On December 5, 2021, at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the church in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God "Joy to All Who Mourn" on Bolshaya Ordynka, the chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, awarded the representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky) with the medal of St. Mark of Ephesus III degree.
Addressing the words of congratulations to Archimandrite Seraphim, Metropolitan Hilarion, in particular, said:
"Today I would like to cordially congratulate Archimandrite Seraphim, representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, on the 30th anniversary of monastic tonsure, which was celebrated in August. We have known Father Seraphim for about the same number of years. We have come a long way together. And today Father Seraphim worthily represents the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.
Only yesterday I participated in the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the birth of His Grace Metropolitan Niphon, the representative of the Antiochian Orthodox Church at the Moscow Patriarchal See. At the celebration, I said what I would like to repeat today. If someone had asked me how to represent this or that Church with dignity at some other Church, I would have answered: take an example from Vladyka Niphon, do every year what he does, and so on for forty years.
I would like to wish you, dear Father Seraphim, that you serve the Church of Christ for many years, be inspired by the best examples and ascend from strength to strength. May the Lord keep you for many and good years."