Metropolitan Jonah arrives in Moscow for 15th anniversary celebration of St. Catherine Representation Church

Metropolitan Jonah arrives in Moscow for 15th anniversary celebration of St. Catherine Representation ChurchOn Saturday, December 5, 2009, His Beatitude, the Most Blessed Jonah, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, arrived in Moscow to begin his brief pastoral visit to the Orthodox Church in America’s Representation at Saint Catherine the Great Martyr Church for its 15th Anniversary celebration.

Greeting Metropolitan Jonah upon his arrival in Moscow were His Eminence, Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations [DECR MP]; His Grace, Bishop Aleksandr of Dmitrov, Vicar to the Most Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; Archimandrite Zacchaeus, Representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchate; Archpriest Nicholas Balashov, Deputy Chairman of the DECR MP; Priest Igor Yakimschuk, Acting Secretary for Inter-Church Relations; and other clergy and staff of the DECR MP.

After a very interesting conversation on a wide range of topics of mutual interest for the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America with the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Jonah and Archimandrite Zacchaeus departed for Saint Daniel Monastery Hotel, where they were met by the clergy and chancery staff of Saint Catherine the Great Martyr Church, who eagerly received His Beatitude’s Primatial blessing.

Metropolitan Jonah arrives in Moscow for 15th anniversary celebration of St. Catherine Representation ChurchLater that evening, the eve of the Feast of the Holy Right Believing Prince Alexander Nevsky, Metropolitan Jonah, with the blessing of His Holiness, the Most Holy Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, prayed during the All Night Vigil at Moscow’s Saint Daniel Stavropeghial Monastery.

At the conclusion of the reading of the Matins Gospel, Metropolitan Jonah exited the altar and from the amvon greeted the monastery’s Abbot, Archimandrite Aleksy, and the brotherhood with him. After speaking about the life of the Venerable Herman of Alaska and his significance for the Orthodox faithful in both North America and Russia, Metropolitan Jonah presented a particle of the holy relics of the saint to the Monastery.

In thanking His Beatitude for this spiritual gift, Archimandrite Aleksy emphasized the unity that exists between the two Autocephalous Churches, which is celebrated through the lives of mutual shared saints like the Venerable Herman of Alaska.

Accompanying Metropolitan Jonah is Novice Gregory [Stevens], his personal aide and subdeacon.

A gallery of Metropolitan Jonah’s arrival in Moscow may be found here.

A gallery of the All Night Vigil at St Daniel Monastery in Moscow may be found here.