On Wednesday, December, 3, 2014, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon and the OCA delegation were received at Moscow’s Spaso House by His Excellency, the Honored Ambassador John Tefft, US Ambassador to Russia, and his wife Mariella.
“Years ago, I had the opportunity to attend a service in the beautiful Orthodox church in Juneau, Alaska,” Ambassador Tefft recalled as he welcomed Metropolitan Tikhon and the members of the OCA delegation. “It reminded me of the very long history of the Orthodox faith in America. That history has been traced back to 1794, when eight missionaries from Russia’s northern Karelia region arrived in Kodiak, Alaska.
“Since that time, the Orthodox Church in America has spread throughout North America, and now numbers 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries, and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico,” he continued. “I congratulate Metropolitan Tikhon and the other delegation members on the important role that the Church has played in our multi-religious society.
“As you know, the political relationship between Moscow and Washington has been strained in recent months,” he went on to say. “But as the US Ambassador in Moscow, I believe it is important for both religious and secular organizations to continue people-to-people communication and regular exchanges between our two great countries. Spaso House is the perfect place for us to gather today because it has been a centerpiece of US-Russian relations for more than 80 years. I urge you to take a look at the photos on the walls here, which remind us of the important cultural events that have brought together Americans and Russians, in good times and in less good times, for many years.”
Metropolitan Tikhon presented Ambassador and Mrs. Tefft with a print of a painting of an Alaskan village.
Also present were the Canadian Ambassador, His Excellency, John R. Kur; the Charge d’Affaires of Ukraine, Mr. Ruslan Mikhaylovich Nimchinskiy; the Bulgarian Ambassador, His Excellency, Boyko Kotzev; the Serbian Ambassador, His Excellency, Slavenko Terzic; the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic, and numerous other ranking religious and civil leaders; and representatives of a variety of educational institutions.
[See related story.]
