BELGRADE: 18 June, 2024
A delegation of the Russian Church Abroad visits monasteries of the Serbian Orthodox Church

On Monday, June 17, 2024, a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, headed by His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America and New York, prayed at Divine Liturgy at St Nicholas Cathedral in Sremski Karlovci, Serbia, and bid farewell to His Eminence Metropolitan Vasilije of Srem and His Grace Bishop Irinej of Bačka, then headed first to Žiča and then to Studenica.

In Studenica, His Eminence Metropolitan Mark of Berlin and Germany celebrated Divine Liturgy the following day, co-served by His Grace Bishop Job of Stuttgart and His Grace Bishop Nektarios of London and Britain and Ireland, the brethren of the monastery and members of the delegation. Divine Liturgy was celebrated in the cathedral church of the monastery, in the presence of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign."

Praying and communing of Christ's Holy Mysteries were Metropolitan Nicholas and His Eminence Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America. Upon completion of Liturgy, Metropolitan Nicholas greeted Hegumen Tikhon, who had been elected Bishop of Moravic, and presented him with an icon of the Nun-Martyr Elizabeth.

After refreshing themselves in the monastery refectory and bidding farewell to Hegumen Tikhon, the delegation departed for Manasseh and Milkovo. In the latter, the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God and Metropolitan Nicholas were solemnly greeted along with the archpastors accompanying him.

Meeting the miraculous icon, the local clergy performed vespers with an akathist in front of a large gathering of people. At the end of the service, Vladyka Nicholas addressed the worshippers with an edifying sermon, during which he recalled that the hierarchs venerated in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia were tonsured at the Vvedensky Milkovo Monastery: St John (Maximovich), Archbishop Tikhon (Troitsky), Archbishop Anthony (Sinkevich), Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev) and the Bartoshevich brothers: Archbishop Anthony and Bishop Leonty.

Then, as a souvenir of his visit to the wonderworking icon, Metropolitan Nicholas presented the abbess of the convent with and embroidered case that once adorned the Kursk-Root Icon. After this, the members of the delegation venerated the burial place of Schema-Archimandrite Ambrose (Kurganov), the late abbot of the monastery, about whom Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev) wrote a brochure entitled "The Young Elder."

Late in the evening, the delegation returned to Belgrade.