Friday, September 17, 2010

Another ordination - and relics!

Along with the reminder of our intention to mostly be at Holy Resurrection Church on Saturday evening to celebrate their patronal feast with them at their 6pm Vigil service, I have more good news to share. At the Vigil at Holy Resurrection, our own Reader Aleksey Isakov will be made a subdeacon by Archbishop Seraphim! Archbishop Seraphim and Fr. Mikhail, knowing of our plans to be at Holy Resurrection, decided that the Vigil on Saturday evening would be the best time for this joyous event, so that we can witness the event and celebrate and pray with Reader Aleksey and his family.

And, as if that were not enough, God is also blessing us with the visit of the relics of St. Vladimir (the St. Vladimir!) at Holy Resurrection Church. I'm not sure (at this point) if they will be there that evening, but they will apparently be there on Sunday and the church will be open for the veneration of St. Vladimir's relics all day, with an akathist to be served by Archbishop Seraphim at 6pm on Sunday. More information is available on the Holy Resurrection Church website, on St. Herman's Spruce Island blog, and on the official Archdiocesan website.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Ordination of Dr. Peter to the Diaconate on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross!

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Wonderful news! Many of us were already planning to attend the Divine Liturgy at Holy Resurrection on Tuesday, September 14 (10am) for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross in order to be present at the ordination of Fr. Samuel to the Holy Priesthood. I am very happy to be able to report that we now all have one more reason to attend... At that same service, our very own Dr. Peter Choi will be ordained to the Holy Diaconate!

Given the timing and the late notice, I know that not everyone will be able to attend, but I wanted to give everybody as much notice as possible (I only found out about the plan yesterday, mostly because Vladyka only made the plan yesterday!) so folks can see if they can get the time off work (I'll be asking my boss today if I can get that Tuesday off!) - and, if you can't attend, please be sure to keep Dr. Peter and his family in your prayers on the day of the feast, along with Fr. Samuel.

This is exciting news not just for Dr. Peter and his family, but for our whole parish. I don't know many mission parishes as young as ours that have been blessed with a deacon! God has been very good to us.

One small note on a related matter... We had already decided Sunday morning to change the Vesperal Liturgy that we had scheduled on Monday evening (Sept. 13) for the Exaltation of the Cross to a Vespers with Litya, given that a number of us were planning to go to the Liturgy for the feast at Holy Resurrection on Tuesday morning. This new news confirms that decision - and will make our celebration on the eve of the feast that much more festive!

Looking forward to being with you all on Monday and/or Tuesday to shout out our "Axios!"