October 6, 2010
His Eminence was welcomed by the rector of the church, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, DECR chairman. He venerated the church’s main shrine – the icon of the Mother of God ‘Joy to All the Afflicted’ and other icons.
Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk told his guest about the life the parish and drew his attention to the architectural and interior features of the church.
At the Patriarchal metochion of the Chernigov Wonder-workers, which has been transferred to the Sts Cyril and Methodius Church Post-Graduate and Doctoral School, the ROCOR First Hierarch venerated the shrines in the church of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, among them a particle of the relics of the Blessed Matrona of Moscow and the venerated Icon of Our Lady of Kazan.
The DECR chairman welcomed the ROCOR First Hierarch, noting that the Chernigov town residence was under repairs in order to get it prepared for studies in the Post-Graduate School which would begin later in October.
In his address to the ROCOR First Hierarch, Metropolitan Hilarion said, ‘We hope that this place will become a spiritual center in which students can begin their education and those of them who are ordained will celebrate here. As we will now cross the lane, you will see a picture difficult to image a five-minute walk away from the Moscow Kremlin. One can think it is an abandoned village somewhere in the Ryazan Province. You will see a space over-grown with weeds and piled with scrap metal. We will have to clean it up and adorn it.
‘The church of Our Lady the Joy of All the Afflict in Bolshaya Ordynka, which you have visited and in which I serve with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill, is one of the revered churches in Moscow, which stayed open in the time of godlessness. Archbishop Kiprian (Zernov) used to serve in it. I attended this church when I was a schoolchild.
‘Today you have attended a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church for the first time. It is a joyful event putting another landmark on the road of our common service’.
In his response, Metropolitan Hilarion of New York thanked the Metropolitan of Volokolamsk for hospitality and expressed joy over the fact that a hierarch of the Russian Church Outside Russia took part for the first time in a meeting of the Russian Church’s Holy Synod. He noted the important role of the Russian Church in bearing witness before the whole world to the truth of holy Orthodoxy.
The archpastors inspected the educational facilities and proceeded to the church of Sts Michael and Theodore of Chernigov.
