On Thursday and Friday, September 5 and 6, 2019, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon presided at the funeral services and Divine Liturgy for His Eminence, Archbishop Nikon at Boston’s Holy Trinity Cathedral. (Read more below…)
Joining His Beatitude was His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate; His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin of San Francisco and the Diocese of the West; His Eminence, Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey; His Eminence, Archbishop Alexander of Dallas, the South and the Bulgarian Diocese; and His Grace, Bishop Paul of Chicago and the Diocese of the Midwest. His Eminence, Archbishop Joseph of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America was represented by His Grace, Bishop John of Worcester and New England.
“The newly-departed servant of God, Archbishop Nikon was above all a priest of God who faithfully lived, preached, and served with the heart of one who longed to make real these words of the Lord, who longed to taste of the bread of life himself, who had a zeal to share that life with the world so that it might not die,” Metropolitan Tikhon said during his homily at the Divine Liturgy. “He was a priest at his core, as a brother and concelebrant to the members of the Holy Synod, as Father and Archpastor to the Diocese of New England, to the Albanian Archdiocese, and the Diocese of the South, as a pastor to his flocks in Southbridge and Farmington Hills, and as a husband to his wife, Sarah, and brother to his family. He was truly a brother to all of us precisely because we all knew that from his heart and from his mouth we could always expect honesty, integrity, and true Christ-like love.”
“On behalf of the entire Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, her clergy and faithful, and every community that may have been touched by his life, I offer my prayerful condolences to the entire extended family of Archbishop Nikon, confident that the Lord, who is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, has received him into paradise and the eternal rejoicing of the heavenly hosts.”
Letters of condolence were received from His Beatitude, Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania; His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk (Moscow Patriarchate), His Eminence, Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, His Grace, Metropolitan Nikolovos of the Malankara Orthodox Church, and the Albanian Ambassador to the United States Ms. Floreta Faber.
On Monday, September 9, 2019, His Eminence, Archbishop Nikon was laid to rest in Michigan next to his late wife, Sarah.
May Archbishop Nikon’s memory be eternal!