London, November 21, 2024
Photo: wp.com
Over the past three weeks, the wonderworking Hawaiian Iveron Icon traveled throughout Western Europe, with its guardian Fr. Nektary Yangson.
The icon began its first-ever visit to Western Europe with a festive procession of hierarchs, clergy, and Orthodox faithful in Zurich on November 1. It was then taken to other cities throughout Switzerland, France, Italy, and Belgium, before arriving in England on November 11.
The icon tour was arranged by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russian Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe, but it has drawn clergy and faithful from various Orthodox jurisdictions.
Photo: wp.com
Starting Saturday, November 16, the icon visited ROCOR and Serbian parishes in the Greater London area for four days. On Tuesday, November 19, the final service before the wonderworking icon in London was held at the ROCOR Cathedral of the Nativity of the Mother of God and the Royal Martyrs, reports the ROCOR Diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe.
His Grace Bishop Irenei and the cathedral clergy were joined by clergy from the Antiochian, Bulgarian, Serbian, and other dioceses, for an evening moleben and akathist.
“The occasion was especially poignant, as the faithful of Great Britain—to whom this icon has come to hold a special place of reverence—prepared to bid it farewell. Many tears of thanksgiving were shed before the sacred image, as the clergy and faithfully expressed their love for the Mother of God and her Son,” the diocese writes.
The visit to the ROCOR diocese concluded the next day with a moleben and akathist in in Stradbally, Ireland.
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