Moscow, December 3, 2024
tatmitropolia.ru
The vicar bishop of the Diocese of the South of the Orthodox Church in America arrived in Moscow on Sunday for a week-long visit to Russia.
The OCA has a representation church in Moscow dedicated to the Great Martyr Catherine, whose feast will be celebrated this coming Saturday, December 7. Traditionally, the feast is celebrated by a visiting hierarch from America, which this year will be His Grace Bishop Gerasim (Eliel) of Fort Worth.
Vladyka Gerasim, who is known as a spiritual child of Blessed Seraphim (Rose) and the second abbot of St. Herman’s Monastery in Platina, California, from 2000 to 2009, has been serving as vicar of the Diocese of the South since June 2021.
On the second day of his visit to Russia, Bp. Gerasim, accompanied by Archpriest Daniel Andrejuk, rector of the OCA representation church, met with His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.
“During a lengthy conversation, which took place in a friendly and warm atmosphere, issues related to the situation of Orthodoxy on the North American continent, inter-Orthodox relations, as well as bilateral relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America were discussed,” the DECR reports.
Bp. Gerasim is currently in Kazan, where he celebrated the All-Night Vigil for the feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos Into the Temple with the local hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Kirill of Kazan, at the Cathedral of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God of the Kazan Theotokos Monastery.
In his address, Met. Kirill noted that St. Tikhon was enthroned as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia on the feast of the Entrance in 1917. At that time, those who didn’t join the schismatic church being propagated by the Soviet authorities were called “Tikhonites,” and as the Metropolitan said, the American Church, where Bp. Gerasim services, can also be called “Tikhonite,” because “St. Tikhon was a real apostle of that land: He opened many parishes, appointed two bishops as vicars, and did much to develop Orthodoxy throughout America and Alaska.”
And greeting Bp. Gerasim, Met. Kirill expressed hope that the he will visit a rural church in the diocese to see ordinary parish life.
The Kazan hierarch then gifted Bp. Gerasim with a copy of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
The Bishop of Fort Worth responded:
Your Eminence! Fathers, brothers and sisters!
With the blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch, I have come here to concelebrate with Metropolitan Kirill. It is very important that we express our faith through concelebration—especially the Holy Liturgy. His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada sends you his fraternal greetings on this feast day.
It is a great blessing for me as a representative of the Orthodox Church in America to have the opportunity to visit your republic. The cathedral in the capital of Tatarstan is very beautiful, as is the service. It is a great honor for me to be with you and to enjoy your hospitality.
We ask for your prayers for us. May the Lord save you!
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