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His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon will travel to Moscow this week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Church of Saint Catherine-in-the-fields as the representation of the Orthodox Church in America to the Church of Russia.
Metropolitan Tikhon will be joined by His Eminence Archbishop David of Sitka, Archimandrite Andrei, Bishop-elect of Cleveland, Auxiliary to His Eminence Archbishop Nathaniel of the Romanian Episcopate; Protopresbyter Daniel Hubiak, first representative to the Church of Russia; Archpriest Alexander Rentel, and Archdeacon Joseph Matusiak.
Metropolitan Tikhon and the members of the OCA delegation will arrive in Moscow on Thursday, December 5. On Saturday, December 7, the feast of Saint Catherine, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill will concelebrate the Divine Liturgy with Metropolitan Tikhon at the Church of Saint Catherine to celebrate the anniversary.
The historic Church of Saint Catherine-in-the-fields was designated as the representation church of the Orthodox Church in America in 1994 by the late Patriarch Alexy II. On December 7, 1994 His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II and His Beatitude Metropolitan Theodosius, served a moleben to commemorate the official opening of the representation of the Orthodox Church in America to the Church of Russia. The temple, having been closed during the communist era, was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church in the early 1990’s, the moleben was the first service to be held in the temple in over sixty-years.
On Sunday, December 9, Saint Tikhon’s University in Moscow will host a symposium on Orthodoxy in America. Metropolitan Tikhon will deliver the key-note address, with Archimandrite Andrei and Igumen Joseph [Kryukov], rector of the Church of Saints Sergius and Herman, the Moscow podvorie of the Valaam Monastery, and a graduate of Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary [STOTS], will offer responses to Metropolitan Tikhon’s address.
“This symposium will provide an excellent opportunity to share the history, life and work of the Orthodox Church in America with an audience unfamiliar with Orthodox life in North America,” said Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk, Dean of the Church of Saint Catherine.
Metropolitan Tikhon and delegation members will return to the United States on Tuesday, December 10.
