Met. Hilarion celebrates liturgy with OCA pilgrims, clergy

(mospat.ru) - Protopresbyter Daniel Hubiak of the Orthodox Church in America was among those who assisted Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, in celebrating the Divine Liturgy on May 15, 2011, the Sunday of the Paralyzed Man, at the church of Our Lady the Joy to All the Afflicted-at-Ordynka in Moscow.

Among the worshippers was a group of clergy and laity from the Orthodox Church in America who came to Russia for a pilgrimage.

Metropolitan Hilarion warmly welcomed Protopresbyter Daniel and the pilgrims. He shared his remembrances of the time when he together with Father Daniel served in the church of St. Catherine, the Moscow Representation of the Orthodox Church in America. ‘I remember those times with a warm feeling. We, clergy of the church, lived as one family, and every time we came to God’s altar we understood that this God-commanded unity is given us by the Lord Himself. Today you are serving in the American continent where the Orthodox Church carries out her mission in a difficult situation. I wish you and Matushka Evdokia, who is also present here, that the Lord may give you spiritual strength to carry out your pastoral ministry’, he said. To remember his pilgrimage and concelebration, Metropolitan Hilarion gave Father Daniel a painting depicting St. Catherine’s church.