NEW YORK: June 23, 2014
Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, departs for San Francisco

On Monday, June 23, 2014, the feast day of St John, Metropolitan of Tobolsk, the great ancestor of St John of Shanghai and San Francisco the Miracle-worker, who is the heavenly intercessor of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, departed for San Francisco, where he will officiate at a regular meeting of the Council of Bishops.

The Council will convene on Tuesday, June 24, 2014, beginning with a moleben performed in St Tikhon of Zadonsk Church in the former residence of St John of Shanghai when he was Ruling Bishop of San Francisco, which now houses the headquarters of the diocese. The late holy hierarch lived here in a modest room and celebrated Divine Liturgy every day at the small, ground-floor chapel. Thousands of pilgrims visit the monastic cell from all over the world, and also venerate the relics of St John, which are kept in the city's cathedral.

The Council will be held in the second-floor library of Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev, +2000), the successor of St John as ruler of the Western American Diocese.

The Council will conclude on July 1.