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November 18,
2010
New
York, NY: A Message from the Office of the Primate of the Russian
Church Abroad
Your
Graces, brother-archpastors, reverend fathers, dear in the Lord
brothers and sisters!
November 21,
the feast of the Synaxis of the Chief of the Heavenly Hosts, Archangel
Michael, and the other Heavenly Bodiless Hosts, will mark the 25th
anniversary of the repose of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret
(Voznesensky), third of the First Hierarchs of the Russian Church
Abroad and one of my predecessors as Metropolitan of Eastern America,
who elevated my unworthiness to the episcopate in 1984. On this day, I
will celebrate the Divine Liturgy in St.
Michael’s Church in Paterson, NJ, after which a commemorative
repast will be offered in the greater church hall to all in
attendance, where a presentation on the life of the ever-memorable
Metropolitan Philaret will be shown, including rare photographs from
his life. In Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, at the place of
his burial, divine services on this day will be led by Bishop Jerome
of Manhattan, Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese.
I hereby
recommend that every church of the Russian Church Abroad honor the
memory of His Eminence by performing a special commemoration on this
day, during the Great Entrance and during the Litiya for the
Departed to follow, prefaced by an explanatory sermon.
Let us pray for
the repose of the soul of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Philaret
with love and gratitude for his labors, his service, his sermons, and
his invaluable instruction on how to live a spiritual life and save
one’s soul in Christ’s Church. May our commemoration be a holy
kiss in remembrance of the courageous labor undertaken by Metropolitan
Philaret in 1981 of the glorification of the great multitude of new
martyrs and confessors of Russia, who today are our intercessors in
the Russian people’s ongoing renewal and spiritual rebirth!
+ HILARION,
Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad
Media Office of the Eastern American
Diocese
