Message of Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, Temporary Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and Canada, to the Clergy and Parishioners of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and Canada on the 45th Anniversary of the Repose of Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov)
Beloved fathers in the Lord, dear brothers and sisters!
September 5, 2023, marks 45 years since the repose of the founder and first Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Canada and Mexico, the ever-memorable Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov).
The mission of the Russian Orthodox Church on the North American continent has a history of more than 230 years. Orthodox believers in America today prayerfully honor with love and gratitude the memory of all who labored for Holy Orthodoxy on American soil: hierarchs, clergy and church servers, leaders and members of Parish Councils, choir directors and singers, Sunday School teachers, members of brotherhoods and sisterhoods. But the Church remembers that only thanks to the efforts of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Nikodim, in a difficult period of time, was a new page written in the history of Orthodoxy in the New World. The Exarch made tremendous efforts to restore the God-ordained unity of the Holy Church on the North American continent, while at the same time becoming the founder and first administrator of new church districts — the Patriarchal Parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in the USA, Canada and Mexico. On April 10, 1970, the Orthodox Church in America was granted the Tomos of Autocephaly, and the work of the Russian Church in the countries of North America was given a new canonical status. Eternal and grateful memory of the labors of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Nikodim is preserved in the hearts of the faithful in America.
One of the clearest testimonies to the talents and stature in history of this truly outstanding man of the Church is the fact that the Primate of our Church is the closest disciple and associate of Metropolitan Nikodim — His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus’.
I call on all of you, together with His Holiness, to prayerfully honor the memory of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Nikodim on September 5 or on the nearest liturgical day with prayer at the Divine Liturgy and a panikhida, devoting attention in the sermon to the life path of this outstanding hierarch and man of the Church and his role in the history of Orthodoxy in North America.
Invoking God’s blessing upon you,
+MATTHEW
Bishop of Sourozh
Temporary Administrator
of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and Canada