KIEV: May 26, 2017
Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York Sends Congratulations to the Graduates of Holy Trinity Seminary

From the Editors: On Sunday, May 28, 2017, Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, NY, will hold its graduation ceremonies. His Grace Bishop Irenei of Sacramento, Vicar of the Western American Diocese, will deliver the commencement address.

Your Grace Bishop Irenei,
You Reverence, Dear in the Lord Fathers and Brothers, Teachers and Students and Guests:

I express my hearty congratulations to you from the wondrous hills of Kiev, blessed by the cross of Holy Apostle Andrew the First-Called, by the podvigi of St Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, by the prayers and tears of the holy monks of the Kievan Lavra of the Caves and by the veneration of our ancestors!

It is with a special feeling that I perform divine services here, prayerfully commemorating my predecessor, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who once headed the Kievan Metropoliate at the beginning of the period of godless persecution; the founder of Holy Trinity Seminary, Archbishop Vitaly (Maximenko), who as an archimandrite headed the Pochaev Brotherhood publishing concern, who had served together with Hieromartyr Vladimir during the latter’s final akathist to the Mother of God in Kiev’s great Uspensky Cathedral just before his martyric death.

Participating now in the celebrations connected to the 25th anniversary of the Council of Kharkov, I lift my prayers in this holy place for our seminary, brethren, teachers, graduates, and all those participating in today’s graduation ceremonies, and congratulate everyone, invoking the many Divine mercies and blessings upon you all, that you are edified in the trembling, pious fulfillment of your service to Holy Orthodoxy. May you find inspiration in the good examples of the aforementioned podvizhniki and that of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onouphry of Kiev and All Ukraine.

I am profoundly grateful to the Reverend Rector, Archimandrite Luke, and his dedicated assistants for the love they manifest in their efforts towards fulfilling God’s work. To this year’s graduates, I wish the abundant aid of God in your service to Him and to mankind, along with patience, humility and spiritual peace, so that all who surround you gain consolation, warmth and the true path to God, striving to encounter Perfect Goodness, Holiness and Beauty.

With love in the Lord,

+HILARION
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.