Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

            Greetings and blessings to you all!

            We are greatly blessed to have as our heavenly protector and intercessor, St Herman of Alaska – recognized as a patron saint for this new land of America, where St Herman and other Russian missionaries came in the 1790’s and brought the light of Orthodoxy to this country. Since that time, the Orthodox faith has spread throughout our land and many people have lived out the joys and sorrows of their life with the hope of Orthodoxy guiding their way. Among these strugglers we have several Orthodox saints of America. Today (Oct 31/Nov 13) we mark the commemoration of one of these saints: the new hieromatyr John Kochurov of Chicago. St John came to America from Russia in the 1890’s and did much to establish church life in the Midwest. He later returned to Russia and was one of the first to undergo martyrdom at the hands of the Bosheviks in the early years of the 20^th century. You can read a short life of him here: John Kochurov - OrthodoxWiki

            This week we received news about the expected glorification of another saint of America, Matushka Olga of Alaska. Matushka Olga (who reposed as recently as 1979) has long been venerated in Alaska, throughout America, and abroad. She is remembered as a humble mother, midwife, and priest’s wife who was filled with love for everybody, and especially abused women. You can read the proclamation of the bishops of the OCA and get links to further articles about this blessed woman here: OCA Synod glorifies Matushka Olga of Alaska among the saints / OrthoChristian.Com

             Wednesday evening at 7pm we will have our Bible Study. This week we will begin our reading of the First Epistle of the Holy Apostle Peter. The Zoom link for the Bible Study is: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82677977675

            On Thursday evening at 6pm, Fr Andrew will lead the Catechism class. The link for the Catechism on Thursday at 6pm is - https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81436042614

Saturday at 2pm we will have our ‘Spiritual Discussion’ class wherein we likely conclude our discussions of the book ‘Our Hope’ by Fr Dimitri Dudko. We’ll spend some time at the end of class this week talking about what topic/text we may want to focus on next. Please come join us.

No services are scheduled this week, so we will see you on Saturday at 4pm for Vigil and Sunday at 9am for Divine Liturgy.

Fr Martin