On September 10, 2023, Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations, and Archbishop Seraphim of Sendai, Locum tenens of the Metropolitan See of the Japanese Autonomous Orthodox Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Compound of the Russian Orthodox Church — in the Church of the Blessed Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky in Tokyo.
The celebration of the patronal celebration and the 15th anniversary of the consecration of the church, which was performed in 2008 by Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, now His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, was timed to Sunday.
Among those who served the archpastors were the rector of the Metochion, Archpriest Nikolai Katsyuban, Archpriest John Nagaya, Hieromonk Nikolai (Ono), assistant to the DECR chairman, Priest Alexander Ershov, protodeacons John Fanurakis and Jacob Nagaya.
The Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Church Slavonic and Japanese.
At the end of the Liturgy, the DECR Chairman congratulated the clergy and parishioners of the Metochion on behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. The hierarch also warmly welcomed the locum tenens of the Metropolitan See of the Japanese Autonomous Orthodox Church, conveying to Archbishop Seraphim the good wishes of His Holiness.
Metropolitan Anthony donated the icon of the Mother of God "Smolenskaya" to the Russian Orthodox Church in Tokyo. Archbishop Seraphim also addressed the participants of the service with words of congratulations.
On behalf of the clergy and parishioners of the Alexander Nevsky Church, Archpriest Nikolai Katsyuban thanked the archpastors for the joy of joint prayer on a significant day for the Metochion.