Parish News and Announcements

Parish News

• All Saints of North America joyfully celebrated its 15th Annual Parish Feast in 2011, giving thanks to God for establishing and nurturing this Orthodox parish in the Shenandoah Valley. The parish also honored Father John and Matushka Alexandra for their self-emptying and loving service to God and to the parish over these years. We have some wonderful photos from the festive weekend and we now have some VIDEO to share!
• The miraculous Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God visited All Saints of North America on February 8th and 9th, 2011. There are photographs on the Eastern American Diocese web site (be sure to click on the "Photo Report" button), and on the Staunton News Leader web site.
• All Saints in the News! The Staunton News Leader featured our festal celebration of Holy Nativity with a wonderful article, a video (the News Leader now seems to have removed these from their site), and many wonderful photographs.
• On May 15, forty women from across the state of Virginia took part in a day-long spiritual retreat hosted by All Saints Russian Orthodox Church. Mother Andrea of St. Nicholas Monastery in Florida spoke about the true reality of the church, the spiritual life and God in contrast to the very hectic and false "reality" of this life. Mother Anna, who is originally from Optina in Russia, talked about her life in Optina and also showed a very beautiful DVD about daily life in and around the monastery. More...
• On Friday, March 5, 2010, Archpriest Artemy Vladimirov visited All Saints of North America for a communal supper and talk. Father Artemy spoke about life in his parish and on the importance of going to confession and Holy Communion often. He also toured the diocesan library, and enjoyed some music and song.
• On March 3, 2010, the Eastern American and New York Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia announced that for his dedicated service to God's Church, Priest John Moses – rector of All Saints of North America Church in Middlebrook, VA, and member of the Diocesan Council – has been elevated to the rank of archpriest. Axios! Axios! Axios! Dear Father John, many years!
• The miraculous and ancient icon, The Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, visited All Saints of North American Orthodox Church on Thursday, December 24, 2009. Fr. Sergei Lukianov accompanied it, as he had on its historic return visit to Russia this year, and spoke of the thousands of the faithful who lined the streets and perched on rooftops to witness it.
  
  "The modern world is suffering a great crisis of faith. We, in turn, believe that the arrival of the holy icon of the Most Pure Mother of God [of the Kursk Root] will awaken the souls of many, helping them to make a choice, to take on themselves the most important and the holy" (Met. Hilarion, 2009).
• On Sunday, March 22, 2009, on the Sunday of the Veneration of the Holy Cross, our dear brother, Father Gabriel Weller was ordained to the holy Priesthood by his grace, Bishop GEORGE, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan HILARION. Daniel and Jeremiah Valloton were tonsured into the holy office of Reader. Many friends and family traveled far to join with the parish in celebrating these joyous and grace-filled events.
• With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, the Parish Library Web Site now is online! The site not only offers a wealth of resources for our own parishioners, but facilitates access of other Orthodox clergy to books, journal articles and other materials needed to conduct their ministry. Further, recognizing the importance of libraries for parishes, the library staff at All Saints provides technical assistance for Orthodox churches to set up and maintain a parish library. There is a wealth of additional information, photos, downloads, and more! Many thanks to all of the Library Staff: Katherine Alderson, Patricia Hardesty, Macrina Quinn, and especially the library’s IT director and webmaster, Nick Maas.
• With Matushka Tatiana's leadership and the active contribution of many others, All Saints is collaborating with some other churches in feeding the homeless and the poor. The program in Waynesboro is called "Disciples' Kitchen," and is held at the 2nd Presbyterian Church with the cooperation of a number of other churches. Different churches rotate on different weeks. The program in Harrisonburg is in collaboration with First Baptist Church. Matushka Tatiana reports that about 50 to 100 people are fed in two different places each month, many of them young mothers with children. The next scheduled meal is on July 19. For details on how to participate in this exciting program, please contact Matushka Tatiana.
  
• Our parish library has been completely reorganized, refurbished, restocked, and greatly expanded! Katherine Alderson, with Nick Maas and many others, have turned what once was a "library" mostly in name into a true library, with a large collection of books on Orthodox Christianity, the liturgy, prayer, iconography, classic literature, and many other topics. All books are are indexed according to standard Information Science protocol. There is a modern multimedia computer with Internet access. There are ongoing education exhibits. A great debt of gratitude is owed to all who contributed to this wonderful resource available to all! We have a few photographs, and the Library has plans for an independent web site with more photographs, information, and extensive resources for other parishes who may wish to establish their own libraries.
• The parish of All Saints of North America joyfully celebrated its 12th annual parish feast on June 15/2, 2008. The services commemorating the Saints who have shown forth in the land of North America were beautiful and very moving. The parish church continues to shine more and more brightly with ongoing enhancements on the iconostas and elsewhere, and there are many new icons by local iconographer and parish member Sean Flaherty, including a newly-completed mural icon of the Annunciation. Katherine Alderson and Nick Maas researched and completed in time for the festival a wonderful educational presentation on the lives and work of the Saints of North America in conjunction with the the parish library that they have tremendously expanded and enhanced with some additional contributions by other parishioners. We have photographs and a video from the festival weekend, and plan more photographs of the library and the educational material on the Saints of North America.
• There are many new icons painted/written by local iconographer and parishioner Sean Flaherty, including major icons on the iconostas and an icon mural of the Annunciation covering most of the North wall.
• All Saints of North America proudly sponsored the First Annual Greek and Slavic Festival at Gypsy Hill Park in Staunton on October 27th 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., and it was a grand success! Despite threatening weather forecasts, the day turned out to be beautiful, and great crowds enjoyed wonderful Greek food, Greek coffee, Greek dancing, Serbian sausages, a Russian Tea Room, and much more. An excited correspondent said, "It was like ... Woodstock again!" We will hope to offer more descriptions and photographs when they become available.
• On June 9-10, 2007, we celebrated our 11th parish Feast of All Saints of North America. Bishop Gabriel presided at the vigil and liturgy, and we were joined by Hieromonk Father Seraphim Voepel of the Hermitage of the Holy Cross Monastery, accompanied by his deacon, Father Sergius, and his sub-deacon Gregory. Also in attendance was Father Seraphim Stevens from the St. Joseph of Optina Church, in Chesapeake, Va, and Father Gregory Williams of the Annunciation Church, in Liberty, TN. Bishop Gabriel ordained our brother, Gabriel Weller, to the Diaconate to joyful shouts of “Axios,” and he awarded Father John the gold Cross. After the Liturgy, the Bishop led us in a procession around our church and blessed our sanctuary with holy water to the singing of the choir. The Sisterhood prepared two wonderful meals and beautifully decorated the Church and parish hall. Everyone enjoyed a wonderful celebration. We have some photographs of the festal weekend, and we invite you to check back soon for more!
• A number of our parishioners went to the Hermitage of the Holy Cross for their annual Pilgrimage weekend in 2006. Metropolitan Laurus was present, as were the Kursk Root Icon and the myrrh-streaming icon of St. Anna. Photos are available.
• We celebrated the 10th Anniversary of our Parish in 2006. The entire parish worked together preparing for the Festal Services and the celebration. Many friends old and new joined us to give thanks to God and commemorate All of the Saints of North America, and helped to make it an uplifting and joyous occasion for all. Some photos are available (see below).
• Many hard-working members of our parish organized, prepared, cooked, served, cleaned-up, and made a wonderful success of a Russian Orthodox Foods booth at the Harrisonburg International Festival this year. Leonidas shared some photographs. One parish member said,

To all the parishioners who worked so very hard and pulled off a very successful booth at the International Festival. My hat off to each and all. You did such a nice job. The booth set up looked so good. The very attractive signs, and colorful table cover, and the excellent food was right on. You get a 10 for presentation. and 5 stars for the food .... excellent menu ... I think you were a big hit. From what I saw All Saints was the only representative of eastern Europe and western Asia. Well Done.