| The Synodal Residence in New York hosts the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Source: ROCOR Photo: synod.com On Tuesday, 13 September, 2022, the members of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, led by His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany, celebrated Divine Liturgy at the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady “of the Sign” in New York City. At the end of divine services, the archpastors performed a moleben for the opening of the Council, invoking the Holy Spirit to help in their work. Attending the Council of Bishops were Metropolitan Mark; His Eminence Archbishop Kyrill of Western America and New York; His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada; His Eminence Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America; His Grace Bishop John of Caracas and South America; His Grace Bishop Irenei of London and Western Europe; His Grace Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan; His Grace Bishop Theodosius of Seattle; His Grace Bishop Luke of Syracuse; His Grace Bishop Alexander of Vevey and His Grace Bishop Job of Stuttgart. His Grace Bishop George of Canberra participated electronically. After a trapeza luncheon in the large hall of the Synodal Residence, the Council of Bishops opened. During his keynote address, Metropolitan Mark noted: “In very difficult circumstances, we must proceed to elect a new First Hierarch. We are in need of a calm hand to steer the ship of our Church in a storm-tossed sea. For this we require first of all genuine collegiality, through which, after exhaustive deliberation, we will make decisions in the spirit of conciliarity.” Archbishop Kyrill was then elected Vice Chairman, and elected as Secretaries of the Council were Bishop Nicholas, Bishop Theodosius and Bishop Job. Elected as members of the Counting Committee were Bishop Irenei and Bishop Luke. Then, after commemorating the reposed Primates of the Russian Church Abroad in the Cathedral, the hierarchs commenced electing a new First Hierarch. First to vote was Metropolitan Mark, followed by the other members of the Council of Bishops. Having heard the second round of voting, the archpastors exclaimed “Axios” [“he is worthy”] for Bishop Nicholas, after which litanies “for our Master Bishop Nicholas, Elected Primate of the Russian Church Abroad,” followed by the singing of “Many Years.” |
| Howell, NJ: Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan leads Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church Source: Eastern American Diocese www.eadiocese.org On Wednesday, July 9, the feast day of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell, NJ, leading the parish’s patronal feast day. His Grace was co-served by parish rector Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov, Archpriest Alexander Belya (dean of New York City), Archpriest George Kallaur (rector of “Unexpected Joy” Church in Staten Island, NY), Archpriest Liubo Milosevich (rector of Holy Trinity Church in Vineland, NJ), Archpriest Mark Burachek (rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ), Archpriest Petro Kunitsky (cleric of Holy New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn, NY), Archpriest Boris Slootsky (cleric of neighboring St. George’s Church in Howell), Priest Seraphim Chemodakov (parish cleric), Priest Serge Ledkovsky (deputy rector of neighboring St. Vladimir Memorial Church in Jackson), and Protodeacon Michael Soloviev (cleric of Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Albany, NY). Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell became the first church in the Eastern American Diocese in which the newly consecrated Bishop Nicholas celebrated the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy. Greeting His Grace, Fr. Valery wished him God’s aid in his service to the Holy Church, and that in his Archpastoral service he might never forget his glorious forebearers the hierarchs of the Russian Church Abroad. Many of the church’s parishioners, as well as faithful from Brooklyn and across New York City, came to mark the parish feast day of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church and to honor the wonderworking Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. This icon, preserved in Howell, is renowned as the “Royal Icon:” in 1972, it was donated to what was then St. Alexander Nevsky Church by Lakewood resident Olga V. Astori-Astafiev, whose mother received the icon as a gift from the Holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in 1913. |
| On Sunday 6th December 2015 His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa conducted the ordination of His Grace Athanasios Bishop of Kisumu and West Kenya, at the Holy Patriarchal Church of St Nicholas in Cairo. On the evening before, he officiated at Great Vespers at the celebrating Patriarchal Church of St Nicholas and then the Great Messages of the recently elected Bishops of Mozambique Chrysostomos, Nieri and Mount Kenya Neofytos and Kisumu and West Kenya Athanasios. At the Eucharistic gathering on the feast day, as well as at the ordination of His Grace, His Eminence Elder Metropolitan Gabriel of Leontopolis, Patriarchal Vicar General, His Eminence Makarios Metropolitan of Nairobi, His Eminence Alexandros Metropolitan of Nigeria, His Eminence Nicholas of Ermopolis, His Eminence Nikodimos of Memphis, Patriarchal Vicar of Cairo, His Eminence Niphon Metropolitan of Pilousion, Abbot of the Holy Patriarchal Monastery of St. George in Cairo, His Eminence Metropolitan Ioannis of Zambia, and their Graces Chrysostomos Bishop of Mozambique and Neofytos of Nieri also participated. Many faithful came to the church for the celebrations from both the Greek and Arabic communities of the Egyptian capital. In his address, with deep emotion, His Beatitude said: Your Grace, elected Bishop Athanasios of Kisumu and West Kenya and beloved brother in the Lord, “My you be strengthened with all power giving thanks to the father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Colossians 1:11-12). The hour of Missions in the vast and great country of Kenya “has indeed come.” The fullness of time has arrived, the time of sowing has come as has the time of reaping. At this sacred moment of your ordination as bishop, I wish to stand paternally opposite you and in a spirit of love and advice, to weave into your thoughts my expectations and visions for you, my beloved son Fr. Athanasios. Firstly I want to say to you that the theology of our Church is not only produced through the university desks and the amphitheatres of the theological faculties. The theology of our Church is not a double-headed theology. It is not academic. It does not begin and end in libraries and university laboratories. The theology of our Church begins at the Holy Altar! That is the greatest theological Table which produces the one theology – the theology of the Immaculate Lamb. On the Holy Altar is the sacrificial lamb. It is the broken, divided and never expended Christ. He is the centre “of the entire Church.” He is the lighting strength, the source of sanctity, from which all of creation, strengthened both in logic and intellect sends up the eternal doxology. |
| “Put the Priest on a Pitchfork!” In Memory of the Hieromartyr Methodius (Krasnoperov) The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of the Hieromartyr Methodius, Bishop of Petropavlovsk, Vicar of the Omsk Diocese, on February 17 (February 4 on the Old Calendar). During a Service of Intercession in the Church of St. Nicholas, Bishop Methodius was seized by Red Army soldiers and stabbed with bayonets. The soldiers continued to stab him even when he was already dead, and then thrust a cross into one of his wounds. The people witnessing this incident remained silent... Bishop Methodius (Krasnoperov) – azbyka.kz And Thrust a Cross into His Wound In 1921, the peasants rebelled against the Soviet government in Western Siberia. The size of the uprising was considerable. The opponents of the Bolsheviks managed to seize the cities of Petropavlovsk, Ishim, and Tobolsk, and to form the North Siberian Government. The suppression of the rebellion was accompanied by hitherto unprecedented cruelty on the part of the Bolsheviks. Red punitive forces shot hundreds of residents of the seized villages and towns at random and burned these places to the ground. In February 1921, the Bolsheviks regained power in Petropavlovsk by “fire and sword.” The local populace met the Soviet regime without enthusiasm. A conflict between the peasants and the Red Army took place on the square in front of the St. Nicholas Church in Petropavlovsk on February 4 (Old Calendar), where on that day a hierarchal service was being held. Blood was shed. At the end of the Service of Intercession, Bishop Methodius of Petropavlovsk himself went to the square. The bishop called for peace, and tried to calm those who were fighting. At that moment, someone from the crowd cried out: “Put the priest on a pitchfork!” – after which Bishop Methodius was stabbed with bayonets by Red Army soldiers. Then they thrust a cross into one of his wounds when he was already dead (or, according to another source, while he was still alive). |
| On February 15, 2016, during his visit to the Republic of Paraguay’s capital Asuncion, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited the Russian plot at the central city Recoleta Cemetery, in which Russian émigrés, who joined the Paraguayan Army as volunteers and were killed in the Chaco War (1932-1935), were buried. The primate of the Russian Orthodox Church honored the memory of the dead compatriots and read at the cemetery the prayer for the repose of their souls. Participating in the prayer service were Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations (DECR), Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Bishop Peter of Cleveland (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, ROCOR), Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Administrative Secretariat, Bishop John of Caracas and South America (ROCOR), Bishop George of Canberra (ROCOR), Bishop Leonid of Argentina and South America, Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan (ROCOR), Bishop Anthony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Office for Institutions Abroad, Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman, Archpriest Andrey Milkin, head of the Patriarchal Protocol Service, and the Rev. Maxim Boyarov, rector of the church of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land in Buenos Aires. Praying at the service were descendents of first wave Russian émigrés. As a sign of respect for the memory of the Russian soldiers, the Paraguayan Army Guards of Honour clad in the uniform of Chaco War times lined up at the cemetery. Prayers were lifted up for the repose of the souls of " the leaders and soldiers of our Motherland who gave their lives for this country and her people and for all Orthodox Christians buried in this land. " At the Society of Officers building, a meeting took place between His Holiness and compatriots and descendents of Russian émigrés. Participating in the meeting were Metropolitan Hilarion, Russian Ambassador N. Tavdumadze and Russia’s Honorary Consul I. Fleischer-Shevelev. |
| Exhortation on the Prayer Rule St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Bishop Ignaty (secular name, Dimitry Aleksandrovich Brianchaninov; 1807-1867) was an outstanding ecclesiastical writer and ascetic of the nineteenth century. He had no special theological education. He studied at the main engineering college in St. Petersburg and in 1824 graduated from it, receiving an officer’s rank. During the following four years he fulfilled various obediences as a novice in several monasteries, after which he took monastic vows and was appointed in 1883 as Father Superior of the St. Sergei Hermitage of the St. Petersburg Diocese. He gained profound experience in the knowledge of God by studying the works of the holy fathers. In 1857 he was consecrated bishop of the Black Sea and the Caucasus. In 1861 he retired for reasons of health and settled in the Babaevsky Monastery of St. Nicholas. Besides his feats of prayer and extensive correspondence with his spiritual children, Bishop Ignaty devoted much of his time during these years to literary work. The reader of his works discovers in their author a pastor-ascetic engaged in an intense spiritual combat and who is tragically depressed by setbacks in this struggle. The main motivation behind his ascetic works is his awareness of the damage done to human nature by sin. He wrote: “Our nature is contaminated by sin so that it is quite natural for it to generate unnatural sin” (Essays of Bishop Ignaty Brianchaninov, 3 rd edition, St. Petersburg, 1905, Vol. 5, p. 435). “The Christian discerns within himself the human Fall inasmuch as he can see his own passions. Passions are the sign of the sinful mortal disease which afflicts the entire human race” (1.528). “In order to achieve success in the spiritual life, it is necessary for our passions to reveal themselves by coming to the fore. When passions reveal themselves in an ascetic he comes to grips with them” (1.345). These ideas are further elaborated in all of the works of Bishop Ignaty. In all of his writings on any subject, including practical pastoral advice, Bishop Ignaty takes the reader back to the understanding of the root cause of the misfortunes of the human race, which helps to combat each and every concrete manifestation of sin. Thus defining monastic self-reproach, he points out that it is “a good cause, counterposed to and counteracting the morbid condition of our fallen nature …” (1.345). Elsewhere he writes: “Speaking of books, one should say … that it is necessary to choose among them not the most elevated ones, but the ones that are nearest to our own condition, which describe actions pertinent to ourselves” (2.292). “When a person does not arrange his responsibilities in due order, does not attach to each of them the priority it deserves, then the fulfillment thereof cannot yield virtue, but will only produce sinful mistakes which are all the more dangerous because they have a virtuous appearance” (4.421). |
| Metropolitan HIlarion of Eastern America and New York: War always leads to more war Source: ROCOR Epistle of the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. We, the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, having convened a regular session of the Council of Bishops in the God-preserved city of San Francisco, hereby mark an important spiritual event in Church history. It was here, where by God’s will, the oldest cathedra of the Russian Church Abroad was established, and which is now the last hierarchal cathedra according to the world clock, once occupied by St John, Archbishop of Shanghai and then of San Francisco. We celebrate the 20 th anniversary of his glorification this year . Here also lie the holy relics of St John, here thousands and thousands of pilgrims gather. During these days, the All-Diaspora Russian Orthodox Youth Conference is convening, in which our hierarchs are also participating. Marking this anniversary on Sunday , June16/29, during Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow,” the nominee of the Council of Bishops, Archimandrite Nicholas (Olhovsky), was consecrated to the episcopacy as Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese, with the title of Bishop of Manhattan. The Council of Bishops congratulates His Grace Bishop Nicholas and wishes him Divine aid in his archpastoral service to the Holy Church, and asks the God-loving flock to remember the new Bishop Nicholas in their prayers. St John, the wonderful miracle-worker and Righteous saint of God was fated to become the first glorified Russian saint who shone outside of the borders of Russia, outside the borders of our Fatherland. The Lord manifested through him miracles of healing, here the love-filled heart of St John prayed for us with utter empathy, rejecting no one. The descendant of the southern Russian noble family of the Maximoviches, which had already given Rus a holy hierarch, Metropolitan John of Tobolsk, Vladyka John of Shanghai and San Francisco never forgot his earthly homeland—Kievan Rus. In his childhood and youth, he more than once visited Dormition of the Mother of God Lavra of Svyatogorsk, where in our days, almost within its very walls, blood is spilt by those who die in internecine war. |
| Photo: eadiocese.org Over the course of nine days – November 21-30 – the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, one of the most ancient holy icons of the Russian Orthodox Church (1295 A.D.) visited St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, DC. Parishioners diligently prepared for the arrival of the wonderworking image. News of the icon’s impending arrival quickly spread, in order to alert as many of the faithful as possible of their opportunity to pray before this sacred 13th century icon. Several years ago, the Primate of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, appointed the holiday of Thanksgiving and the week following to be the period in which the Kursk Root Icon would pay its annual visit to Washington. His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Manhattan, since 2010 the guardian of the wonderworking icon, arrived on Wednesday evening, November 21, on the feast of the Holy Archangel Michael and the other Bodiless Powers of Heaven. The moment of the icon’s arrival coincided with the conclusion of the baptism of the infant Michael, who was blessed with the icon, much to his parents’ untold joy. The following day, on the American civil holiday of Thanksgiving, the people of God began to gather at 11 o’clock for the triumphal greeting and first moleben and akathist before the Kursk Root Icon. After the service, worshippers gathered in the parish hall for the traditional festal luncheon. Friday, November 23, was dedicated to visitation by the Kursk Root Icon of sick and elderly parishioners who were not able to personally attend the church services and venerate the holy image. That same evening, Bishop Nicholas took the Kursk Icon to the parish of the Holy Apostles in Beltsville, MD, where a moleben and akathist were served to the Most Holy Theotokos. The following day, November 24, the feast of the myrrh-streaming Montreal-Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, the Kursk Icon was brought to St. John the Baptist Cathedral for Divine Liturgy, and placed in the center of the church, next to an exact copy of the Montreal Icon, which had been painted on Mount Athos to mark the first anniversary of the murder of its faithful guardian, Jose Muñoz-Cortes. It was endearing to see both images placed together, these primary holy of the icons of the Russian Church Abroad. That same day, cathedral rector Archpriest Victor Potapov was celebrating his namesday (Holy Martyr Victor of Damascus). Praying at Liturgy were His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah former primate of the Orthodox Church in America; retired) and His Grace Nicholas, Bishop of Manhattan. Upon conclusion of Liturgy, Fr. Victor delivered a sermon dedicated to the significant of these two highly venerated icons for Russia and the Russian Diaspora. |
| Archive Consecration of restored Orthodox churches in Arbin and Az-Zabadani 23 January 2023 year 10:55 On January 22, 2023, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, took part in the Sunday Divine Liturgy at the Church of Great Martyr George the Conqueror in Arbin, Syria. This church was seriously damaged because of military actions near the Syrian capital during an active stage of clashes with militants. Recently the restoration work in it carried out at the expense of the Russian Federation and with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church has been completed. Before the Liturgy, the restored church was consecrated by His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Great Antioch and All the East and Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk. His Beatitude’s concelebrants included Metropolitan Anthony, hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Antioch - Metropolitan Ephraim of Aleppo and Alexandretta, Metropolitan Nicholas of Hama, Bishop Moses of Dara, Bishop John of Sergiopolis, Bishop Arsenios of Hierapolis, the clergy of the Patriarchate of Antioch, as well as Metropolitan Anthony’s retinue including Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, adviser to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia; Archpriest Igor Yakimchuk, DECR vice-chairman; and Archimandrite Philipp (Vasiltsev), representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia to the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East. Worshipping in the sanctuary were Bishop Moses of Larissa and Bishop Roman of Seleucia. Among the worshipers in the church were Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia in Syria A. V. Yefimov; Commander of the Russian Federation Armed Forces Group in the Syrian Arab Republic Colonel-General A. N. Serdyukov, Executive Director of the Foundation for Support of Christian Culture and Heritage Ye. Skopenko, and representatives of local authorities. The service was held in Arabic and Church Slavonic. In his Primatial homily, His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch congratulated those present on the restoration and re-consecration of the Church of Great Martyr George the Conqueror in Arbin. ‘We know this city very well. Living in it are people of Christian and Moslem communities, and they all deserve to live a life in goodness and dignity and to meet their spiritual needs’ His Beatitude stressed, ‘Today we thank the Lord for the opportunity to see, after all that happened here, how many buildings were destroyed in Arbin, that we, both Christians and Muslims have assembled in this church where the first Liturgy after the restoration has been celebrated’. |
| The Synodal Cathedral Hosts Namesday Celebrations for the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad Source: Eastern American Diocese, ROCOR On Thursday, November 1, the feast of Venerable John of Kronstadt, clergy and believers triumphally commemorated the namesday of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America &New York, in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City. Since the feast of Venerable Hilarion, Schemamonk of the Kiev Caves (Nov. 3) coincided this year with St. Demetrius Soul Saturday, the celebration of His Eminence’s namesday was moved to November 1. Clergy of the Eastern American Diocese, as well as parishioners of the cathedral and other churches of the Diocese, gathered to pray for the health of their archpastor. The moleben was led by Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, co-served by diocesan clerics: Archpriest Alexander Belya (dean of New York City), Archimandrite Maximos (Weimar; abbot of St. Dionysios the Aeropagite Monastery in St. James, NY), Archpriest Andrei Sommer (cathedral senior priest), Abbot Vladimir (Zgoba; rector of Our Lady “Unexpected Joy” Church in Staten Island, NY), Archpriest Petro Kunitsky (cleric of New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn, NY), Archpriest Alexandre Antchoutine (dean of the Hudson Valley & Long Island), Abbot Nicodemus (Balyasnikov; cleric of St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in New York City), Archpriest Dimitri Jakimowicz (rector of St. Nicholas Church in Stratford, CT), Hieromonk Silouan (Justiniano; cleric of St. Dionysios Monastery), Hieromonk Zosimas (Krampis; rector of the English-language mission of the Synodal Cathedral), Protodeacon Nicolas Mokhoff and Deacon Pavel Roudenko (clerics of the Synodal Cathedral), and Protodeacon Eugene Kallaur (cleric of St. Seraphim Memorial Church in Sea Cliff, NY). Praying at the moleben were numerous diocesan clergy. The moleben was served under the aegis of the Protectress of the Russian Diaspora, the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God. |
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