Enthronement of Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada
On January 27, 2013, His Beatitude Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, was enthroned as the 6th Primate of the Orthodox Church in America elected on November 13, 2012 at the 17th All-American Council in Parma, Ohio. The enthronement took place at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington.
During the Divine Liturgy, which accompanied the enthronement rite, His Beatitude Tikhon was assisted by hierarchs of the Orthodox Church in America, as well as Bishop Nicholas of Brooklyn (Patriarchate of Antioch), Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA; Bishop George of Mayfield (Russian Church Outside Russia), and Metropolitan Dmitry of Batumi and Lazeti (Georgian Orthodox Church).
After the Divine Liturgy, Archbishop Justinian conveyed to His Beatitude Tikhon greetings and congratulations from His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. He pointed to the close spiritual bonds existing between the Moscow Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church in America, which granted autocephaly to the latter in 1970, and stressed that ‘today, all the plentitude of the Russian Orthodox Church prays for, empathizes, and rejoices in the Lord with its beloved sister, the Orthodox Church in America’.
Archbishop Justinian presented Metropolitan Tikhon with an icon and relics of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. The name of this saint was the monastic name of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow, heavenly patron of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of All America and Canada.
In his response, Metropolitan Tikhon expressed profound gratitude to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia and to the whole Russian Orthodox Church, asking ‘to convey to His Holiness our mutual love and respect and our commitment to preserve those special relationships that are shared between us for many years’.
DECR Communication Service
Photos from the website of the Orthodox Church in America