Metropolitan Herman departs for Archpastoral visit to west coast
For the first time since his election as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America in July 2002, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman will make an archpastoral visit to OCA communities on the west coast.
Metropolitan Herman is scheduled to arrive in San Francisco, seat of His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco and the West, on Wednesday, July 23. Later that evening, he will visit the city’s historic Holy Trinity Cathedral. The cathedral, which was established in the 1860s, served as the headquarters of the North American diocese during the latter decades of the 19th century.
On Thursday, July 24, Metropolitan Herman will visit Holy Assumption Monastery, Calistoga, CA, where he will be met by Igumen Sergios [Gerken] and pray in the monastery’s beautiful chapel, a replica of California’s oldest Orthodox church building at Fort Ross, CA. While in Calistoga, Metropolitan Herman will call upon the town’s mayor at city hall before departing for an evening visit to the recently-constructed Saint Seraphim Church, Santa Rosa, CA, where he will be welcomed by the Rev. Lawrence Margitich, rector, and the faithful.
On Friday, July 25, Metropolitan Herman will travel to Los Angeles for celebrations marking the 75th Anniversary of the city’s landmark Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral. On Saturday evening, July 26, he will preside at the All-Night Vigil at the cathedral, while on Sunday, July 27, he will celebrate the Divine Liturgy with Bishop Tikhon, after which the anniversary celebration will conclude with a festive banquet.
“There has been an Orthodox presence in California since the early 1800s,” according to the Very Rev. John Matusiak, OCA Communications Director. “It is a little known fact that Saint Innocent Veniaminov, the first ruling bishop of North America, visited the state. During the past two decades, under the guidance of Bishop Tikhon, dozens of new parishes and missions have been established throughout California and the other states which comprise the OCA Diocese of the West.”