News
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Behold the handmaid of the Lord…
09:55 AM
“…be it unto me according to thy word…”
These words of the Most Holy Theotokos should be precious and close to the heart of every orthodox Christian. The Most Holy Theotokos said them on the day of the Annunciation, when Holy Archangel Gabriel addressed Her with the news of the incarnation of the Son of God in Her womb. The meaning of these words is simple enough, however, it is impossible to overstate their significance.
In essence, She, who was about to become the Mother of God, expressed her supreme humility and consent to her extremely difficult vocation by these words. Perhaps, some would be surprised, but Her consent to participate in the economy of our salvation was essential. News from the Archangel about the incarnation of the Son of God within Her womb should have caused many questions and possibly even doubts on Her part, yet She, showing self-control worthy of imitation, asks only one thing: how can She, not knowing Her husband, conceive and bear a Son? Learning, in response, about the decent of the Holy Spirit upon Her and about Her being overshadowed by the power of the Most High, She humbly bows before the will of God and gives Her consent.
This consent is necessary because God never violates the freedom He gave men. God doesn’t save anyone against his will. Today, the Church celebrates the coming of God the Word into the world and glorifies the Mother of God, Who became a temple not made with hands by submitting Her will to the will of the One Who sent the Archangel to visit Her.
Thus, the Most Holy Theotokos becomes the very first Christian because She is the first to know about the coming of the Son of God into the world and because She received Him not only into Her heart, but also into Her womb. She is the first to believe in Him and is His first servant in His earthly life.
Let the great humility of the Mother of God that exalted Her to such heights be an example for all of us. How often do we complain that God doesn’t help us, or doesn’t answer our prayers, yet we do not think whether our plans and desires align with the Divine providence for our salvation? How often are we dismayed and are faint of spirit when the Lord doesn’t come to our aid in obvious need, yet we do not realize that of our own will we do not allow Him to help us? Our stiff-necked wilfulness, our pride, our attachment to sin, our remembrance of wrongs, our greed, and all our other passions, all of it doesn’t allow us to follow the example of the Theotokos and to say: “Here I am, O Lord, I am Thy servant, be it done unto me according to Thy word!”
The Lord is always near and by all means desires our salvation. His Most Pure Mother also always prays for us. Let us also pray that God would give us the strength at all times and in all things to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Let us follow the example of the Most Holy Theotokos and at all times and in all things let us seek God’s holy will. We know that then the Lord will always be with us even as He descended into the womb of His Most Pure Mother. Amen.
Priest Viatcheslav Davidenko
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Report on the progress and status of the St John the Wonderworker Mission in Nanaimo BC
01:41 AM
The city of Nanaimo is located in the center of Vancouver Island, the population is a little under 100 thousand and it is the only other city on Vancouver Island, other than Victoria. Nanaimo is located 90 minutes north of Victoria and there is a ferry connecting Nanaimo with Vancouver on the mainland.
I began trying to serve liturgy in the city of Nanaimo around Theophany last year. The first service held was the Great Blessing of the waters at Long Lake; this is a prominent lake in the center of the city. Following this I attempted to secure a location to serve liturgy. Renting temporary spaces on a Sunday proved to be expensive, complicated and in many cases the spaces were highly undesirable and impractical.
After an extensive and exhaustive search I secured a space in a professional building beside city hall. The size and dimensions have been quite adequate for us for most of the year – even on Nativity and our Feastday the space was sufficient. It may be a bit small for Pascha this year.
We have a large sign at the entrance of the building and a 3 meter banner on our balcony which is visible from the commercial streets nearby, as we are located on a hill. I also developed a well-designed website for the parish and enhanced our online presence where possible – this has proved to be profitable as a number of people have come to the church after doing a web search.
We have been serving liturgy weekly since Palm Sunday last year (April 28th), and we have celebrated all of the major feastdays, including St Nicholas, St Herman, App Peter & Paul, etc. Vigil is served on a more irregular basis. While we struggled with the choir for the first 6 months, we now have a number of people who can do an adequate job, even when my matushka is not there. Our services are done in English and our people come from a variety of ethnic backgrounds.
When the Kursk Icon came, we had more than 40 people present for the Moleben and Akathist, and there was a large newspaper article in the newspaper about the event which brought many new people in.
People attending the parish come from Nanaimo, but also from the surrounding regions – for example one of our regular families drives 90 minutes each week. Our parish is mixed ethnically, we have primarily had Converts, Greeks, Romanians, and some Serbians. The Russians that we have had coming are isolated, or have only moved to the community recently.
On Theophany we again did the blessing of the waters at Long Lake, and had approximately 25 people present.Priest Philosoph Uhlman
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Fourth Sunday of Great Lent
11:48 PM
“…This kind comes out only by prayer and fasting…”
These words of the Lord again encourage us on the fourth Sunday of Great lent. At times we forget, or completely fail to see, the reasons why the Church calls us to the feat of temperance. Regrettably, sometime in our understanding lent has only a dietary value, and the prayers and chants of the Great lent – capable of warming our cold hearts – are understood by us only as a variety of the church’s repertoire.
That is why it is necessary to pay careful attention to the message of this Sunday’s Gospel. Having heard that His disciples were unable to free the pitiable young man, the Lord chastises the father of the sufferer for unbelief. “All things are possible for him, who believes,” says the Lord and – as an answer to the cry of the father: “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief!” – He heals the one, who was tormented by the unclean spirit since childhood.
From the question of the disciples “why couldn’t we…” one can see that they believed in the Lord. But He, by His mercy, did not leave them without saving instruction. Having pointed the father to faith as the necessary means of healing, the Lord points the disciples to the perfection of the faith, setting forth prayer and fasting as the means of achieving perfection.
Thus, the Lord teaches that it is necessary to have faith, and not only to have it, but also to perfect it by fasting and prayer. We always need faith, whether we ask the Lord on behalf of others or for ourselves. It is also very important that it not be like that of demons: they believe and tremble, but do not repent. The true fruit of fasting and prayer is a heart that is broken and humbled.
Let us, therefore, break our hearts by fasting and prayer, and humbly cry out: “I believe, O Lord, help my unbelief!” So that we, by the mercy of God and by temperance according to our strength, may be delivered from passions and unclean spirits which destroy us, and may meet the radiant resurrection of the Lord with joy. Amen.
Priest Viatcheslav Davidenko
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Visit of the Church of Protection of the Holy Virgin in Rochester. 2014
03:27 PM
To be published soon.
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Pastoral Retreat & Assembly Of the Priests & Clergy of the Diocese of Montréal & Canada March, 2014
01:17 PM
The 2014 Lenten Pastoral Conference of the Canadian Diocese
This year the Lenten pastoral conference of the Canadian Diocese was, for the first time, held at the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. This monastery was called the “lavra of the Russian Church Abroad” by the ever-memorable Metropolitan Anastasy, whose earthly remains rest under the altar of the monastery cathedral. It is not unreasonable to say that the hearts of Orthodox Christians of Russian descent that have found themselves outside of Russia have a special place for Holy Trinity Monastery. The 17th of June, 2015 will mark the 80th anniversary of the first service held at the newly-constructed wooden church at the then recently organized Holy Trinity Monastery.
On the same day of that historic liturgy, a fire began in the newly consecrated church and it appeared that after many labours all was lost, but the Lord judged differently. One of the witnesses of the fire remarked that this baptism by fire did not lead to the destruction, but on the contrary to the flourishing of the monastery, which exists up to our day as the true spiritual centre of the Russian Diaspora, which in recent years has also become better-known in Russia itself.
The Canadian Diocese has a special tie to Holy Trinity Monastery. The first abbot of the monastery, the former archimandrite of the Pochaev Lavra, his Eminence Archbishop Vitaly (Maksimenko), was to become the ruling bishop of the North American and Canadian Diocese. And now the present ruling bishop of the Canadian Diocese, Archbishop Gabriel, is this year marking the 30th anniversary of his graduation from Holy Trinity Seminary, which is located at the monastery in Jordanville.
In his opening remarks Archbishop Gabriel reminded the participants of the clergy conference of the history of the monastery. Vladyka remarked that just a few steps away from the seminary graduation hall, where the conference was taking place, in the monastery cemetery many of the founders and guardians of the Russian Church Abroad are buried. Some of these remarkable hierarchs, pastors and teachers include: the first hierarchs of the Church abroad, Metropolitans Anastasy, Filaret and Laurus, Archbishop Averky (Taushev), Archimandrite Constantine (Zaitsev), and the great iconographer Archimandrite Cyprian (Pyzhov), who helped to reestablish a traditional style of icon painting in the diaspora. Through his efforts many Orthodox churches in North America with adorned with icon murals, including in the main monastery cathedral, the cemetery church and monastery refectory. Here are also buried other luminaries of the Church Outside of Russia as well as many pious monks who struggled in prayer and fasting and entreated God to show mercy on the much-suffering Russian land, not losing hope that Holy Russia will one day rise up again.
The humble atmosphere of the monastery descends on all who visit and thus the discussions of the diocesan conference were calm and peaceful. Within the last two or three years the situation in the Canadian diocese has improved noticeably. Two new missions, one in Red Deer, Alberta the other in Nanaimo, British Columbia have been formed recently. Soon, with God’s help, a new mission will be opened in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Holy Trinity Parish in Toronto, the largest parish in the Church Abroad, this past year organized and hosted the celebration of the 400-year anniversary of the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty. During these festivities a meeting of the Synod of Bishops was also held in Toronto.
During the diocese meeting, Archimandrite Luke (Murianka), the abbot of the monastery, gave a talk at which he explained the present-day situation in the monastery and seminary. Deacon Andrei Psarev, one of the instructors at Holy Trinity Seminary, read a lecture entitled “The Current Law of the Russian Orthodox Church.”
Archbishop Gabriel commented that the main goal of our lenten meetings is to prepare ourselves spiritually for the Feast of Feasts, the bright day of Christ’s Resurrection. The monastery services, which were attended by all of the participants of the conference, helped tremendously in this task. The hight of the pastoral lenten retreat was the hierarchal Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts served on Wednesday the 26th of March.
Archbishop Gabriel presided at this service and was assisted by the clergy of the Canadian Diocese, Archimandrite Luke and the priestmonks of the monastery as well as archpriest Alexis Duncan from Albany, NY.
Many of the participants of the pastoral conference expressed a hope that this will not be the last time the Canadian Diocese meets in Jordanville.
Below is a photo-report of the conference in Jordanville.
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Nativity of Christ Celebrations at New York’s Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady “of the Sign”
12:20 PM
On Tuesday, January 7, 2014, the great holiday of the Nativity of Christ, Divine Liturgy was celebrate at the Synodal Cathedral of Our Lady “of the Sign” in New York, NY, headed by His Eminence Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal and Canada. Vladyka Gabriel was joined in the service by Senior Priest of the cathedral, Protopriest Andrei Sommer; Priest Nicholas Olhovsky, Caretaker of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “of the Sign”; Hieromonk Evtikhy (Dovganyuk); Protodeacon Nicolas Mokhoff; Deacon Nathan Mousselli; Deacon Nazary Fataliev and Deacon Dionisy Lvov. The Christmas services were celebrated in the presence of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God. Mr Peter Fekula directed the Cathedral Choir at the services. After Liturgy, the clergymen and parishioners were invited to a festive trapeza prepared by the cathedral sisterhood.
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