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On July 4th, 2026, His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America issued an encyclical for the Fourth of July, on the 250th anniversary of the United States of America’s Declaration of Independence.
“This Fourth of July is a very special one – for we celebrate a quarter of a millennium since the Declaration of Independence that inaugurated our ‘land of the free and home of the brave,’ the United States of America. Two hundred and fifty years is approximately ten generations of Americans, and though there were some who arrived earlier, and many who arrived much later, no matter how you became an American, we are all endowed with the same blessing of citizenship in this amazing Country.
While there has never been a perfect society, empire, or nation in the history of the world, our United States has endeavored through these generations to be true to its Declaration – not only of Independence, but its avowal that “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” are intrinsic rights of every human being. As Orthodox Christians, we recognize that every person is endowed with the image of God, even if that image is obscured and marred by sin. Thus, like the Founders of our Country who signed the Declaration of Independence, we acknowledge that we are bestowed by our ‘Creator with certain unalienable Rights….’
The fundamental equality of every human being before God is a truth that the Founders declared ‘self-evident,’ yet we often see in our world radical inequities and imbalances. Thus, all of us – true to the American spirit – are called to affirm the rights of all others, no matter how different they may seem. For it is not in the exterior signs and marks of locality, culture, language, and personality that the ultimate value of the human person derives. But from the image of God in which they were created. Our mission, is to encourage and work for that image to become the likeness – meaning, for the potential of that shared humanity to find its fulfillment in the ever-aspiring reach toward theosis, toward the life divine by living lives of love, compassion, mercy, forgiveness, and grace, following in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Beloved Brethren in the Lord: we are so very blessed to live and thrive in this Land where the values of our self-governance converge with our faith. In the Semiquincentennial of our Nation’s founding, let us ever rise up to build on the self-evident truths of Faith and freedom, which are the very foundation of our life, our liberty, and our pursuit of happiness. Happy Fourth of July!”
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