Metropolitan Herman begins Official Visit to the Orthodox Church of Finland

In October 1997, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius welcomed then Metropolitan Leo to the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America and presented him with an icon of St. Herman of Alaska to mark the occasion. His Eminence was enthroned as the ruling Archbishop of Finland in December 2001.

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications]—For the first time since his election as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America in 2002, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, will make an official visit to the Orthodox Church of Finland in early December 2004.

Metropolitan Herman’s visit comes at the invitation of the Church’s primate, His Eminence, Archbishop Leo of Karelia and All Finland, who has visited the US on numerous occasions in years past.

In October 1997, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius welcomed then Metropolitan Leo to the Chancery of the Orthodox Church in America and presented him with an icon of St. Herman of Alaska to mark the occasion. His Eminence was enthroned as the ruling Archbishop of Finland in December 2001.
Traveling with Metropolitan Herman as part of the official OCA delegation are His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate; His Grace, Bishop Seraphim of Ottawa and Canada; His Grace, Bishop Nikon of Boston and the Albanian Archdiocese; Protopresbyter Robert Kondratick, OCA chancellor; and the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, assistant to the chancellor for external affairs and support staff.

Metropolitan Herman and the delegation are scheduled to arrive in Helsinki, the Finnish capital, on Wednesday, December 8, where they will be met by Archbishop Leo and His Eminence, Metropolitan Ambrosios of Helsinki. After meeting in Helsinki with US Ambassador Earle I Mack, they will then travel to New Valamo Monastery. Established by monks from the renowned Valaam Monastery in Russian Karelia in the mid-1900s, the monastery is a center of Finnish Church life and the site of numerous international conferences and gatherings. The Valamo Lay Academy is also located on the monastery grounds.

On Thursday, December 9, Metropolitan Herman and the delegation will travel to Joensuu. After delivering a lecture on theological education in the Orthodox Church in America at the Orthodox seminary, he will visit the Theological Faculty at Joensuu University and the city’s Saint Nicholas parish. Later the same day, he will address the monastic brotherhood at New Valamo.

Metropolitan Herman will visit the neighboring Lintula Women’s Monastery on Friday, December 10. The following day he will travel to Kuopio, where Archbishop Leo resides, and will visit Saint Nicholas Cathedral, the Church of Saint John the Theologian and the Enlighteners of Karelia, and the Orthodox museum.

On Sunday, December 12, Metropolitan Herman will celebrate the Divine Liturgy at Helsinki’s historic Dormition Cathedral, an exceptional example of 19th century Russian Gothic architecture built on a bluff overlooking the city’s harbor. The following day, the Feast of Saint Herman of Alaska and the Metropolitan’s names day, he will celebrate the Divine Liturgy at the recently constructed Saint Herman Church, Espoo. Later the same day, after meeting with the Prime Minister of Finland, Metropolitan Herman and the delegation will return to the US.

“The Orthodox Church of Finland, an autonomous Church within the Ecumenical Patriachate of Constantinople, has always maintained a close relationship with the Orthodox Church in America,” said the Very Rev. John Matusiak, OCA Communications Director. “It shares a common heritage centered around Karelia, which straddles the Finnish-Russian border, the home of Saint Herman of Alaska, one of the first group of missionaries who brought the Orthodox Faith to North America in 1794.”

Complete coverage of Metropolitan Herman’s visit will appear on the OCA web site at http://www.oca.org and in the January-Feburary 2005 issue of “The Orthodox Church” newspaper.