Talitha kumi!

There lived once upon a time twelve men as different as any twelve men could be. And the Holy Wisdom united all of them into one spiritual body. Such was the first Church of the twelve, and such ought to be the last Church of the billion—different in all her parts, but cemented by the Holy Wisdom into one glorious building.

Christ, God’s Holy Wisdom, includes all of us, why should we exclude each other? He was sent for the salvation of China and Japan and India as well as for that of the Jews and Greeks. Well, let us quarrel no more about the ‘circumcision’ while a billion human beings are still waiting to hear for the first time the name of Jesus Christ—yes, for the first time after two thousand years!

Let the present time be the new Pentecost for us all… Don’t look around you and wait; it is yours to start. All the peoples of earth are looking towards you and listening to you. Don’t be too shy to start. To start what? To start a revival of the primitive wisdom of the Church, that is, to confess and declare—

That Christianity in its integrity is one and indivisible;

That Christianity is not a precious stone preserved in a box called the Church of England, or the Church of the East, or Rome, but that it is the common good of mankind, destined for all continents and all races;

That there is no constituent of the present European civilisation, but the Christian religion, which could stop the brutal struggle among men, in one form or another, and guarantee a Godlike peace profitable for the whole of mankind.

But who am I to teach you? ‘A reed from the wilderness shaken with the wind’? Not I, but the present despair of the world teaches you. I am only one loud amongst many suffocated cries from West and East, from North and South, directed to you—lift up your hearts and listen! God is now doing a great thing…

Pray and listen! One thing only is sure, that this great thing will come neither from any [secular authority] but from the living Christian Church. Yes, she is still living, although she looks dead. She is only sleeping. But Christ is standing beside her now, calling: ‘Rise, daughter! Talitha kumi!’

— Nikolaj Velimirović, Bishop of Ohrid and Žiča