Metropolitan Tikhon concelebrates Liturgy with Patriarch Kirill
On December 4, 2014, the Great Feast of the Entrance of the Mother of God into the Temple, His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’ concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada and His Grace, Bishop Alexander of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese, Chair of the Orthodox Church in America’s Office of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations, in the historic 15th century Patriarchal Cathedral of the Dormition in the Moscow Kremlin.
The day also marked the 97th Anniversary of the Enthronement of Saint Tikhon of Moscow, which took place in the same cathedral. Saint Tikhon, who served as Bishop, and later Archbishop, of North America from 1897 to 1907, is widely remembered for convening the First All-American Sobor in Mayfield, PA.
Also concelebrating were His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chair of the Department of External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate; His Grace, Bishop Sergiei of Zolnechnogorsk, Chair of the Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Podolsk; His Grace, Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA; Mitered Protopresbyter Vladimir Divakov, Secretary to Patriarch Kirill for the city of Moscow; and other area clergy. Members of the OCA delegation who concelebrated were Archimandrite Alexander, OCA Representative to the Moscow Patriarchate and Dean of the Church of the Great Martyr Catherine, Moscow; Archpirest John Jillions, Chancellor; Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, Secretary; Archpriest Nazari Polaitko, Secretary of the OCA Archdiocese of Canada; and Protodeacon Joseph Matusiak, Secretary to Metropolitan Tikhon. Also present were Protopresbyter Leonid Kishkovsky, OCA Director of External Affairs, and the lay members of the OCA delegation.
The choir of the Zaikonospassky Monastery, established in Moscow’s Kitai-Gorod quarter by Boris Gudonov in 1600, sang the liturgical responses.
At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, Patriarch Kirill warmly welcomed Metropolitan Tikhon and the members of the OCA delegation. As he presented Metropolitan Tikhon with a panagia and pectoral cross, Patriarch Kirill remarked that the cross, resting on the center of one’s chest, signifies how the cross is at the very center of a Christian’s life. In response, Metropolitan Tikhon presented Patriarch Kirill with an icon of the Sitka Mother of God.
Photos of the Divine Liturgy can be viewed on the OCA web site and Facebook page.
