Welcome to our Parish Website.

Visiting an Orthodox Church can be a little intimidating since it may seem quite different from any other experience of Christianity. However, in our Church most of our congregation (including the Priest) are converts to Orthodoxy, mostly from another Christian denomination. In addition, although our Parish was founded by Slavic people and you may still occasionally find echoes of that background, our Services are 100% in English. We are used to having visitors and many of us remember well how foreign Orthodoxy can seem at first.

In our Church, we have greeters on Sunday mornings who will be happy to assist you if you have questions. Although there are many practices Orthodox Christians are used to doing (crossing themselves, making bows) please know it is perfectly appropriate to stand and observe if you are new. We look forward to welcoming you to our parish. Below are a few more details about common areas of inquiry visitors often have.

the Orthodox Worship space

Our Church is split into three sections, the narthex (entry), nave (main body) and altar. Anyone who comes to see our church is welcome in the first two, while the altar is reserved for the Priest and those he has blessed to enter it to help serve.

In our Church, you are welcome to participate at your comfort level, we cross ourselves frequently and venerate icons, which can be very unfamiliar practices. We have no expectation that a guest will do these things, you are always welcome to light a candle and feel free to ask about joining in other practices. Unfortunately, we cannot allow non-Orthodox visitors to receive communion due our understanding of the Eucharist.

Our Church is covered with pictures of Christ and the Saints, our Icons. This is one of the main aspects of an Orthodox Church. For us, the pictures are not just pictures, but representations of people who we first of all love and honor. They show us events and people that are historical but ones that are present to us. In short, the Icons help us remember that when we come to worship that it is the joining together of the visible Church (those of us who are members and attend) as well as the invisible Church, those who have come before us and the hosts of heaven. For us, this is a great mystery but one we treasure.

SALVATIOn IN the Orthodox Understanding

One of the great concerns of Christians is obtaining Salvation. This can be as simple as the question, “am I going to go to heaven when I die?” It is a question that concerns us but in a very different way than may be familiar.

We believe that Christ is our Savior, the Savior of the world and has redeemed us by his Passion. However, we believe that “obtaining salvation” is a process worked out over one’s entire life. For us, all the traditions of our Orthodox practice are efforts at becoming more like Christ. We have regular Fasting because of Christ’s example, we spend a great deal of time in community worship and personal prayer in order to experience God’s presence and feel some of the intimacy Christ had with the Father.

Although the goal of our spiritual life is rightly very difficult to express in words, the term “theosis” is one Orthodox Christians like to use. It means becoming like God. The goal of our Baptism is to live a life according to the Spirit, not of the flesh. This means struggling to attain the virtues of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5). We believe that through Christ and the Gift of the Holy Spirit, it is possible to become more like God. It is as St. Athanasius the Great once said “God became man so that man might become God.”

I'm not orthodox, should I partake of communion?

In recent decades, it has become more common in some churches for visitors to be invited to partake in Communion at services no matter what their background. This is not the practice of the Orthodox Church. At our services, partaking of the Eucharist (the body and blood) is reserved for those who are active members of the Orthodox Church. For the Orthodox, participating in Communion means being a part of the Orthodox Community and accepting its beliefs and understandings. For this reason, those who are not Orthodox Christians are not permitted to partake of the Chalice. Nevertheless, we do have non-consecrated bread and wine (known as antiduron) which are available as a symbol of hospitality to visitors and those who are preparing for reception into Orthodoxy. Usually, someone from the Congregation will give it to a visitor.