OCA clerics attend services marking reunification of ROCOR, Moscow Patriarchate
Archimandrite Zacchaeus, dean of the Orthodox Church in America’s Representation Church of the Great Martyr Catherine here, and the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, director of the OCA Department of External Affairs and Interchurch Relations, attended the Patriarchal Divine Liturgy marking the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and the Moscow Patriarchate at Christ the Savior Cathedral here on the Great Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord, May 17, 2007.
Prior to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Rus and His Eminence, Metropolitan Laurus, ROCOR First Hierarch, signed the Act of Canonical Communion effecting the long-awaited reunification.
Also in attendance at the Divine Liturgy and the festal banquet that followed were the representatives of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches to the Moscow Patriarchate which, in addition to Archimandrite Zacchaeus, included His Grace, Bishop Afanasy, Patriarchate of Alexandria; His Grace, Bishop Niphon, Patriarchate of Antioch; Archimandrite Ignaty, Patriarchate of Bulgaria; and the Very Rev. Alexei Yuschenko, the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
In related news, on the Sunday after the Great Feast of the Ascension, May 20, the Very Rev. Archpriest Vladimir Boikov, rector of Holy Resurrection Church and dean of the ROCOR New Zealand Deanery, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with Archimandrite Zacchaeus and the parish clergy.
“This joyous occasion of concelebrating the Divine Liturgy was made possible thanks to the long-awaited reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad with the Moscow Patriarchate, which took place at Christ the Savior Cathedral on the Feast of Ascension with the signing of the Act of Canonical Communion by His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy II of Moscow and All Rus and His Eminence, Metropolitan Laurus of Eastern America and New York,” said Archimandrite Zacchaeus.
Following the Divine Liturgy, a Service of Thanksgiving was celebrated before an icon containing the holy relics of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco. The relics had recently been presented to Saint Catherine Church by His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco [ROCOR].