Department for External Church Relations
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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and Primate of Orthodox Church in America hold telephone conversation
On December 21, 2020, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia spoke on the phone with His Beatitude Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.
The Primates exchanged greetings on the occasion of the upcoming feast of the Nativity of Christ, which the Orthodox Church in America will celebrate on December 25, according to the Revised Julian calendar.
During the conversation, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill shared with His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon warm memories of his visits to America, including Alaska.
As His Holiness noted, the year 2020 marks a jubilee: fifty years ago, on April 10, 1970, Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow and All Russia, of blessed memory, signed the Tomos of Autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America.
His Holiness Patriarch Kirill invited His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon to visit Russia when the sanitary and epidemiological situation allows it.
Having expressed condolences over the demise of the former OCA Primate, Metropolitan Theodosius (Lazor), who fell asleep in the Lord on October 19, 2020, the Primate of the Russian Church shared recollections of his meetings with Metropolitan Theodosius over the years. His Holiness also offered condolences to His Beatitude Tikhon over one more loss that had befallen the Orthodox Church in America: Archbishop David of Sitka and Alaska passed away in November 2020. His Holiness mentioned, in particular, that this hierarch had been among those accompanying His Beatitude Tikhon on his visit to Moscow in 2019.
His Beatitude Tikhon expressed condolences over the demise of Metropolitan Feofan of Kazan and Tatarstan, with whom he had been personally acquainted.
During the conversation, His Holiness Kirill noted with gratitude the position of the Synod of the Orthodox Church in America on the situation in Ukraine.
The Primates discussed how the Russian Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Church in America were coping with the restrictions caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Among other issues raised during the conversation was the completion of restoration works at the Church of St.Catherine the Great Martyr in-the-Fields – the OCA Representation in Moscow.
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