On Sunday, December 7, the feast of St. Catherine the Great-Martyr, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of all America and Canada presided over the Divine Liturgy in St. Catherine Church in Moscow, Russia. 

 On the eve of the parish's patronal feastday and the 20th anniversary of the restarting of liturgical life of St. Catherine’s, His Beatitude Tikhon celebrated the festal All-Night Vigil. 

 The service was conducted in Church Slavonic and English. The entire church was filled with parishioners who came to lift up their prayers to the All-Mighty God and especially the Great-Martyr Catherine. Present in the church was also Canada’s Ambassador to the Russian Federation,Mr. John R. Kur.

Concelebrating at the Divine Liturgy with Metropolitan Tikhon were His Grace, Bishop Alexander of Toledo; His Grace, Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA; clergy of the OCA delegation and parish clergy. 

 After the Reading of the Holy Gospel, Metropolitan Tikhon delivered a sermon. He especially noted the significance of his visit to the Russian Orthodox Church together with the delegation from Orthodox Church in America as a visible sign of communion between the two Churches.

 After the Augmented Litany, a prayer was lifted up for peace in Ukraine.

 At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Tikhon presented the rector and parishioners of St. Catherine’s with an icon of the "Synaxis of the Saints who Shone Forth in North America."

Materials from the DECR Official Website