Our Parish 90th Anniversary Celebration

On Saturday, May 2, 2009 we celebrated our parish’s 90th Anniversary. Divine Liturgy was led by Schema-Archimandrite Joachim (Mercy House/St. Mary of Egypt Monastery, NYC); and concelebrated by our Pastor, Priest John Vass, Archpriest Theodore Boback (St. Andrew Orthodox Church); Priest George Johnson (Holy Apostles Orthodox Church), Priest Karl-Andrew Kish (Retired Naval Orthodox Chaplain), our Fr. Deacon Michael Bishop and Hierodeacon Martinian (Mercy House). Also, we were pleased to welcome some friends from our sister Orthodox parishes in Baltimore.

At the end of Divine Liturgy we conducted a thanksgiving Moleben, to offer thanks to God for blessing our parish over the last 90 years. At the conclusion of the service we gathered for a group picture in the center of the church. Then we all enjoyed a professionally catered reception served in our church hall.

The Divine Services were joyful – our choir sang with faith and love as well as our new children’s choir which sang the responses to a few small litanies for the first time during the service. Also, it was a blessing for us to welcome many Orthodox priests to concelebrate Divine Liturgy. We warmly thank them for their prayers and friendship.

Special thanks go out to Paul Czerkovich who coordinated the ticket sales and conducted an extensive outreach to our parishioners and many friends. Several people attended the celebration because of his efforts. The commemorative booklet was organized and printed by Fr. Deacon Michael and Michael Mickel. Thanks to their work we have a memorable keepsake of this special day. And we thank Sally Mickel for donating her artistic rendering of our church’s exterior for the booklet’s cover, which was auctioned off at the reception. We enjoyed lovely piano music during the reception thanks to Svetlana Alyeva and her student Stella. They offered quiet dinner music, a sing-a-long and classical concert pieces. And we offer our sincere thanks to everyone who donated to cover some of the costs of event (desserts, wine, flowers, etc.), who purchased extra tickets so that everyone could afford to attend, who cleaned and prepared the hall and church…many dedicated parishioners worked for the success of this important day in various ways. God sees your labor and your faith. He knows the name and age of each of you who work for His Church. And so, may He write all of your names in the “Book of Life” rewarding you with inheritance of His heavenly kingdom. May God bless all of you abundantly. Thank you very much.

We raise up our voices of thanksgiving to God for His blessings upon us over the last 90 years. We thank Him for sending us faithful men and women... for blessing our community with peace and prosperity...for strengthening us in times of difficulties and distress...and for inspiring us to build upon the foundations laid down by Him through the hearts, minds and hands of our ancestors dating back to 1919.

Let us pray that our Lord will find our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving acceptable today and all the days of our life. For when we pray at home, when we follow God’s commandments, when we search out and accept His will in our life, when we help our brothers and sisters in Christ, when we show love to our neighbor, when we raise our children to love God and His Holy Church, and when we work for the benefit of this parish, we offer to God sacrifice, praise and thanksgiving in deed. It is this type of sacrifice that nourishes the growth of parish life, warms the hearts of our friends and guests and inspires us all to persevere in our service to God. May God bless us to continue in our service so that Orthodox faithful can come to worship God in our humble church for many, many generations to come.

To see more pictures click here.

Not only are we in this assembly (in the Church), but also the prophets and the apostles and all the saints; and what is most important of all - among us is Jesus Christ Himself, the Master of everything. Holy Hierarch John Chrysostom

Let us love the Church and be devoted to it. It is our joy and comfort both in sorrows and in joys. Venerable St. Hilarion (Ponomarev) of Optina