Final Preparations for Return of Tikhvin Icon Reviewed

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications]—On Saturday, June 5, 2004, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, arrived in Moscow for a week-long visit.

On Monday, June 7, His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Russia welcomed Metropolitan Herman, His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania, and Protopresbyter Robert Kondratick, OCA Chancellor, at his country residence in Peredelkino, at which time they discussed final plans for the impending return of the wonderworking Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God.

“The ancient icon, which has been in the US since the late 1940s, will be returned to its original home at the Tikhvin Monastery in northern Russia during the first week of July 2004,” according to the Very Rev. John Matusiak, OCA Communications Director. “The icon, which tradition ascribes to the hand of the Evangelist Luke, once again will be enshrined in the monastery during celebrations at which Patriarch Aleksy and Metropolitan Herman will preside.”

While in Moscow, Metropolitan Herman will participate in celebrations marking the Patriarch’s 75th birthday. He will also visit the Holy Trinity-Saint Sergius Lavra in Sergiev Posad and the Sretensky, Donskoy and Danilov monasteries in Moscow. On Sunday, June 6, 2004 Metropolitan Herman met privately with His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy and His Eminence, Metropolitan Kyrill representing the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Affairs to discuss the present state of Orthodox affairs worldwide.

Before his June 12 return to the US, Metropolitan Herman will also visit the OCA Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine, where he and Archimandrite Zacchaeus, dean, will review preliminary plans for the celebration of the church’s tenth anniversary in December 2004.