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Pilgrimage to the Holy Land – 2010Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
It is a great pleasure and joy to greet you on the occasion of the celebration of our 75th Anniversary. Congratulations and best wishes to all of you, and to all our friends and well-wishers!
Today we commemorate with glory the first Orthodox Divine Liturgy, celebrated in our city, at the local YMCA by Archimandrite Antonin (Pokrovsky) on September 14, 1924. At that time a group of the Orthodox believers from Vancouver and surrounding areas of the Mainland pulled together to establish an Orthodox Community, and thus, to lay the foundation for the future Holy Resurrection Church – our beloved Church. It happened 75 years ago.
The Church was dedicated to the memory of the Restoration of the Holy Resurrection Temple in Jerusalem (335), and the first church building was dedicated by then Metropolitan Platon of August 29, 1929 – only five years after the celebration of that first liturgy. Can we imagine how strong was the zeal of those first parishioners and how big must have been their sacrifices!
As we are celebrating the 75th anniversary of this Church we must thank God for the abundance of His mercies given to our church and its faithful. Glory to be to Him!
We also have to acknowledge the achievements, and hard work, zeal and sacrifices of the builders, benefactors and keepers of this church. The generations of these faithful Orthodox people provided continuous ministry to this Church through the history of her existence, until now. All those who have kept this Church for so many years – the clergy, acolytes, readers and singers, all the faithful parishioners and internal organizations e.g. Russian Orthodox Society; Ladies Auxiliary; Ladies Guild; Sisterhood; Library; Church Schools; etc., all should be commended for their effort.
But at the same time, and with the same eagerness, we shall do everything possible to restore the spirit of those predecessors of ours who accomplished so much for the Glory of God and for their salvation. We should bring to life the original idea of the Restoration of Holy Resurrection Church in Jerusalem, and make all efforts to restore our Church and our Christian Community. We have to restore in us the spirit of the early Christian believers in order to renew the vigor of Orthodoxy in our Church.
Only if we will be able to achieve the above, only then our celebration of the 75th Jubilee of our Holy Resurrection Church will have any meaning for the future generations of our parishioners.
May the Almighty God help us in our endeavors!
With love in Christ, Yours Father Andrey Somow.
