Church of Russia to host Metropolitan Jonah April 25-May 4

At the invitation of His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah will be the guest of the Church of Russia from April 25 through May 4, 2009.

Metropolitan Jonah and Patriarch KirillThe visit marks Metropolitan Jonah’s first official visit to a sister Orthodox Church since his election as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America in November 2008.

During his visit, Metropolitan Jonah will concelebrate the Divine Liturgy with Patriarch Kirill at Moscow’s Christ the Saviour Cathedral and at the 15th century Dormition Cathedral in the Kremlin. He also will visit the OCA’s Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine in central Moscow and the Valaam Monastery in northern Russia, where he began his life and ministry as a monastic.

Accompanying Metropolitan Jonah will be His Eminence, Archbishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada; the Very Rev. Alexander Garklavs, OCA Chancellor; the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, OCA Director of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations; and Archdeacon Kirill Sokolov.

View photo galleries of the visit of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah to Russia. (Click on arrow buttons in lower left corner of photo viewer to scroll through sections.)