"A Procession of the Cross to Another Continent:" An Interview with Archpriest George Zelenin

September in Moscow was uncharacteristically sunny and warm. Archimandrite Roman (Krassovsky) of Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY – one of 34 members of a delegation from the Russian Church Abroad accompanying the Kursk Root Icon to Russia in 2009 – rightly compared these days to the period after Pascha. Archpriest George Zelenin, rector of the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in the city of Paterson, outside of New York City, noted that at Christ the Savior Cathedral, even time itself seems to be perceived and flow differently. Despite the long hours standing on duty next to the Icon, singing the akathist, and standing in long lines, neither the clergy nor the people who from morning and late into the night flock to the long-awaited holy image feel any exhaustion. We spoke with Fr. George, who was one of the first among the ROCOR clergy to stand watch at the wonderworking icon in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.