The Grand Duchess Bestows the Order of St. Alexander Nevskii on Metropolitan Lavr

By a decree issued on 13 August 2007, and with the blessing of His Holiness, Patriarch Aleksei II of Moscow and All Russia, the Head of the Russian Imperial House, H.I.H. Grand Duchess Maria Vladimirovna, bestowed the Order of St. Alexander Nevskii on the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan Lavr of Eastern America and New York, for his many labors to bring about the unification of the Russian Orthodox Church, for his services to Russia and for his countrymen abroad, and in honor of the 40-th anniversary of his ordination to the episcopacy.

The ceremony took place on 3 September at Jordanville, New York, and was the fitting conclusion to the festive celebrations of the 40-th anniversary of the metropolitan’s ordination. At the conclusion of the celebratory reception, one of the most senior clergymen of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Archpriest Alexander Lebedev, who was coordinating the function, read the decree of the Head of the Russian Imperial House, after which a member of the official delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate, His Eminence Metropolitan Onufrii of Chernovitsa and Bukovina, bestowed upon Metropolitan Lavr the devices of the Order.