Uniter

The head of the Russian Church Abroad died on the day of the Triumph of Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Laurus, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, who died last Sunday, will be buried in the New York suburb of Jordanville, in the Holy Trinity Monastery - the center of Russian Orthodoxy abroad, of which Bishop Laurus was rector for many years. It is significant that the funeral service for Bishop Laurus, which will take place on Friday, will be conducted by a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate - Metropolitan Juvenaly of Krutitsky and Kolomna.

The First Hierarch of the ROCOR, whose name is associated with the restoration of the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church (we recall that on May 17 last year, Metropolitan Laurus and Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II signed the Act on the canonical communion of “abroad” and the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate), died at the age of 81 life, on the holiday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy. On the day when priests and laity are glorified who have served to strengthen the faith and the Church of Christ. “On the day of remembrance of Saint Prince Daniel of Moscow, we performed a funeral prayer for the repose of his soul,” the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church said yesterday. — These days we will prayerfully remember him and thank him for contributing to the reunification of the Russian Church Abroad with the Mother Church. I think he wrote his name in the history of the Russian Orthodox Church, and his memory forever. Eternal and grateful memory to him.”

The leaders of traditional Russian faiths - representatives of the Council of Muftis of Russia and the Chief Rabbi of Russia Berl Lazar, expressed their condolences in connection with the death of Metropolitan Laurus, who emphasized that the activities of the First Hierarch of the ROCOR brought “good for our entire multinational and multi-confessional Russia.”

Vladimir Putin also conveyed a message of condolences to the Patriarch. On September 23, 2003, during a meeting with Bishop Laurus and members of the ROCOR Synod of Bishops in the New York Consulate General of Russia, it was the president who handed over to the first hierarch of the foreign church a letter from Alexy II with an offer to visit Moscow.

Metropolitan Laurus, in the world Vasily Mikhailovich Shkurla, was born on New Year's Day - January 1, 1928 in the small village of Ladomirova, near the Slovak city of Svidnik. In 1939 he joined the brethren of the Orthodox Pochaev Monastery; in 1946, when the monastery was forced to move to the USA, Monk Laurus accepted American citizenship. In 1967, he was consecrated Bishop of Manhattan, Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese and appointed Secretary of the ROCOR Synod of Bishops. At the council on October 17-27, 2001, he was elected First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York.

Less than a month before his death, the first hierarch of the foreign church took part in the XII World Russian People's Council held in the Kremlin and met with teachers and students of St. Tikhon's Orthodox University. “Love for our common history inspires and strengthens the relationships of the faithful children of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Fatherland and in the diaspora, and I believe that truly fraternal cooperation and friendly relations will continue to determine the ties that unite us, bringing multi-useful results,” he admonished of the participants of that meeting, Bishop Laurus.

Mikhail MOSHKIN