It was a great joy for St. Juvenaly Mission to host Bishop BENJAMIN from July 30th to August 2nd. Some faithful members of the mission drove in from as far from Hilo bearing fresh lychees from their orchard (a five hour round trip) to visit with his Grace, and our community was blessed to have [...]

The St. Seraphim of Sarov church in Santa Rosa is architecturally a Traditional Orthodox temple, with a dome, arches, cross shaped transepts, an apse, columns, and a back wall, all arranged so that the saints and the feasts could be painted on the walls in the Traditional manner. The interior of the Church was designed around the fresco scheme.

His Grace, Bishop Benjamin, made a visit to the Protection of the Holy Virgin Parish in Santa Rosa, CA., on Monday July 19, 2010 to celebrate the summer feast of St. Seraphim of Sarov. His Grace was welcomed by the rector of the parish, Archpriest Lawrence Margitich, and seven other priests and two deacons. After the hierarchical vesting, Reader Roman Katyshev, recently arrived from St. Petersburg, Russian, was ordained a subdeacon, and then later in the Liturgy was ordained to the Holy Diaconate.

After spending 34 hours in a caravan with 25 other people from Colorado, I arrived at Project Mexico during the big OBT(Orthodox Basic Training) session. Starting out the week I had the assumption that I was there to give to others, show them hope, service and love. This has been my goal, having been on [...]

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 [...]

When you live somewhere as sparsely populated and distant from the centers of Orthodoxy as Southern Colorado, you don’t take Pan-Orthodox events for granted.  If there are winter storm warnings and travel advisories on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, you still climb into your car with your family and an eager catechumen, and give yourself three [...]

In a world where God and church can be distorted to appear just as commercial and superficial as your next big pop culture fad, Orthodox Christianity is not something easily comprehended, nor accepted. Today’s youth culture tells us to shun committment and spurn truth in favor of artificial replacements, and often it’s all too easy [...]

On Sunday, December 20, 2009, the faithful parishioners of St. Christina’s Mission in Fremont, California, celebrated the last Divine Liturgy in the little “house church” that we had been using until a suitable replacement could be found. Following the liturgy, a procession led by our pastor, Father Michael Anderson, took all the church appointments to [...]

As we approach the celebration of the Nativity, a very interesting article about bell-ringing and the sounds of the city appeared recently in the Seattle Times. Bells have such a connection, emotionally and aesthetically with our celebrations. John Cox, bell-ringer at the cathedral, was interviewed and the article included links to the sounds of the [...]

On Sunday, August 16, 2009 Deacon Ian Burgess, a recent graduate of St. Tikhon Seminary, was ordained to the Holy Priesthood by Bishop Benjamin at Holy Trinity Cathedral.