Celebrating this year's Christmas, dear brothers and sisters, once again I am amazed by the grace and love of the Christ Emmanuel towards humankind. Giving thanks to the Lord for all that He has done for us, we rejoice, as He takes upon Himself a body from His

Most Pure Mother and becomes a Man. The God-Man who came to save people by taking upon Himself their sins.

The life of an Orthodox Christian implies a harmonious relationship with the world around us, an exemplary Christian way of conduct. It requires proper relations both among

ourselves and towards our holy Church. Our Church is our spiritual mother, and as Father Andrej said in a sermon on Mother's Day, quoting Bishop Nikolaj, a mother is the closest being to God, because a mother's love is unconditional just like God's.

You have been, dear brothers and sisters, a shining example of how that Christian relationship towards our holy church should look, how we should take care of our spiritual mother. The love we weaved this year in the renovation and restoration of our church is worthy of praise and pride. You have shown with many examples and your selfless help how a Christian should live, as prescribed by the Most High. Most of all, you have shown your help in your harmony and unity. And our holy mother church teaches us exactly that, to be united and help each other. Unity and harmony are the only possible way to leave to future generations what we inherited from our ancestors.

This year, the Lord also honored us with a new spiritual father, Father Andrej. I express immeasurable gratitude to Father Petar for his dedicated work all these years, and congratulations on his well-deserved retirement. I am certain that Father Andrej will continue to strengthen and unite our relatively small but spiritually significant community in prayer spiritually and morally.

I wish to thank each and every one of you once again for all your efforts and work invested in the past period. I believe your hearts are filled with immeasurable joy as we have managed to successfully accomplish many undertakings this year. What might have seemed impossible to us is possible with God! I hope and pray to the Lord that the time ahead will further spiritually empower our community led by Father Andrej.

Attached you can find a schedule for holly services for the Christmas holidays. I hope we gather in great number as many times before to welcome newborn Christ once again!

Please note that the “First United Church of Christ” has gave us permissions to use their parking lot. Please, park your vehicle in their parking lot for Christmas night so we can have more space around our church.

Peace from God, Christ is Born

Mirko Sebez