Metropolitan Herman celebrates 75th birthday

SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] — February 1, 2007 marks the 75th birthday of the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman.

A native of Pennsylvania, Metropolitan Herman has served the Orthodox Church in America in numerous capacities throughout his life. After his election and consecration to the episcopacy in the early 1970s, he served as auxiliary to His Eminence, the late Archbishop Kiprian [Borisevich], whom he succeeded as Bishop and later Archbishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania.

In 2002, he was elected the Church’s Primate, succeeding His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, upon his retirement.

Among the numerous birthday greetings received by Metropolitan Herman was the following from His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksy of Moscow and All Rus.

“The importance of the Orthodox unity is becoming increasingly clear for all the Orthodox across the American continent,” Patriarch Aleksy’s greeting reads in part. “The Church under your primacy successfully carries on the missionary endeavour of our common great predecessors, Saint Innocent of Moscow and Saint Tikhon of Moscow.”

The greeting goes on to express the hope that “the bonds of fraternal love would continue to tie our Churches and their Primates, clearly witnessing to our prayerful and eucharistic communion in faith and hope.”

We wish Metropolitan Herman health, peace, and every blessing on his 75th birthday, imploring Our Lord to grant him many, many years of ministry in the vineyard of Our Lord.