On July 17 and 18, the faithful of St. Elizabeth Mission in Poulsbo, WA were delighted to have His Grace Bishop Benjamin join them for the celebration of their patronal feast and the 10th anniversary of the mission in Poulsbo, the first and only Orthodox church Kitsap County. In June of 2000, the then unnamed [...]
Bishop Benjamin celebrated the patronal feast of Monastery of St. John of San Francisco and Shanghai, Manton, CA with the monastery brotherhood in the little chapel that formerly stood at Point Reyes, CA. The monastery is an important place of spiritual respite in our midst and was founded by Metropolitan Jonah in 1996.
Archimandrite Meletios and the brothers have continued to grow as a community and have become prominent in the resurgence of monastic life in Orthodox America. The brotherhood includes both American and foreign born brothers working out their salvation together.
Seventy-five faithful from three Central Coast California parishes welcomed His Grace, Bishop BENJAMIN for the celebration of Feast of the Annunciation at the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, Santa Maria, CA. His Grace presided at both the Vigil on the 24th and the Vesperal Divine Liturgy on the 25th. In addition to the rector of [...]
On Tuesday, February 9, the delegation from SCPS traveled through the outskirts of the City of St. Petersburg into what is still known as the Leningrad Region. The first stop was the St. Catherine Church in Murino. The small church was built on what was the estate of the Woronzoff family. Archpriest Nikolai Teterjatnikov and [...]
On Sunday, February 7, Bishop BENJAMIN, Priest Christopher Swanson and Priest John Anderson (The Diocese of the South,) were blessed by His Eminence, Metropolitan VLADIMIR of St. Petersburg and Lagoda to serve the Divine Liturgy in the Kazan Cathedral with one of his vicar bishops, Bishop MARKEL. The Kazan Cathedral was built at the beginning [...]
Thursday, February 4, Bishop BENJAMIN and Mr. Barry Migyanko arrived in the city of St. Petersburg, Russia to take part in the visit of a delegation from the Sister Churches Program of Seattle to St. Petersburg (SCPS). The work of the SCPS began in the late 1980’s when members of several Christian Churches of the [...]
On November 21-22, Bishop Benjamin visited Saint Katherine the Great Martyr Mission in Kirkland, Washington, near Seattle. The parish feastday of Saint Katherine was occurring later that week (November 24), so the bishop requested that it be celebrated during his visit. The small church was full during the Resurrectional Vigil on the evening before, and [...]
When a new mission, created from convert zeal to found a Church near the country’s largest university, has the opportunity to welcome its bishop for the first time there is a simple description: sweet. Not knowing what to do or what to expect made it all the better. We did not have parishioners steeped in [...]
On Sunday, September 27, the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius in Chico achieved another milestone when Bp Benjamin blessed their new chapel. Some sixty Orthodox Christians including Archpriest Thomas Renfree and Hieromonk Alexander (Lisenko) joined Priest Michael Spainhoward, rector, and the faithful in this joyous milestone in the community.
On Saturday and Sunday, October 3 & 4, His Grace, Bishop Benjamin visited the St. Innocent of Alaska Church of Livermore, California. The mission was originally established in 1991 in Fremont, CA and met in the Spanish Mission San Jose that was visited by St. Innocent himself during a visit to California in the early 19th century. Today, St. Innocent Church presently meets in a commercial space, which Archpriest Leo Arrowsmith and his parishioners have personally transformed. Two readers were tonsured Sunday morning just before the beginning of the Liturgy.
