Your Graces Brother-Archpastors, Honorable Fathers,
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in the Lord!

I sincerely greet you with the 725th Anniversary of the appearance of the miraculous Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God of the “Sign,” and with the Centennial of the founding of the Higher Church Administration Abroad, which later was transformed into the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Church Abroad. We are not marking the events that destroyed all the foundations of Pre-Revolutionary Russia, and which hit extremely hard on our dear Mother – the Local Russian Orthodox Church – having pushed Her, together with the whole country, onto a path of great suffering, repression, martyrdom and confession. Rather, we raise up gratitude to God, Who has preserved us under the shelter of our precious Orthodox Faith, in the traditions of the glorious Russian Church. We bow down before the memory of those ascetics,...

Oregon Governor Kate Brown has invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act as wildfires continue to spread throughout the state.

There are at least 35 active fires, with more than 368,029 acres burning in the state, according to the Oregon Office of Emergency Management.

Parishes in the Northern Deanery of the Western American Diocese in Oregon are at risk of succumbing to the fires...