Paschal Encyclical 2025
Hierarchical
Council of the STOC
Under the chairmanship of His Grace Bishop Akakije of Uteshiteljevo
To
All the Faithful Children of the St. Sava’s Church
We congratulate you on the feast of feasts, the radiant Resurrection of Christ:
CHRIST
IS RISEN!
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” -John 12:24
A seed which falls into the ground, dies, sprouts, and bears life. This example of a seed, which, in order to bring forth much fruit, must die, shows us clearly how likewise our body, though it dies and is buried, by the power of God, in time again comes back to life in the garment of immortality.
Christ’s death is the seed of our life. Our Lord Jesus Christ died for us so that we could live with Him. (1 Thessalonians 5:10)
Through death into life! From death to life! From the earth unto heaven Christ translates us!
Through His merciful, co-suffering, God-loving, self-sacrificial, crucified love, Christ died as a peace offering for our sins (1 John 4:10), for the salvation of mankind.
He died for all of us, that those who live, may no longer live for themselves, but for Him Who died and rose for us (2 Corinthians 5:15).
Thus, according to the Apostle, we Christians who live and who will live in eternity through His death and resurrection should live not for ourselves, but for Him Who died and was resurrected for us, Christ the Savior. This is the goal of Christian life: to live not for oneself, that is, not for the egotistical desires according to carnal wisdom, but for the Lord, that is, according to His holy will. Life according to His commandments is an expression of our love for God (1 John 5:3), for He gave His life (1 John 3:16) for us; this is why we love Him, because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). This is the essence of the life of believing Christians, to live in Christ, like branches from their vine, as the Lord Himself said, “ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing…” (John 15:5).
Through
the death and resurrection of Christ, evil is defeated, as is death, sin, the
devil, and hell itself. And when all this is defeated, we become partakers of
unspeakable joy, and no one can take this joy from us (John 16:22). This joy is not some future state, but a
present reality, because by fulfilling the commandments of the risen Lord, we
enter into the joy of our Lord while still here on earth (Matt. 25:21). That is
why we rejoice even when we are oppressed by tribulations and persecutions and
even death for the Lord Christ. There is no more death for us, thanks to the
Lord, as we sing in the Paschal troparion, “..by His death He has destroyed
death.” All sorrow has been transformed into joy by the Lord’s resurrection
(John 16:20) which remains in us forever (John 15:11). The grace of the Risen
Christ fills us with that eternal joy (John 17:13). Therefore, the joy of faith
in the Risen Christ (Phil. 1:25) is the only true, unfading and eternally
lasting joy.
Even the apocalyptic events which come to pass before our eyes every day cannot lessen this joy.
We are eyewitnesses of the great apostasy (2 Thessalonians 2:3), of its advancement from bad to worse (Timothy 3:13). The main characteristics of apocalyptic apostasy are most surely the ecclesiastical heresies of ecumenism and sergianism (the church serving a God-fighting government). The hierarchy of the Belgrade Patriachate has not ceased in its devotion to these two heresies, but on the contrary, grows in them in word and deed, confirming their (if perhaps unwilling), membership in the new world order of the antichrist.
The destructive occupation of our homeland, maintained by degenerate, godless puppet authorities, continuing and advancing the eighty-year practice of brutal ethnocide - spiritual, moral, national, cultural extermination, and even physical destruction - genocide (infanticide, vaccination, ecocide, and other atrocities) against our long-suffering Christian people, also continues unabated.
In response to the aforementioned apocalyptic challenges, we, the hierarchs of the SIPC, as an inseparable part of our native Serbian Church, following church tradition and church canons, broke off communion with the heretical and Sergianist hierarchy of the Belgrade Patriarchate in 1995. Along with breaking communion, we adopted the famous anathema of ecumenism that the Russian Church Outside of Russia (conciliarly pronounced in 1983) to protect our flock from the soul-destroying influence of this heresy.
Also, from our loyalty to Orthodox-monarchist principles comes our principled non-recognition of the legitimacy and authority of godless authorities, both those communist republican-AВНОЈ[1], and these liberal Euro-Atlantic, Fifth of October[2]-Progressive ones. The ecclesiastical expression of our position is embodied in the litany we recite during all services in our churches - the litany for the overthrow of godless authorities and the establishment of the throne of the pious autocratic kings of Serbia.
We have clearly defined what makes an authority godless: the relativization of the communist revolution and occupation, a secular and liberal social order, secular Darwinist schooling, legalized infanticide, de-pathologized and decriminalized sodomy (homosexuality), state feminism, and so-called gender equality.
In the alleged anti-globalists and traditionalists, whether they be Stalinist, Sovietophile Putin, or militant Zionist Trump, we do not see the leaders of the forces of light in the fight against the forces of darkness. We hold the position that the whole world lies in evil (1 John 5:19) and that Christians in the post-monarchist modern republican era have nowhere to hide their heads (Matt. 8:20). We believe that all geopolitical developments in the world, Trump's victory, the escalation of the war in Ukraine, as well as political and economic turmoil across the planet, serve only as a distraction from the central developments in the Middle East, more precisely from the Israeli criminal enterprise of achieving the final occupation of the entire territory of Palestine, the focus of which is Jerusalem. The goal of all the goals of Israel and its ally the USA is the removal of Muslim sanctuaries from the Temple Mount and the construction of the Third Temple in Jerusalem. This would be the crowning glory of the modern-day restoration of the Jewish state and the final preparations for the arrival of the Jewish Moshiach, who is for us Orthodox Christians, the Antichrist.
The Church should never lose sight of the fact that in these last times she finds herself in a world that is depraved and, in its essence, hostile to her. In such an apocalyptic environment, in a world that lies completely in evil (John 5:19), it is not fitting for the Church to fantasize about an institutionalized state status or about any privileged tranquility. She is called to expose lawlessness and constantly fight for the Truth under the sign of the cross. Also, regardless of such a position, illegal according to the state, she is still depicted in Revelation as a Woman clothed with the sun (Rev. 12:1). She must never forget who She is. Revelation tells us that even in such apocalyptic circumstances the Church is still a lamp to the world, a lamp that is not brought into judgment (Matt. 5:15). Now, more than ever, she is called to enlighten the world with her firm confession and to lead all those who are called to come to the knowledge of the Truth (1 Tim. 2:4). By bringing people to the Truth, that is, to the Conqueror of death and hell, she transforms them from pessimism to optimism, from despair to hope, from sorrow to joy. In the newly developing apocalyptic circumstances, this is her unique task when it comes to her relationship with the world.
That is why we are obliged to share the Paschal joy of victory over death and hell with everyone around us. Everyone should feel this joy when they see us, because we are Christians, and the duty of every true Christian is to spread Christian joy in the anti-Christian world. In the first centuries of Christianity, during the fiercest persecutions of the church, the Christian greeting was “rejoice.” Therefore, we, filled with unshakable faith in the victory over all victories – Christ’s victory over death - greet you with the apostolic greeting: Rejoice in the Lord always, and again we say: Rejoice (Phil. 4:4)!
This is the victory over all the world – our faith in the Risen Christ (1 John 5:4)!
Christ is Risen!
Pascha, 2025 AD
Your Prayerful Intercessors before the Risen Lord,
+Akakije,
Bishop of Uteshiteljevo
+Nektarije,
Bishop of Shumadia
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