Our Priest
Fr. Lawrence Russell
If you are an Orthodox Christian now visiting our website, you will find information about our parish, our schedule of Divine Services, events, and other information you may find useful or otherwise edifying. We hope so. Please browse and feel free to contact us with any additional questions you may have (frlawrence@odox.org). We will be honored to welcome you for a visit.
Please permit me to especially welcome, by way of introduction, those of you who are not already Orthodox in Faith and have come to our website. Our parish is a member parish of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org), Diocese of the West (dowoca.org) and is currently under the arch pastoral care of Archbishop BENJAMIN.
Our relationship with our current Archbishop is not just an administrative relationship with a current leader. It is the first sign of our parish’s communion with the historic succession of all Orthodox, canonical bishops—living and departed-this-life—across the whole of Christian history. As St. Ignatius of Antioch, a bishop and contemporary with Christ’s twelve Apostles, wrote: “Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the complete Church” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, section 8).
Jesus Christ is, there is the complete Church” (Letter to the Smyrnaeans, section 8).
The Orthodox Church bears the appellative “Orthodox” for the commonly held teaching among its members that both our worship and doctrinal beliefs are Divinely revealed as “right or true” (Oxford Dictionary “orthodox”). God reveals this Faith—God, Himself, Who exists as One God in a Trinity of Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While this belief may seem exclusive or arrogant, we would hasten to add that it is not the personal boast of the individual members of the Orthodox Church—judging everyone outside their circle as “wrong.” It is a humble “boast” about the work of God in protecting and assuring the victory of His Church. (Matt. 16:18) As St. Paul reminds us: “let him who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1Cor. 1:31).
Sadly, the Orthodox Church is too frequently an idiom of Christianity with which a lot of people living in North America are unfamiliar—since America is historically Protestant or Roman Catholic. We invite those interested in learning more about the Orthodox Church to use our welcome message as a stimulus to further explore our Faith and its Teachings. Moreover, if you are living close to our location, we welcome you to our Divine Services and/or any of our events.
