Wednesday, April 3, marked the final day of the Northern Lenten Retreat for clergy of the Eastern American Diocese and the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. The retreat concluded with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, led by the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion. The First Hierarch was concelebrated by His Grace, Bishop George, and retreat participants. During the Little Entrance, Priest Job Watts (rector of St. Nektarios Church in Lenoir City, TN) was awarded the kamilavka.

The Liturgy was an expression of the spiritual unity that has dwelt among the clergy, and is characteristic of past lenten retreats in the Diocese. "Our unity as the Body of Christ is manifested when we partake of the one Holy Bread," said Fr. Job. "That unity is the basis from which everything else flows. Roundtable discussions and lectures will bring us no benefit if we are not mystically tied together through the Holy Bread."

Archpriest Mark Shinn (rector of St. Andrew’s Patriarchal Cathedral in Philadelphia, PA) echoed his sentiments: "Love reigns at the altar table. Prior to communing, we embrace one another with the words, ‘Christ is in our midst – He is and ever shall be.’ One cannot imagine the Church without this understanding of love and unity, centered on the Holy Eucharist. It is the living incarnation of what it means to be the Church."

After the Liturgy, a farewell luncheon was held in the monastery refectory, followed by an akathist in the main cathedral to St. Luke, the Surgeon of Simferopol, before a piece of his holy relics. The Northern Clergy Retreat thus concluded, and participants departed to their home parishes, spiritually energized for the remainder of the Fast.

Source : http://www.eadiocese.org