Washington, D.C., July 14, 2021
Met. Hilarion (left), Met. Tikhon (right). Photo: mospat.ru
His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, arrived in America over the weekend to offer an address at the International Religious Freedom Summit being held in Washington, D.C., from July 13 to 15.
On Sunday, July 11, Met. Hilarion concelebrated with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada of the Orthodox Church in America at the Moscow Patriarchate’s St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York, reports the OCA.
Watch a video of the Liturgy:
Following the service, the hierarchs exchanged greetings and gifts and reflected upon the Russian heritage of Orthodoxy in America. They later had a conversation about cooperation between the Russian Church and the OCA and issues in the field of inter-Orthodox relations.
The next day, Met. Hilarion celebrated the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul with His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral), the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and His Grace Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan at the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York.
Met. Hilarion of ROCOR (left), Met. Hilarion of Volokolamsk (center), Bp. Nicholas (right). Photo: eadiocese.org
To commemorate the service, Met. Hilarion of Volokolamsk gave Met. Hilarion of ROCOR an episcopal Panagia with the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God that had belonged to His Grace Bishop John of Rockland (+1955), vicar of the Eastern American Diocese.
Yesterday, Met. Hilarion met with Archpriest Chad Hatfield, President of St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary, at St. Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral to discuss various issues of cooperation between the seminary and the St. Cyril and Methodius Postgraduate and Doctoral School in Moscow, of which Met. Hilarion is rector.
Today, His Eminence will offer a speech that he was invited to give at the Religious Freedom Summit in D.C.
He is also due to meet with several current and former Congressmen, as well as former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback. Although Met. Hilarion did not reveal the purpose of his meeting with Brownback, it is known that the former ambassador played a role in the creation of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” that has been persecuting the canonical Church in Ukraine.
Brownback met with former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in September 2018, assuring him that the U.S. would continue to aid the administration in its desire to create a new church structure.
Together with Geoffrey Pyatt, the notorious American Ambassador to Greece, Brownback later met with Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens to discuss the Ukrainian question and reaffirm the U.S.’s backing of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Just a few months later, the Greek primate officially entered into communion with the graceless Ukrainian schismatics.
A hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church also concelebrated with ROCOR and OCA hierarchs in San Francisco two weekends ago.
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