CONSTRUCTION UNDERWAY IN NORTH CAROLINA
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Friends of Our Church,
All of us who are the parishioners of St. Basil Of Ostrog are witnessing the construction of our new temple. Our dream, our long-awaited wish to have our own church, if finally becoming a reality. Until only recently, we could not imagine what it meant to build a church. We saw them around us, built by others and left to new generations. It seems unreal, but almost 150 families which have recently planted their roots in North Carolina have taken part in the construction of our own church, the first Serbian Orthodox church in the eastern part of United States. On Monday, on Vidovdan, the ground was broken for both the church and the reception hall. Now the metal construction is fully set up as well, and the pictures show how much has already been done in the past two weeks. Day in and day out we are witnessing the changes being made to both the church and the hall, which will serve as a covered picnic area during the first phase of the construction.
With great impatience we awaited the start of construction. And even though all of the paper work was ready, as it tends to happen in life, things did not go as planned. There was always something missing. However, finally appears that all of the barriers have been broken and the construction began on Vidovdan. Nothing is by coincidence. I want to remind you, dear brothers and sisters, that the first large gathering and the first liturgy of the parishioners of St. Vasilije Ostroski happened on Vidovdan, 26 June 1999, in Raleigh, at the Greek Orthodox Church, Holy Trinity. The liturgy was served by Father Dragan Filipovic. The decisions made on that day began to come to life with regular liturgies, and donations which have enabled us to purchase the land and obtain a permanent priest for our parish.
Love towards God, donations to the church by many and forgiveness for the wrong, careless decisions only strengthened us and brought us closer to achievement of our goal to have our own church and cemetery. Our success has inspired many members of both Serbian and Greek churches in America to support our cause both morally and materially by sending monetary donations. We must thank them from the bottom of our harts.
Olga Petrovic