Compose Your Letter
Salutations
When one writes a clergyman, he should begin his letter in this way: "Bless!" or "I ask for your blessing." The letter may be signed: "In Christ," "Asking for your prayers," etc. Lay people should refrain from blessing a Priest (i.e., "God bless you"), and Priests should greet each other with a simple request for a blessing. Lay people may greet each other with a simple request for prayers and close their letters in the same way. The flowery exhortations that were especially popular in the nineteenth-century Russian Church ("Christ is in our midst," "Glory be to God," inter alia), and usually taken from the Liturgy, are not traditional forms of greeting for clergy or for lay people. Nor are the greetings exchanged between great Church Fathers and the Saints. Though these high-sounding exhortations are very popular now, since they appeal to the Protestant evangelical piety which has invaded the Church, when used by the poor Christians that we are today, they are at odds with the humility which derives from a piety engendered by submission to Christ and to the traditions of His Church (From Orthodox Tradition, Vol. IX, No. 1, pp. 10-11).
Notes
Be mindful of our fellowship in Christ, throughout the letter.
We desire to learn at the feet of Christ and His teachers, therefore, asking questions is a blessed approach and superior to making accusations. Humility includes a healthy distrust of one’s self and opinions.
While we are commanded to make judgements of righteousness (John 7:24), we are also are commanded to not judge anyone (Matthew 7:1). The difference? Judge behaviors and not people.
Long scriptural and patristic quotations are not required. Speak simply what your conscience desires that brings it peace and fulfillment for your responsibility to confess the truth.