We welcome Stephen Borthwick to the Holy Orthodox Church and to the parish family of St. Gregory’s. Stephen was chrismated on Holy Cross Day and has taken St. Augustine of Hippo as his patron saint.
In response to Metropolitan PHILIP’s request for parish contributions for Syrian refugee relief, we have collected $1308. This money will be sent to the Archdiocese and will then be sent to the Patriarchate where every effort is being made to meet the great needs of the refugees affected by the civil war. Work is being done in conjunction with International Orthodox Christian Charities.
The 6th annual pilgrimage for Our Lady of Walsingham, which is celebrated by the four Western Rite parishes in the Eastern region, will be held in Lynchburg, Virginia this year on October 19 (the Saturday following the October 15 feast day). The people of Holy Trinity Church will host the event, which will begin with Matins at 9:30AM and Mass at 10. This feast commemorates a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary by a noble woman in Walsingham, England, in the early 12th century who was instructed by the Theotokos to build a house on her land which would represent the house in Nazareth where the Christ child was raised. A spring on the property was found to have healing powers and, before long, pilgrims began coming to pray at the “Holy House” and partake of the healing water. Walsingham was the most visited pilgrimage site in England during the Middle Ages after Canterbury. After being destroyed by Henry VIII in the 16th century, the Walsingham Shrine was restored in the early 19th century. It now includes an Orthodox chapel and the feast has been approved for Orthodox devotion by our bishops.
View the complete October newsletter here.