NEW YORK: November 21, 2020
His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York sends condolences to the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church on the repose of His Holiness Patriarch Irinej

To the Holy Synod of the
Serbian Orthodox Church.

Your Eminences, Your Graces, Beloved Brethren Archpastors:

Having learned of the repose of His Holiness Patriarch Irinej, we empathize with you all, and hastened to church with a special urgency and performed commemoration during Divine Liturgy celebrated today at the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady “of the Sign” in New York on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Our church at the time received a warm canonical welcome on the territory of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Therefore, it is especially significant for us that the Lord called His Holiness to Himself on this “chosen and holy day,” reminding us of our fraternal bonds, uniting our Churches, our peoples.

His Holiness Patriarch Irinej was a most worthy successor of the Primates of Serbia, worthily laboring and selflessly performing the work of God in the Serbian land, always lovingly supporting also the fraternal Russian Orthodox Church. Today the thoughts and prayers of the Fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia are with the archpastors, pastors, monastics and the entire God-preserved nation of the great Saint Savva! Praying before the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God "of the Sign,” we ask the help of the Queen of Heaven for all in these sorrowful days!

With brotherly love in the Lord,

+HILARION,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

20 November 2020