Moscow, January 18, 2017

The waters of the world’s four historical oceans will be blessed today, on Theophany night, by clergy of the Moscow Patriarchate serving both in Russia and beyond, reports Interfax-Religion.

The priests will thus follow the ancient Orthodox tradition of blessing water not only in churches, but in open sources on the feast of Theophany, when the holy Church celebrates the Baptism of our Lord and God and Savior Jesus Christ by the hand of St. John the Baptist.

The northern Arctic Ocean will be blessed in the village of Tiksi, the northernmost settlement of Yakutia, nearly 3,000 miles northeast of Moscow, on the shore of the Laptev Sea.

The community of the Russian parish in Reykjavik, whose chapel was consecrated on January 10, will head out to the shores of the Atlantic Ocean, where parish rector Fr. Timothy Zolotusky will celebrate the Great Blessing of the Waters.

The Pacific Ocean will be blessed on the banks of the Gulf of Siam in Thailand, in the Bay of Novik in Primorye (Sea of Japan), and in Gertner Bay in the Magadan Province (Sea of Okhotsk).

The Indian Ocean will be blessed in the region of the Persian Gulf in the United Arab Emirates, where there has been a Russian Orthodox community for many years under the headship of Archimandrite Alexander (Zarkeshev).

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