site.btaOrthodox Cathedrals of Sofia and Tokyo Exchange Icons

The Board of Trustees of the Patriarchal Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky in Sofia donated an icon of Jesus Christ to the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Tokyo, the main house of worship of the Japanese Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Embassy in Japan told BTA on Friday. The donation was made on the initiative of Boyan Zhekov, who chairs the Club of Friends of Japan in Bulgaria (Nihon Tomono Kai), and with the support of the Bulgarian Embassy in Tokyo.

On June 25, Assoc. Prof. Zhekov personally presented the icon to Metropolitan Seraphim (Tsujie) of All Japan, Archbishop of Tokyo. For his part, Seraphim presented a gift for the Cathedral of St Alexander Nevsky, an icon of Mary made in Kyoto using the traditional nishijin-ori weaving technique.

Zhekov said that the dome of the Holy Resurrection Cathedral in Tokyo was destroyed by a deadly earthquake in 1923 and was later restored using the dome of the Sofia cathedral as a model.