Met. Nicholas Issues Statement on Visit to Washington

Met. Nicholas. Photo: fundforassistance.org

NOV. 21, 2025 — Met. Nicholas, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), has shed additional light on recent meetings held in Washington, D.C. and pushed back against media narratives attacking these meetings in an official statement released today.

His Eminence spent part of this week on Capitol Hill as part of a pan-Orthodox delegation advocating for religious freedom in Ukraine and recognition of the plight of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). Clergy and laity from the Antiochian, Serbian, Orthodox Church in America (OCA), and Greek jurisdictions also joined the trip.

He shares that the delegation, under the auspices of the Society of Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, met with several U.S. officials, including Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna, Congressman Darrell Issa, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, and former Congressman Mark Walker, the Trump nominee for Ambassador At-Large for International Religious Freedom. Another portion of the delegation spoke with Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi.

"It is a pity that our visits coincided with a media article that so misrepresented all our Churches, attempting to cast Orthodoxy in a negative light; but we were grateful that the actual reception we had by our political leaders in Washington was warm, filled with a desire for understanding and an awareness of our shared wish to work together for peace," he said. "The freedom to pray and to act in accordance with God’s commandments is something we highly prize as citizens of the world’s pre-eminent democracy and it is a gift that we believe the whole world should share."

He added that this gift of liberty is something his own family sought when fleeing the oppression of the Soviet Union and immigrating to America.

"Naturally, as Orthodox Christians it is our particular responsibility to advocate for those who are members of our own household of Faith," the hierarch stated. "We therefore seek to ease the pressures and hostile actions being directed against our brothers and sisters in Christ who belong to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, including the forced closure of their churches and violence directed against their clergy and people. The government of Ukraine, as it defends itself from external aggression, brings harm to itself by permitting acts contrary to the free practice of religion and in doing so weakens itself."

Reflecting on ROCOR’s modest resources, he said the Church has always relied on God’s grace and spiritual discipline rather than political power. He expressed gratitude that the United States provides a platform for advocating on behalf of the UOC during the ongoing war.

Met. Nicholas also reaffirmed appreciation for the 2007 Act of Canonical Communion, which restored eucharistic unity between ROCOR and the Moscow Patriarchate while preserving ROCOR’s administrative independence.

"Despite ROCOR being the smaller party of the two signatories, this agreement left us free to manage the affairs of our Church independently, drawing upon our own pastoral experience of the West and our history of more than a century in these lands," His Eminence said. "In all things I am grateful for the guidance provided by our own local ROCOR Council of Bishops, which is the highest authority in our Church. As we approach the holiday of Thanksgiving, may God help us all to cherish the freedom that is the heritage of all Americans and to see this more and more widely embraced throughout the world."

Previously, UOJ reported on a statement from Abp. Elpidophoros in which he addressed "rumors" that have circulated on the position of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America toward sister Churches.

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