We are grateful to God for this blessed day, when we celebrated once again our 101st Annual Church Patronal Feast Day Celebration (Slava). It was a special event not just for our Parishioners, who worked very hard to make this day a success, but for all our guests who came to join us and participated in our Parish celebration. Most of all we are grateful to God and His Grace, our Bishop Irinej who came and served the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy followed by the Festal Procession around the temple and Cutting of the Festal Bread (Slavski Kolach). The Church temple was too "small" to gather everyone, but being with our Archpastor and listening to his profound sermon on the Sunday of St. Thomas (Antipascha, the first Sunday after Resurrection) almost everyone who was in the Church received the Holy Communion from the hands of our Bishop.

 

We where blessed to announce and congratulate our brother in Christ, Timothy Pantelich, who was tonsured by His Grace Irinej, before the beginning of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy into the first clerical rank as a reader (chtec).

 

After the church service, a special feast was prepared by the host (kum) Mr. Robert Saylor of our Parish. Our youngest choir members sung the Resurrection Troparion before the blessing of the food, while during the dinner our Parish Priest, Fr. Borjan Vitanov, and the President of the Church Board, Mr. Joseph Rahalewich, offered a few words of gratitude. At the end of the feast, Bishop Irinej also addressed the people in our Church Hall and officially handed the Grammaton, (official episcopal document) for tonsure into the Order of Reader to Timothy Pantelich. Through the prayers of His Grace, our Bishop Irinej, we hope our parish will continue to grow and we are looking forward to many years of similar joyous celebrations. Na Mnogaja Ljeta!"