Metropolitan Herman to be Honored at Celebration of 40th Anniversary of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications]—His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, will be honored on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his ordination to the Holy Priesthod on Tuesday, October 19, 2004.

The celebration will begin at 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning, at which time Metropolitan Herman and the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America will celebrate the Divine Liturgy at Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Church, Saint Tikhon Monastery, South Canaan, PA. Concelebrating with Metropolitan Herman will be His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania; His Eminence, Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas and the South; His Eminence, Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit; His Eminence, Archbishop Job of Chicago and the Midwest; His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of San Francisco and the West; His Grace, Bishop Nikolai of Sitka, Anchorage and Alaska; His Grace, Bishop Nikon of Boston; His Grace, Bishop Irineu of Dearborn Heights; His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of South Canaan; and His Grace, Bishop Benjamin of Berkeley.

Also concelebrating at the Divine Liturgy will be His Eminence, Archbishop Nicolozi of the Orthodox Church of the Republic of Georgia; His Grace, Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; and His Grace, Bishop Mercurius of the Patriarchal parishes in the USA.

Numerous clergy, including Protopresbyter Robert Kondratick, OCA Chancellor; and the Very Revs. Daniel Donlick, Paul Lazor, Michael Dahulich, Constantine White, and David Brum, will also concelebrate.

Following the Liturgy, a Service of Thanksgiving will be celebrated by Archbishop Kyrill and the hierarchs, at which time special prayers for Metropolitan Herman will be offered.

At 1:00 p.m. a buffet luncheon will be served at Saint Tikhon Seminary, adjacent to the monastery.

At 6:00 p.m. a banquet will be held at Genetti’s Conference Center, 77 E Market St., Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701-3116. Banquet guests will greet Metropolitan Herman as they enter, after which dinner will be held. Toastmaster for the evening will be Protopresbyter Robert Kondratick, while the keynote banquet address will be delivered by Archbishop Kyrill. Numerous presentations will also be made before the conclusion of the banquet.

Metropolitan Herman was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by the late Archbishop Kiprian of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania in 1964. In July 2002, after serving as Bishop and later Archbishop of Eastern Pennsylvania, he was elected Primate of the Orthodox Church in America at the Church’s 13th All-American Council in Orlando, FL.