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On October 25, 2019, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate department for external church relations (DECR), while on a visit to the United States visited the synodal residence of the Russian Church Outside Russia – the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign in New York, in which he venerated the main shrine of the Russian Diaspora – the miracle-working Kursk Root Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos ‘the Sign’.

His Eminence was welcomed by Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan on behalf of the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Outside Russia Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York.

The two hierarchs continued their talk at a tea party. Taking part in the meeting were also Archpriest Seraphim Gan, secretary of the ROCOR Synod; Archpriest Andrew Sommer, ecclesiarch of the cathedral; Hegumen Nikodim (Balyasnikov), a cleric of the Patriarchal Cathedral in New York; and Sub-deacon Vyacheslav Li, who accompanied the DECR chairman.

In memory of the visit to the Synodal Cathedral, Bishop Nicholas presented Metropolitan Hilarion with a copy of the Icon of the Synaxis of New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, which was painted in 1981.

DECR Communication Service