Administrator of the patriarchal parishes in the USA visits the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Bishop Mercury of Zaraisk, Administrator of patriarchal parishes in the USA, visited the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in New York on its patronal feast on December 10, 2006. The visit was taken on the invitation of the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Metropolitan Laurus. Bishop Mercury attended the Divine Liturgy and a prayer service before the miraculous icon and then addressed the participants at the festival dinner.

Bishop Mercury reminded the words of the church hymn sung on the feast of Our Lady of the Sign: ‘Rejoice, giving us the sign of thy mercy!’ Bishop Mercury believes that peace, accord, and kind heart are the signs of the mercy given by the Mother of God. ‘We did not have a chance to meet and communicate with each other in the past and it points out to a tragic mistake of Russian people’, the administrator said. ‘When there are disputes in a family, the voice of the mother becomes decisive. The Mother of God has power and authority to unite us in the Church’.

Bishop Mercury greeted Metropolitan Laurus and his concelebrants on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia and presented the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign with an icon of St. Nicholas.

Rev. Alexander Abramov, Secretary of the MP Representation in the USA, accompanied Bishop Mercury during his visit to the Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

A group of pilgrims from the parish of the Holy Trinity in Toronto (Canada), which is one of the biggest parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, visited the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. Nicholas in New York on the same day.