Metropolitan Hilarion extends condolences over the death of Archbishop John of Presev, Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, has sent the following message to His Beatitude Archbishop Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, expressing condolences over the death of Archbishop John of Presev:

Your Beatitude,

I have been grieved to learn about the demise of His Eminence John, Archbishop of Presev.

Kindly accept my profound condolences to Your Beatitude and the fellow archpastors of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia which in the person of His Eminence John has lost an prominent hierarch who was sincerely loved by the Orthodox clergy and all the people of God in the land where Sts Cyril and Methodius Equal-to-the-Apostles used to preach.

The late hierarch has done much to cement the status of the Orthodox Church in Slovakia. A monk tonsured in St Sergius’s Monastery of the Holy Trinity, he always remained a friend of the Russian Orthodox Church. Last December, I visited the Diocese of Presev and was delighted to talk with His Eminence. His death has become a sorrowful loss for me too.

May the Lord Jesus Chris the Chief Pastor give rest to the soul of the late Archbishop John in the dwellings of the righteous.

Eternal memory be to him!

Metropolitan of Volokolamsk

Chairman

Department for External Church Relations

Moscow Patriarchate