Greetings of His Beatitude, Metropolitan HERMAN to the Faculty and Students of the Theological Academy, Sergiev Posad
Your Eminence, Most Reverend EVGENY, Honorable Rector of this esteemed Academy and Seminary, (Your Grace, Right Reverend THEOGNOST, Bishop of Sergiev Posad), Esteemed Faculty, and Beloved Students:
Christ is risen!
I wish to thank you for your warm greeting and gracious hospitality, especially at this busy time of the year when you are preparing for your examinations. It is a great blessing for me to be able to spend this time with you and to pray at this most holy Lavra once again, as I have done so many times in the past. My visit today, however, comes nearly one year after my election as Primate of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America. As such, I welcome the opportunity to pray before the holy relics of our Father among the Saints, Sergius of Radonezh. And I am especially thankful to have the opportunity to pray before the holy relics of our Father among the Saints, Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow and Apostle to America, who is so beloved by our faithful in North America, and to ask his intercession before the Throne of Glory as I minister to the same flock entrusted to his care over 150 years ago.
It was in the early 1800s that Saint Innocent, as a young priest and later as a bishop, left Holy Russia to begin his ministry in Alaska. Despite the rigors of day-to-day life in a remote and largely unknown corner of the world, he labored with the same "burning zeal" which filled the Prophet Elias and prompted the apostles, on the great day of Pentecost, to proclaim the Gospel to all who would receive it, even to the ends of the earth.
It is precisely in the "burning zeal" with which Saint Innocent, and countless other missionaries, pursued their ministries, that we find a model and example for our own labors in the vineyard of Our Lord. And it is in this common ministry -- of proclaiming a changeless Christ in a constantly changing world -- that all Orthodox Christians, whether in Russia or North America or the Middle East or Africa, find the "bond of unity in faith," the "syndesmos," of which Saint Paul writes.
North America has changed a great deal since the days of Saint Innocent, and the Orthodox Church in America, despite the many challenges it faces in a highly secularized society, continues to grow and embrace all who seek Truth. During my years of service as a bishop and archbishop and since my election as Primate of the Church in July of last year, I have had the joy of ordaining many dedicated men to the holy diaconate and priesthood, of consecrating and witnessing the consecration of numerous newly-constructed churches in all the dioceses of the Orthodox Church in America, of presiding at gatherings of our clergy, faithful, and youth, and of witnessing the establishment of many new parishes and missions, many of which serve the spiritual needs of those who have recently immigrated to the United States and Canada from central and eastern Europe and the Middle East. I recently presided at commencement ceremonies at two of our seminaries, and I was overcome with joy as I conferred degrees upon those destined to lead our Church well into the future. Indeed, the seeds planted by Saint Innocent and the early missionaries to North America continue to bear much fruit, and the holy prayers they offer on our behalf continue to help and inspire us in our witness to the Gospel and service to God's People.
Another cause for great joy and common celebration between the Orthodox faithful of North America and Russia is the impending return of the wonderworking icon of Our Lady of Tikhvin. After World War II, the icon was brought to America by Bishop John of Riga, who later became the Archbishop of Chicago. For over 50 years, countless Orthodox Christians from across North America have sought spiritual refreshment and reassurance from the Mother of God before her most holy icon, which had been enshrined in Holy Trinity Cathedral -- the very cathedral built exactly 100 years ago under the direction of Saint Tikhon of Moscow, who at that time served as Archbishop of North America, and Saint John Kochurov, the cathedral's rector. As the icon's guardian, Archbishop John longed for the day when conditions would make it possible for the icon to be enshrined once again in its beloved monastery in Tikhvin, where it had been venerated by countless Orthodox Christians since the late 14th century. Last week, during the annual pilgrimage to Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk Monastery in Pennsylvania - (Saint Tikhon of Moscow also established this monastery, North America's oldest) - thousands of Orthodox Christians prayed and were anointed before the miraculous icon before it begins its "journey home." How moving it was to gaze into the faces of the faithful, who with deep faith and love sought the Mother of God's intercession! What a wonderful reminder this was of all that we, as Orthodox Christians from Russia and North America, share in common!
While the history of the Orthodox Church in America is intimately tied to that of its spiritual Mother, the Russian Orthodox Church, it is in our common witness to the Gospel and our mutual commitment to teach and baptize all nations, that we find our essential unity in serving others, in feeding the spiritually hungry, and in quenching the thirst of those who, like the Samaritan woman, yearn for that "Living Water" which, as Saint Irenaeus reminds us, is the Holy Spirit Himself. While, from one perspective, we live in two different worlds, our "true home," the Kingdom of God fully present in the Body of Christ, the Church, transcends the "different worlds" in which we labor and live. Our common spiritual heritage, of which Saint Innocent and the wonderworking Tikhvin icon of the Mother of God are but two examples, must be our primary focus, for while the world's "categories" may lead us to disunity, that which we share-the fullness of Truth which has guided the People of God for 2000 years-not only unites us to one another, but unites us to the Most Holy Trinity Itself, the very image of unity in love. Orthodox Christians, regardless of where God has called them to minister in this world, share the same calling-to be the "salt of the earth" and "lights to the world." The Evil One continually seeks to deceive and divide us, but our "saltiness" has the power to wound and sting him, and the Light of Christ with which we are called to shine brightly, has the power to blind and, ultimately, destroy him. May we never forget the priestly prayer of Our Lord on the eve of His ultimate encounter with evil - "May they all be one, even as we are one" - and may His prayer forever remain on our lips and in our hearts as we struggle to strengthen His Holy Church in the diverse places He has planted us.
My dearly beloved ones in the Lord: It is with deep gratitude that I thank you for the honor of sharing this time with you, brief yet enriching as it is. I am grateful that, despite his current physical ailments, His Holiness, Patriarch ALEKSY, my beloved brother and concelebrant in Christ, has found the strength to discuss initial preparations for the return of the wonderworking Tikhvin icon and to consult on other important matters, and I assure you that the faithful of the Orthodox Church in America are praying for His Holiness with great fervor and concern, that the Lord God will restore his health fully. And I am grateful to God for the opportunity to look into your faces, as I looked into the faces of our own seminarians last week, and to see the zeal and devotion which I pray you will use to lead the Church of Russia now and in the decades to come. As you continue to study Scripture, the writings of the Holy Fathers, the lives of the saints, and the history of the Church, and as you continue to celebrate and partake of the Holy Mysteries, so essential to the health of our souls, never forget the bonds which unite us as Orthodox Christians. Pray for your Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters in North America, and be assured of our prayers as well. And above all, wage spiritual warfare against every temptation to place the ways of this world above Jesus Christ, Who is the only "Way" to the eternal Kingdom of His Heavenly Father!
May Our Lord, Jesus Christ, through the prayers of His most Holy Mother and of our Fathers among the Saints Innocent and Tikhon, bless you abundantly now and in your future service to God and His People!
