The Shepherd, October 2009
3. The Consecration of Bishop Nicolas.
The consecration took place in London, in St Philip’s Church, on 30th June, 1929, the feast of All Saints. This was a great solemnity and outpouring of God’s Grace in the life of the parish. Besides Metropolitan Antony, the other consecrating hierarchs were Archbishop Seraphim of Western Europe, Bishop Theophan of Kursk, Bishop Tikhon of Berlin and Bishop Simon of Kremenetz.
On handing the archpastoral staff to Bishop Nicolas, Metropolitan Antony gave the following remarkable address, in which he called the new Bishop to extend his care not only to his Russian flock, but also to English people who were drawing near to Orthodoxy. No Orthodox Englishman can fail to be moved by the concern of this great hierarch who, despite the troubles afflicting the Russian Church both in Russia and in the emigration, was able to combine Russian patriotism with a missionary zeal and concern for the “local inhabitants”:-
“Most Reverend, newly endowed with Grace, Bishop Nicolas!
“While greeting and congratulating you today on receiving the grace of the episcopate, I consider it my duty to remind you that in earlier times our Russian bishops not only remembered the day of their consecration for their whole lives, but also kept it holy each year by intensified prayer and the celebration of the Divine services, combined with intercession to the saint commemorated on that day, who would be considered the special protector of that particular bishop.
“The Lord has granted you to receive bishop’s orders on the day not just of a single saint, but of ‘All Saints,’ whom you must therefore hold all together in special veneration.
“Of course, you know that the Russian people, more than all others, venerates the saints pleasing to God, surpassing in this not only all those of other faiths, but all the other Orthodox peoples. There is not one people which has such an attitude of compunctionate love towards the saints as the Russian people, who revere them as their closest protectors & friends, thereby showing where their treasure is - where their heart is.
“While warrior peoples revere ancient heroes, and devotees of philosophy revere famous scholars in their own field of specialisation, the Russian people reveres the saints, rightly considering that righteousness is the field of specialization for all of mankind, in accordance with the Saviour’s words: ‘Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you’ (Mt 6:33).
“So, being called to guide the people of God, be guided in your turn by the people’s example in this virtue - the love and veneration for the holy saints - because through this one shows that for oneself spiritual perfection is dearer than anything else in the world.
“A second indication from above is given to you by this day of your consecration: that in this life you should be not only an Orthodox servant of God, but a Russian servant of God, sharing the highest strivings of our Russian people, its reverent love for the saints. This is not understood by the Protestants, who assert that the Russians, in venerating the saints, thereby belittle the Glory of Christ. Christ Himself, however, gave us a firm basis for this when He said, ‘And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them’ (John 17:22).
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