On Great Wednesday, May 1, Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York celebrated the final Divine Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts for this year in the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign in New York City.

On Great Thursday, May 2, Metropolitan Nicholas celebrated the Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great in the cathedral.

That evening, he officiated Matins with the reading of the 12 Passion Gospels. Numerous parishioners gathered for one of the most triumphal services of Great Lent and the liturgical year.

On Great & Holy Friday, May 3, when the Holy Church commemorates the holy, salvific, and terrible suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, Metropolitan Nicholas officiated the divine services in the Cathedral of the Sign.

The Holy Shroud was brought out during the Vespers of Holy Saturday. The faithful venerated it, after which Compline was served with the reading of the Canon of the Lamentations of the Most Holy Theotokos. That evening, Matins was served, concluding with the burial procession.

During the divine services, which were held under the aegis of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, His Eminence was joined by cathedral clerics: dean Archpriest Andrei Sommer, Archpriest Seraphim Chemodakov, Hieromonk Theognost (Kogan), and Protodeacons Nicolas Mokhoff & Serge Arlievsky, as well as Hieromonk Laurus (Solomonov; cleric of Our Lady "The Inexhaustible Chalice" Church in Brooklyn, NY)..

The Synodal Choir sang soulfully under the direction of conductor Vadim S. Gan.

Photos: S. Yakushkin, N. Mohov