
On June 7–8, 2025, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon led the liturgical celebrations for the Feast of Pentecost at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, DC.
The observance began on Saturday, June 7, with His Beatitude presiding at the Festal Vigil. The following morning, June 8, he celebrated the hierarchical Divine Liturgy, which was immediately followed by the Vespers of Pentecost, including the traditional Kneeling Prayers. Concelebrating with His Beatitude was Archpriest George Kokhno, an associate of the cathedral. The cathedral choir, under the direction of Mr. Ivan Pils, provided the responses.
During the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude delivered a homily reflecting on the faithful’s reception of the Holy Spirit through the Church’s sacraments.
“We know,” he said, “that the Spirit is given to believers once and definitively through the sacraments of baptism and chrismation. However, there is another sense in which we may receive the gift of the Holy Spirit throughout our lives: we receive the Spirit again and again through the second baptism of confession and repentance… Pentecost calls us precisely to this renewal, to this washing clean. For forty-nine days we have celebrated the gift that we receive through Christ’s Pascha; today, we are called to renew our lives so that we actually experience that gift and make it real.”
Following the Vespers, His Beatitude honored the 2025 graduates of the cathedral community and presented a certificate of recognition to Paul and Andrea Lutov, long-time parishioners, in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary.


