Dear fathers, brothers and sisters!
\nWe are happy to inform you, that the Festal Services were officiated in accordance with the church cannons (Vigil, on the Saturday Evening, and Divine Liturgy, on the Sunday Morning) together with the water blessing rite and the blessing of the church building, on the Sunday of June 17-18, 2017. The services were led by Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid America.
\nWe are prayerfully thankful to his Eminence for the Archpastoral visit and Services performed, catechizations granted and spiritual support, which are so vital for our humble parish. Indeed, it is hard to overestimate the multi-year efforts of his Grace made for edifying, proliferation and strengthening of the Sacred Orthodoxy and Russian Church within the borders of the diocese. We pray to our All-Merciful Savior to grant his Eminence with health, longevity and strength to continue carrying his tough Archpastoral cross and we are thankful for the demonstrated humbleness and great Christian love, which we joyfully witnessed during the past two days.
\nAlso we would like to express our gratitude to his Eminence for the Archpastoral blessing of the efforts made by the Father Rector of the church, Archpriest Vasil (Kuzmich), and the parishioners, which were focused on the churches reconstruction which resulted in the full transformation of the church exterior and interior, including: rebuilding and redevelopment of the altar room, iconostasis, main service part of the church, decoration with new great icons, tailored church clothing, new lampadas (oil lamps), all in the strict accordance with all the church ancient cannons and traditions cherished by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Also, we would like to point out the efforts made by Father Vasil and parishioners to repair the ancillary facilities designed to support the divine services and for storage of sanctuary items and vestments (including the vestry), as well as efforts to finalize the capital reconstruction and fitting up the non-liturgical parts of the church: refectory, cellules, heating and air conditioning systems along with other facilities. All the works were done wastelessly with maximum efficiency and economy in order to minimize the negative impact on the scarce church budget. As a result, the parish implemented the best modern technologies increasing energy efficiency and minimizing the environmental impact of the church natural activities related to heating, cooling and lighting of the church exterior and interior as well as insuring a comfortable environment for the parishioners to attend services both during summer and winter seasons, and will undoubtedly contribute to the long-term sustainable church activities.
\nUnfortunately, we still have to recognize the fact that we are still unable to find a permanent priest, who would be willing to assume the saving but uneasy cross of the pastoral service and guidance of the relatively small (in terms of number of people), but energetic and promising parish. Realizing that it is far beyond the human capabilities of our beloved Father Vasyl to combine the obedience of officiating services simultaneously for the three parishes, two of which are indeed far away from the city of Fargo, we offer up the prayers to God and to All The Saints \u2013 heavenly patrons of the church, to send us a shepherd, who would not let \u201cthe little flock\u201d to be abandoned and disseminated.
\nAlso, we would like to extend our gratitude to the sisters-parishioners of the church, who have assumed the responsibilities to perform cleaning and maintaining in a worthy condition the church premises as well as for preparing the great repast, which was a dignifying and joyful accomplishment for the received spiritual comforting, and was prepared in the accordance with the relevant fasting instructions of the Typikon for that day.<\/p>\n
Church council of the Parish, Fargo, 2017.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, North Dakota, USA.<\/em>\u043c\u0438\u043d\u043d\u0435\u0441\u043e\u0442\u0430<\/p>\n