Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada represents OCA at funeral of Metropolitan Nikolaj

His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada [far left] represented The Orthodox Church in America at the funeral of Metropolitan Nikolaj in Presov, Slovakia on February 4, 2006.

PRESOV, SLOVAKIA [OCA Communications] — His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada represented His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman and the Orthodox Church in America at the funeral of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Nikolaj, Primate of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, here during the first week of February 2006.

Metropolitan Nikolaj, 78, fell asleep in the Lord on January 30 after a long illness.

Upon learning of Metropolitan Nikolaj’s repose, Metropolitan Herman sent condolences to the Holy Synod of the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.

Funeral services were held at Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Presov, Slovakia, on February 4, 2006. Presiding at the services was His Eminence, Archbishop Kristof of Prague and the Czech Republic.

In addition to the Orthodox Church in America, other autocephalous and autonomous Churches represented at the funeral included those of Constantinople, Alexandria, Russia, Serbia, Romania, Greece, Poland, and Ukraine.

Also attending were the President of the Republic of Slovakia, Jan Gasparovic, and a number of other state figures. Representatives of the Lutheran, Greek Catholic, and other faith communities were also present.

The Church in the Czech Lands and Slovakia experienced major difficulties after the fall of communism in the early 1990s, especially with the division of the former Czechoslovakia into two independent states. The Church maintains two dioceses in the Czech Republic and an additional two dioceses in Slovakia.