Russian Church Abroad Postpones Centennial Events Until 2021 - Bishop

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2020) The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) decided to postpone major centennial events until next year due to the global pandemic, Bishop of Manhattan Nicholas (Olhovsky) told Sputnik.

"2020 is the jubilee year for the ROCOR, but in light of the pandemic, we have had to postpone all of the wonderful services and events that were planned for this year in Germany and in the US, including California and New York," the bishop said.

The church accepted current conditions and decided to postpone all events to the following year, combining them with the centennial of the first All-Diaspora Council, which took place in Yugoslavia in 1921, he added.

"In conjunction we will celebrate these two milestones in a life of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia next year. There are not specific dates, but God willing there will be services and special events after Pascha, possibly in the summer time, and of course in the fall and winter," the bishop said.

ROCOR hierarchs, priests and flock may visit Belgrade, Serbia, to pray at the churches and monasteries where the Russian immigration was welcomed and given a home by the Serbian Patriarchate 100 years ago, he added.

The church is currently looking forward to the upcoming 725-year anniversary of the appearance of one of the major Russian relics - the Kursk Root Icon of Mother of God, bishop Nicholas said. The major celebration will take place at the feast day on December 10 in New York at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Sign - the home of the icon during the last almost 70 years, he added.

The bishop expressed hope that the church will resume the icon's visits to Russia after the pandemic.

"Sadly, this year, because of the COVID-19 and various restrictions on travel and on gatherings in public all over the world, the Kursk icon was in our Synod in New York and visited just some very local parishes," he said. "We can only pray that in the future we will try to continue this wonderful tradition of having the Kursk icon visit Kursk and possibly other cities in Russia in the future."

The Kursk icon left Russia with the White emigres in 1920 and became the major relic of the Russian diaspora. It began visiting Russia in 2009, two years after of the unification of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Church Outside of Russia.