THE SECOND ANNUAL
BENEFACTORS DINNER IN CHARLOTTE
Charlotte, NC – On Sunday, October 15, 2006 the second annual Benefactors Dinner of the St. Symeon the Myrrh-Gusher Missionary parish of Charlotte was held at “Il Nido” Italian restaurant. The gathering of the small group of faithful of our small mission parish began that morning with the Holy Hierarchical Divine Liturgy officiated by His Grace Bishop Mitrophan of Eastern America who, in his homily, stressed the significance of the constant strengthening and confessing of our salvific Orthodox faith, which God revealed to simple fishermen who later became His disciples and later apostles – Christian missionaries.
At 6:00 pm that evening a small Italian restaurant was reserved for our Benefactors Dinner. Some forty faithful of our parish as well as friends of our church gathered at the restaurant. The goal of the gathering was to be surrounded in prayer around our Bishop so that we might witness to our heterodox friends of our Orthodox faith, history and Serbian culture.
The program was emceed by Reader Vladan Gluvacevic. In the cultural-musical part of the evening we watched a video prepared by V. Gluvacevic on the architecture of Monastery Hilandar and listened to Bach’s composition for flute performed by Dimitrije Mogilensko, which was listened cautiously by the faithful.
A larger variety of items were available at this year’s auction. Artist Teofana Zaric donated a fresco done on canvas entitled “Christ” which was purchased by Gordana Djuranovic for $700. The painting “Bouquet” was painted by artist Vukica Mijatovic and was purchased for $300 by Stephen Flaherti, president of the parish council of the St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte. Decorated Russian eggs and a stamp collection donated by Gordana Djuranovic and Bojana Srtamovic were purchased for a total of $715.
Thank God and to all those who attended that evening’s Benefactor’s Dinner as $10,315 was raised and the mortgage on the church property was decreased to only $45,000.
Organizational Committee