Metropolitan Jonah presides at Zaccheaus Sunday Liturgy at New York’s St. Nicholas Cathedral

Metropolitan Jonah enters Saint Nicholas Cathedral.

NEW YORK, NY [OCA]—His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, presided at the Divine Liturgy at Saint Nicholas Russian Orthodox Patriarchal Cathedral here on Zacchaeus Sunday, February 6, 2011, on the occasion of the 50th birthday of His Eminence, Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA.

Concelebrating with Metropolitan Jonah and Archbishop Justinian were His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion [Alfeyev] of Volokolamsk and His Grace, Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania. Along concelebrating with the hierarchs and cathedral clergy were the clergy of Three Hierarchs Chapel at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY, including Archpriests John Behr and Chad Hatfield, SVS Dean and Chancellor respectively.

Nearly 100 students and their families from Saint Vladimir’s attended the Liturgy, at which the seminary choir and the cathedral choir sang the liturgical responses.

Metropolitan Jonah concelebrates with [from left] Archbishop Justinian, Metropolitan Hilarion, and Bishop Melchisedek.

Archbishop Justinian presented Metropolitan Jonah with a rare photograph, taken in front of Saint Nicholas Cathedral some 100 years ago, in which Saint Alexander Hotovitzky and other saints and leaders of the North American Church at that time are depicted. The Archbishop expressed his hope that Metropolitan Jonah will continue to minister in the same spirit and vision displayed by these “early shepherds” of the Church on the North American continent. Metropolitan Jonah presented Archbishop Justinian with an icon of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco.

After the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Hilarion, who one day earlier had delivered the annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture at Saint Vladimir’s Seminary [see www.oca.org/news/2406], signed copies of two books published by Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press—Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective and Orthodox Christianity: Volume I: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church.

Photo galleries are available on the web site of the Patriarchal Parishes at www.russianchurchusa.org/gallery.php?album=10080.