Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
The word “pioneering” above is not a cultural comment about the state of Kentucky in search of a new Daniel Boone! It rather refers to the fact that on Monday evening of this week, a group of Orthodox Christians – primarily, but not exclusively from Northern KY, and members of our parish – gathered together in the home of Kevin and Tracy Rains to serve Vespers in what we hope was a “pioneering” event of establishing the Orthodox Church in Northern KY.Â
And we are hoping that this “pioneering” event will be the first in a series of such services, and that what we are now referring to as a “dependency” attached to and emanating from our parish, will develop into an independent mission and, one day, into a full-fledged parish that will bring the fullness of the Orthodox Church to an area in which it currently does not exist (except by “extension” from the “mother church” of Christ the Savior/Holy Spirit).
Whatever our future goals, I can say that we had a wonderful Vespers service on Monday, replete with announcing that “Christ is Risen!” joyfully and noisily. There were about 30 people there all together – including Fr. Justin Patterson from St. Athanasius church in Lexington. We had a pretty full choir and with the proximity of everyone together in one room – and with good acoustics – we made joyful noise in praise and thanksgiving to God.
The service was followed by a fellowship meal together. There were a few new faces and that fellowship allowed for folks getting to know each other a bit better. We would like to especially thank Kevin and Tracy for their generous hospitality of opening up their home to us as we continue to search for suitable space to rent for future services.
We have a Church Growth Committee meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening, as we continue our search for a place of worship and discuss our next steps forward.
In Christ,
Fr. Steven
