced by the Old Testament prophets and the day that the Old Testament righteous longed for. Therefore, this holiday is the mother of all holidays and a holiday of fulfilled promise, when the Son of God has revealed the secret of God and the secret of man.

We need to preserve what is sacred and special to us, to preserve and live our faith, to preserve the sanctities. In fact, let’s keep what sets us before the world as distinctive, what is our identity – both spiritual and national! Let us not allow as a people, in the name of ourselves, the present, but also in the name of our predecessors, as well as in the name of those still unborn, alienate or destroy our centuries-old work by carelessness, or for some other purpose. But let us not allow any of us to give up, and share what is essential and sacred to us, the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia HH Stefan said in his Christmas message.