May 31, 2012
Strength in Unity: Memorial Day at St. Tikhon’s Monastery
Beginning
in 1905, on American Memorial Day, Orthodox Christians began
gathering in the oldest Orthodox monastery in America, St. Tikhon of
Zadonsk Monastery in South Canaan, PA, for an annual pilgrimage and
to commemorate reposed friends and relatives (especially war
veterans).
On Sunday, May 27, with the blessing of the First Hierarch of the
Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, the
primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude Jonah,
Metropolitan of All America & Canada, celebrated the Divine Liturgy
in
St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Mayfield, PA. This historic
parish, founded in 1888, is the oldest in the Eastern America
Diocese. The parish’s history is tightly interwoven with that of St.
Tikhon’s Monastery, located 11 miles from Mayfield.
That
same day, the Orthodox tradition of performing a procession from
Mayfield to the monastery was revived. Orthodox people from Eastern
Pennsylvania performed this procession annually on this day since
1905. The tradition halted for many years, owing to a breach in
canonical communion between ROCOR and the Orthodox Church in
America. As a result of the signing of the Act of Canonical
Communion on May 17, 2007, relationships with the OCA have
normalized, and greater numbers of pilgrims from the Church Abroad
have begun to visit the monastery. Processions of a similar nature
(although much shorter) were held in previous years, but this year
the faithful will once again follow the original, century-old path.
On
the final day of the pilgrimage, the Divine Liturgy, celebrated by
Metropolitan Jonah, concelebrated by OCA hierarchs: Archbishop
Tikhon of Philadelphia, Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh, Bishop
Michael of New York, and Bishop Matthias of Chicago, as well as a
multitude of clergy from many jurisdictions, was adorned by a
combined choir of singers from St. Tikhon’s Seminary, Holy Trinity
Seminary in Jordanville, New York, and the Eastern American Diocesan
Youth Choir. One major highlight of the pilgrimage was the
visitation of the Myrrh-Streaming Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother
of God. Hundreds of the faithful came and poured out their hearts
before this wonderworking image, which abundantly streamed myrrh
over the course of the Liturgy.
Upon completion of the Liturgy, the secretary of the Eastern
American Diocese of ROCOR, Archpriest Serge Lukianov, read aloud a
greeting from the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad,
Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern American and New York:
Your Beatitude, Your Eminence, Your Graces, dear in the Lord
Reverend Fathers, brothers, and sisters!
From across the world, I greet you and congratulate you on behalf of
all of the faithful children of the Russian Church Abroad with the
108th Memorial Day Pilgrimage. I thank you for inviting me to join
you, and it is with sadness that I am unable to be with you at this
joyous occasion, which for so many years has been an opportunity for
Orthodox Christians throughout our land to unite in worship.
This year is especially momentous. As the Russian Church Abroad
celebrates the fifth anniversary of her Reunification with the
Moscow Patriarchate, we have an opportunity to more fully appreciate
the grace we have been given, as believers of both of our
jurisdictions approach One Chalice. With the addition of the Holy
Trinity Seminary Choir and the Eastern American Diocesan Youth Choir
to St. Tikhon’s own Seminary Choir, we sow the seeds for
collaboration between our youth, who will know little of the
divisions that kept the older generations apart. Let us build upon
this strong foundation. God willing, just as the faithful of the
Russian Church Abroad are now returning to the traditional Memorial
Day Pilgrimage at St. Tikhon’s Monastery, so the faithful of the
Orthodox Church in America will come once more to the Labor Day
Pilgrimage in Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York.
I likewise congratulate the seminary class of 2012, and wish all of
you Godspeed and a fortified faith as you go forward to continue
your service to Christ’s Holy Church. Never, ever forget, that our
strength is in our unity. Let us never allow ourselves to repeat the
mistakes of the past, abiding instead in brotherly love, thereby
bearing witness to our Christian faith, spreading the word of God to
our beloved American land.
With love in our Ascended Lord,
+HILARION Metropolitan of Eastern America & New
York First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad
