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With the blessing of His Eminence Hilarion, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, His Grace George, the bishop of Canberra paid a pastoral visit to Russian Orthodox churches in New Zeland.

The first city he visited was Auckland, as the Russian church in Auckland celebrated its dedication day on the first Sunday after Easter.

On April, 22, 2017, Vladyka George held a night service in Serbian Orthodox church (the Russian Orthodox church has room for no more than 30 people). Several priests took part in the service:

archpriest Vladimir Boykov, the rector of the church of the Resurrection of Christ in Auckland, the dean of the Russian Orthodox churches in New Zealand;

father Alexey Popkov, from Wellington;

father Alexander Skorik and hierodeacon Pantaleon (Zhygalin) from Auckland.

Abour 80 people attended the service. At the end of the matins, Vladyka gave his blessing to all.

The following morning, bishop George served a Divine Liturgy at the same church. The rector of the Serbian church father [простите, я не нашла, как переводмится “протонаместник”] Savva Antych joined the service. After the service Vladyka, priests and all the people went to Russian cemetery where a memorial service was held and the place of future burials of Russian Orthodox people was blessed. Afterwards, everyone joined a festive lunch in the hall on the territory of the cemetery. After lunch, Vladyka had a conversation with some of the parishioners. This concluded his visit to Auckland.

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