Delegation of the Archdiocese of Orthodox parishes of Russian tradition in Western Europe visits Donskoy Monastery
A delegation of the Archdiocese of Orthodox parishes of Russian tradition in Western Europe led by Archbishop John of Dubna arrived in Moscow on November 1 to take part in the celebration of its reunification with the Russian Orthodox Church due to take place on November 2-4, 2019.
The delegation consists of over 100 persons plus invited guests. They are descendants of the émigrés of the first wave, Russian displaced persons, émigrés of the last decades from the republics of the former USSR, as well as persons native to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain, Romania, Poland and Serbia.
On November 2, members of the delegation visited the Donskoy Monastery. They were accompanied by Metropolitan Antony of Korsun and Western Europe, Exarch of Western Europe and head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administration for Institutions Abroad; Bishop Savva of Zelenograd, deputy chancellor of the Moscow Patriarchate; and Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations.
Bishop Foma of Bronnitsy, abbot of the monastery, delivered a welcome speech.
Archbishop John thanked him and the brethren and expressed his joy for the return to the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Bishops and clerics celebrated a thanksgiving moleben at the shrine with the relics of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, by whose decision the parishes in Western Europe were combined in one administration in 1921.