On September 11 (n.s.), the Orthodox Church commemorates the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord. On Friday the 10th and Saturday the 11th of September, the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, arrived in the capital of the United States and led the divine services in St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, DC, on the occasion of the patronal feast day. The Metropolitan was co-served by His Eminence Justinian, Archbishop of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, His Grace George, Bishop of Mayfield, and a multitude of clergy, in the presence of a multitude of the faithful.

The divine services proceeded under the grace-filled aegis of the myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God "Softener of Evil Hearts." Over the course of all the services, the priests confessed the many faithful who wished to cleanse themselves from every defilement and soften their hearts. Two choirs sang – the Slavonic, directed by Y.A. Petcherkin, and the English, directed by Jared Brewer.

On Saturday morning, His Excellency, Sergey I. Kislyak, Ambassador Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation, his spouse Natalya, and the Russian Federation embassy’s Cultural Attaché, Dr. Vyacheslav V. Moshkalo, joined the faithful in prayer in the packed church. During the Small Entrance, Metropolitan Hilarion elevated parish cleric Priest Vasiliy Raskovskiy to the rank of archpriest. After the Eucharistic Canon, His Eminence ordained Subdeacon John Dean to the diaconate.

In his sermon before Holy Communion, Archbishop Justinian delivered a sermon to the parishioners in which he drew a parallel between the event in the Gospel being that day commemorated and the recent history of our Church, saying in part: "After John the Forerunner, pointing to Christ, who came to be baptized by him in the Jordan, said, 'Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. He must increase, but I must decrease,' many of his followers became disciples of Christ. But there remained also those who did not listen to the voice of their teacher, and wished as before to see in him instead the promised Messiah. These people are well known in Church history as the Johannite sect. Although the Johannites no longer exist today, there are clergy and laymen akin to them, who did not heed the wise and universal voice of the Church and of their hierarchy, and who to this day do not recognize the reunification of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russian and the Mother Church. We are sincerely sorry for them and pray for them, that they might recognize their error and enter into union with the Fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church."

Upon completion of the procession, a memorial litiya was served for the repose of the cathedral’s founders and benefactors, for all of those who had laid down their lives for God and country, and for the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. After the procession, before reentering the church, Metropolitan Hilarion performed the blessing of a bronze memorial icon to St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, which had been fashioned by sculptor G.V. Pototsky.

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese

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