NEW YORK: June 19, 2012
Letter from the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad to
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill
His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, sent a letter to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia in which he expressed his gratitude for their joint celebration of the fifth anniversary of the reunification of the Russian Church Abroad and the Moscow Patriarchate.
Your Holiness, Vladyko!
I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to Your Holiness for your warm reception and Patriarchal blessing to participate in divine services in the capital city of Moscow, in the episcopal consecration in St Nicholas-Theophany Naval Cathedral in the northern Russian capital, and for the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to the holy sites of the St Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod Metropoliates. Concelebration and conversation with Your Holiness, prayers and services at the holy sites of the Fatherland, meetings with archpastors, clergymen, monastics and laity have all strengthened me and my delegation spiritually for further carrying out our service in complicated circumstances abroad.
I am thankful to Your Holiness for your approval of the five-year period since the signing of the Act of Canonical Communion and for your constructive proposals on further collaboration and cooperation made during the official meeting at the meeting hall of the Supreme Church Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.
I hope that the unity which with God’s help was reestablished five years ago and which we both bore witness to will continue to bring forth fruit, mercies and blessings to the entire flock of the Local Russian Orthodox Church.
May the Lord help Your Holiness in your Patriarchal labors to His glory and to the benefit of our Russian Orthodox Church!
With love in the Lord and asking your holy prayers,
+ HILARION,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
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