NEW YORK: July 11, 2011
The Russian National Awards Commission Gives the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad a Prestigious Award

On Sunday, July 3, 2011, at the end of Divine Liturgy at the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady "of the Sign" in New York, Mr VS Balakirev, representing Russia's National Awards Commission, gave His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, a prestigious award "for his peacemaking and zeal for the triumph of Orthodoxy." As he accepted the award, Vladyka Hilarion expressed his gratitude for the attention to the efforts of the episcopacy, clergy and laity of the Russian Church Abroad, who both in the past and even now strive for unity with its people. Following the veneration of the cross, a brotherly trapeza was offered.