With the blessing of Their Eminences, Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America & New York, and Archbishop Kyrill of San Francisco & Western America, the myrrh-streaming Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of God is visiting churches along the East Coast. This Lenten visitation by the Queen of Heaven offers the faithful a rare opportunity to venerate the wonderworking Icon, which has been a source of comfort, healing, and spiritual renewal for Orthodox Christians around the world.

On Monday, March 9, the feast of the First and Second Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist, the holy icon arrived at Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell, NJ, where parish rector Archpriest Serge Lukianov celebrated the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts in the presence of the Hawaiian Icon.

Concelebrating with the rector were: Archpriests Vasily Andrejuk (parish cleric), Zoran Radovic (rector of St. George Serbian Church in Elizabeth, NJ), Boris Slootsky (parish cleric), Vasily Zelenyuk (rector of Our Lady "Unexpected Joy" Church in Staten Island, NY), and Nikolai Manduke (cleric of St. Vladimir Memorial Church in Jackson, NJ), Priests Nectarios Yangson (guardian of the icon; rector of the Church of the Hawaiian-Montreal Icon of the Mother of God in Kailua, HI) and Anthony Williams, Protodeacons Paul Drozdowski and Alexandre Sarandinaki, and Deacon Dumitru Lişan (parish clerics).

The church was filled with over 200 worshippers, who had come to pray during the service, venerate the wonderworking icon, and commune of Christ’s Holy Mysteries.

After Liturgy, the sisterhood organized a luncheon in the parish hall for all those present.

The holy icon has already visited churches of ROCOR and the OCA, and is on its way to churches and monasteries of the Church Abroad, the Antiochian Church, and the Romanian Church.