This post was originally published on this site
Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk, Rector of the Orthodox Church in America’s Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine and OCA Representative to the Patriarchate of Moscow, participated in celebrations marking the 80th birthday of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland at the Monastery of the Annunciation, Suprasl, Poland on Sunday, May 20, 2018. The celebration also marked the 20th Anniversary of Metropolitan Sawa’s enthronement as Primate of the Church of Poland.
The double anniversary opened with the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the monastery’s cathedral, which was reconstructed in recent years largely due to Metropolitan Sawa’s persistent efforts. Concelebrating were the hierarchs of the Orthodox Church of Poland. In addition to Father Daniel, who represented His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, representatives of other local Churches concelebrated, including His Eminence, Archbishop Job of Telmessos of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople; His Eminence, Metropolitan Isidore of Smolensk of the Patriarchate of Moscow; and Archimandrite Seraphim of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. Representatives from other confessions and numerous governmental and civil agencies also were present, including Grażyna Ignaczak-Bandych, General Director of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland and the Ambassadors of the Republic of Belarus, the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Serbia.
At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Sawa reflected on the gifts of wisdom, perseverance, love and courage with which God has blessed and preserved the faithful of the Church of Poland during the turbulent 20th century.
While in Poland, Father Daniel also attended the first Divine Liturgy to be celebrated in Warsaw’s newly constructed Hagia Sophia Church, after which the cross that will grace the building’s central cupola was blessed by Metropolitan Sawa. Work on the new church is ongoing.
Greetings of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon to
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland
on the Occasion of His 80th Birthday and the 20th Anniversary of His Enthronement
as Primate of the Orthodox Church of Poland
May 18, 2018
Your Beatitude:
It is a joy to greet You, dear brother in Christ, in connection with your eightieth birthday and the twentieth anniversary of your enthronement as Primate of the Orthodox Church of Poland. You are surrounded by the love of the bishops, clergy, and lay people of the Church of Poland and upheld by their prayers. On behalf of the entire Orthodox Church in America I assure you, in turn, of our love and of our prayers for you and the Polish Orthodox Church.
We look forward to our visit to the Church of Poland in August in response to your invitation. There are many profound and meaningful connections between the Churches of Poland and America—connections and relationships which we hope to affirm and strengthen by our pilgrimage in August. We are grateful to Your Beatitude for your gracious invitation, which itself is a sign of our brotherly relations as primates of our churches and evidence of the sisterly relations of the Polish and American Orthodox Churches.
We are pleased that this greeting is being brought to Your Beatitude by Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk, the Representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Patriarch of Moscow and Dean of Saint Catherine the Great Martyr Church in Moscow.
I ask for your prayers, Your Beatitude, for the Orthodox Church in America and her witness and mission in North America.
With love in the Lord.
+ Tikhkon
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada
