† Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Sobor, Vancouver

I wanted to congratulate everybody on such a momentous occasion 100th anniversary of the Holy Resurrection church. I grew up with this church, I was born here, I was born in Richmond BC, and I grew up in this church, it raised me.

My parents are initially from Moscow Russia, they moved over here up in 1999 and so they came here and they were looking for a community, a Russian community that they could go to, but not just Russian but specifically Orthodox. They wanted to carry Orthodoxy with them from Russia, and they came to this church this is where they found themselves.

Father Michael and Matushka Elena they really graciously took us in. Actually, Matushka Elena is my godmother. So, I feel very like and especially close connection to their family and this church has been a kind of a very important Pinnacle in my life throughout all of it.

There’s so many people in the church that I would like to thank for all the individual lessons. They taught me throughout the years from Sunday school when I was a little kid to a teenager when Matushka Elena took over and she started teaching us to now.

My dad who still keeps up the tradition of Sunday school but now for adults.

In addition to that what I really appreciated from the church was the sense of community they built not only within the members here but with the community around us. We used to have this program where we would go to East Hastings and give the food to the homeless. I thought that that was very important because I was raised and grew up in Richmond and it’s quite isolated from that part of Vancouver. I wouldn’t really find myself there too often, and so I was really appreciative for the fact that I was able to participate and go there and help the people in that Community because it definitely gave me some perspective on the life that they live there. So that was one thing.

For all of the celebrations they hold every year I was always asked to participate in the plays and the dance performances and everything growing up. Although I was like fairly shy when it came to performing on stage, everyone was so excited about it and so I never regretted participating in it. I got to meet a lot of people through it. I got to make a lot of friendships through it. Oxana Petrova initially was doing all the choreography for our dance group and she’s just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. She’s so kind-hearted, so persistent so resilient and so understanding as well especially when everybody comes from different skill levels the different backgrounds, she was able to bring us all together and make something really beautiful for the church that, I think, a lot of people enjoyed, so, a special thank you to Oxana Petrova.

For the latest performance that we’ve put together big thanks to Elena Deljanin, special thanks to for carrying on the tradition. I know it’s no easy task to organize people along together. I have small experience organizing people. I helped out with the UBC Sailing Club and so I understand how difficult it is to put together an event and get everybody excited and organized and make sure that everything flows properly. I really appreciate her taking time out of her already very-very busy schedule to make this all happen, to make it all work because yet again through one of these I think I made a lot of new friends. The people that I’ve seen in the church all the time but never really had a chance to talk to or get to know. Through all of our practices, all of our get togethers, our dinners to celebrate I think we also get closer.

I just think that Holy Resurrection has a lot of love like all the people there have a lot of love to give. It’s a place I’m incredibly thankful to have even when I’m going for walks and I pass by Holy Resurrection, I’m always so happy to see it. If I’m with my friends I’m like that’s my church that’s where I go.

I just want to say thank you to everybody for all their efforts and it’s very special that I to be here to celebrate a 100 years anniversary.