Parish Feast Day of St. Irene Chrysovalantou Church 2016

Details
Created on Monday, 22 August 2016 17:23

St. Irene Chrysovalantou Parish in Rochester Hills (Detroit area), Michigan, celebrated our second parish feast day on 28 July/10 August, 2016.

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Demetrius, His Grace Christodoulos, Bishop of Theoupolis, a member of our Holy Synod, graciously visited St. Irene in honor of this joyous day of our holy patroness, presiding at Great Vespers and celebrating the Divine Liturgy for the Feast, assisted by Protopresbyter Christos Pittos and our rector, Presbyter Steven Allen. At the end of the Divine Liturgy, His Grace performed the traditional blessing of apples, which were distributed to the faithful.

Despite our small size and it's being a work day, 42 of the faithful were present for the Divine Liturgy. Fr. Steven, the parish council, and the parish brotherhood wish to thank His Grace Christodoulos for showing archpastoral love in gracing our feast with his apostolic blessing. We also want to express our delight in the visit of Fr. Christos and Presvytera Ekaterina, cherished members of our spiritual family, who came from Chicago to add to the joy of the feast.

We ask the prayers of all the brethren of our Church of the True Orthodox Christians in America, that our young community continue to grow both outwardly and inwardly, remaining steadfast in the pure confession of Faith and nurturing genuine spiritual life for all those who come to us seeking salvation in the Holy Church.

2016stirenefeast001
2016stirenefeast001
2016stirenefeast001
2016stirene017
2016stirene017
2016stirene017
2016stirenefeast002
2016stirenefeast002
2016stirenefeast002
2016stirenefeast003
2016stirenefeast003
2016stirenefeast003
2016stirenefeast004
2016stirenefeast004
2016stirenefeast004

Orthodox Awareness

A Miracle of Saint Spyridon

This miracle of Saint Spyridon took place in Mandra, Greece in 1926.

It was 12/25 December, 1926. The state Church of Greece adopted the Papal calendar and with the help of the Greek government persecuted all those who did not accept the Papal calendar. The faithful Orthodox Christians of Mandra woke up and headed to their Church to celebrate the Feast of Saint Spyridon. When they reached the Church they saw that the door to the Church had been secured with chains and the faithful could not enter. Before leaving the Church to return to their homes they stuck their candles on the door. As soon as the last person placed his candles on the door

the chains broke and fell. The faithful, confirmed in their Faith, entered the Church and celebrated the Feast of Saint Spyridon.

The miracle was reported the next day by the newspaper Skrip.

Missions

Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Mission, Tucson, Arizona

Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church is a beautiful mission parish near downtown Tucson, a city in southern Arizona. It was started in 1997 by Father John Bockman, who was a missionary Priest formerly serving missions in Tennessee and Massachusetts since 1990. Father John served the faithful in Tucson and the surrounding area in his home Chapel until his repose in November of 2000. His wife, Presbytera Valerie, continued to make her home Chapel available for the mission, with clergy from Saint Nectarios Orthodox Church in Seattle and His Eminence, Metropolitan Moses of Toronto (then of Portland), visiting to provide the Divine Services.

Read more...
Youth

2025 Youth Conference

Please join us for the 2025 youth conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada! To learn more, visit the conference website.

Ask A Priest

Fasting

Q. There seems to be a lot of variation in how people observe fasting, but my confessor told me to fast from oil on Wednesday and Friday. Oil is a pretty vague category, though, and I was wondering if I could get a more explicit description of what kinds of food and drink are excluded on strict fast days. Read more...