On Friday, June 14, a joint session of the synods of the Serbian Church and the Russian Church Abroad was held in Sremski Karlovci under the chairmanship of His Holiness Porfirije, Patriarch of Serbia. The solemn meeting was attended by Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, and the Right Reverend members of the Holy Synods of Bishops of both Churches.

After a prayer and the opening greetings of His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije, His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas delivered an address, at the end of which His Eminence awarded His Holiness the Synodal Order of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, 1st Class, as well as an icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, depicting with Sts. John of Shanghai and Jonah of Hankow, as well as New Martyrs, Confessors, and ascetics of the Russian Diaspora, written for the centenary of the Russian Church Abroad, and a commemorative panagia.

A discussion then took place on a wide range of topics relating to inter-Orthodox relations and a number of other issues of mutual interest. At the end of the meeting, His Holiness presented commemorative gifts to the members of the delegation, after which lunch was offered at the seminary refectory in Sremski Karlovci.

That evening, the delegation of the Russian Church Abroad led by Metropolitan Nicholas visited the monasteries of Grgeteg and Novo Hopovo, once among the most important spiritual centers of the Russian emigration. In the latter, members of the delegation venerated the relics of the Holy Great-Martyr Theodore the Tyro and prayed at the grave of the ever-memorable Abbess Catherine (Efimovskaya), founder of the Convent of the Nativity of Our Lady in Lesna, France.

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