Holy Ghost Orthodox Church

05/30/2026

The church is decorated and ready for Pentecost Sunday Liturgy tomorrow at 9 AM. We are hoping that YOU will join us in prayer.
A nice reception to follow with games and fun for the kids. Help us celebrate our Parish Feast!

05/10/2026

Our Bishop, Metropolitan Gregory, often describes one's parish Church and property as being a "slice of paradise" like the Garden of Eden was before the fall of Adam and Eve. Thanks to Susan and Jonathan, here is a bit of "evidence" that our beautiful Church and 20 acre property is just that, Paradise!

We share this property with this beautiful juvenile red bellied woodpecker!

04/30/2026

Check out this truly great news about the Growth of the Orthodox Faith, in our American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America - ACROD and our parish. The numbers are amazing. Our parish alone has received 5 people into the Orthodox Faith and presently has 5 Catechumens and 24 Inquirers into the Orthodox Faith . This does not include 9 baptisms of children whose parents already are Orthodox , and one additional adult baptism which will take place this evening. Glory to God!

Did you know that since January 1st of this year, at least 139 people have been received into the Orthodox Church in the parishes of our Diocese? And there are 212 Catechumens and 113 Inquirers learning more about the Orthodox Faith? You can track the growth in the Diocese by checking out a new section on our diocesan website home page. https://www.acrod.org "The Good News of Orthodoxy" Watch as these numbers keep climbing in real-time. They represent data sent from only a third of our Diocesan Parishes. Diocesan Priests, if you have not already shared these statistics from your parish with us, go on line and share it now:
https://www.acrod.org/2026converts

04/23/2026

Lots of joy at our Diocesan Clergy Convocation!

04/12/2026

CHRIST IS RISEN! Join us for our Paschal Liturgy tomorrow, Sunday April 12th at 9:30 am - and stay for our amazing Epic Paschal Fast Breaking Extravaganza at our outdoor Shrine, Food, fellowship and fun and even an Egg Hunt for the little ones!

04/10/2026

What Are YOU doing this weekend?

Come Join us for Orthodox Christian Easter (Pascha)

We have a weekend full of beautiful services and fellowship.

Holy Friday, April 10
11 am Royal Hours & Prophecies Regarding the Passion of our Lord
7 pm - Vespers and Entombment of our Lord, with Procession

Holy Saturday April 11
9:00 Am Vespers with Liturgy of St. Basil - FIrst proclamation of Resurrection
8:30 PM - Resurrection Matins - Service of Joy Announcing the Resurrection to the World.

Holy Pascha (Easter)
9:00 am Singing of Resurrection Matin Hymns
9:30 am Divine Liturgy followed by blessing of Paschal Foods, Easter Egg Hunt and Agape Meal/ Celebration on the Parish Grounds.

04/10/2026

Pastoral Ponderings For Holy Friday

We have come to the most difficult day of Passion Week. Today Christ's journey becomes incredible difficult and extremely painful in these final hours leading to his death.
Judas Iscariot, the disciple who had betrayed Jesus, was overcome with remorse and hangs himself early in the morning.

Meanwhile, before the third hour (9 a.m.), Jesus endures the humiliation of false accusations, condemnation, mockery, beatings, and abandonment. After many unlawful trials, he is sentenced to death by crucifixion, one of the most horrible and disgraceful methods of capital punishment known at the time.

Before Christ is led away, soldiers spit on him, torment and mock him, and put a crown of thorns on his head which pierces his skull. He is forced to carry his own cross to Golgatha (the Place of the Skull) where, again, he is mocked and insulted as Roman soldiers nailed him to the wooden cross.

From the Cross, Jesus makes seven final statements: His first words are: "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34) and his last, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46) Then, at about the ninth hour (3 p.m.), Jesus breaths his last breath and dies. By 6 p.m. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea take Jesus' body down from the cross and lay it in a tomb.

Today at the Royal Hours service which we celebrate at 11:00 am and at the Vespers and Entombment Service at 7:00 pm, we have the opportunity to stand beside our Lord during the last moments of his life. We will witness first hand not only the depths of his suffering, but more importantly, the heights of his self-emptying love for all of us – the entire world.

Please do your best to observe this day as quietly and prayerfully as possible and by attending Church. Please bring your children to experience these beautiful services and especially the burial procession.

May God strengthen us all on this difficult day.

With much love in Christ, Fr. Peter

04/10/2026

Pastoral Ponderings for Holy Thursday

Glory To Jesus Christ!

Dear Parish Family,

Today Holy Week takes a somber turn. From Bethany, Jesus sends Peter and John ahead to the Upper Room in Jerusalem to make the preparations for the Passover Feast. Later tonight after sunset, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples as they prepared to share in the Passover. By performing this humble act of service, Jesus demonstrates by example how believers should love one another.

Then, Jesus will share the feast of Passover with his disciples, saying:

"I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins. For I tell you now that I won't eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God." (Luke 22:15-16, NLT)

As the Lamb of God, Jesus was about to fulfill the meaning of Passover by giving his body to be broken and his blood to be shed in sacrifice, freeing us from sin and death. During this Last Supper, Jesus established the Eucharist or Holy Communion instructing his followers to do this often in remembrance of Him.

Later, Jesus and the disciples leave the Upper Room and go to the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays in agony to God the Father. Luke's Gospel says that "his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground" (Luke 22:44, ESV).

Late in the evening in Gethsemane, Jesus will be betrayed with a kiss by Judas Iscariot and arrested by the Sanhedrin. He will then be taken to the home of Caiaphas, the High Priest, where the whole council will gather to begin making their case against Jesus.

Meanwhile, in the early morning hours, as Jesus' trial gets underway, we will see Peter deny knowing his Master three times before the rooster crows

There is much for us to meditate on and reflect upon, as Disciples of the Lord. So much for us to take in. Today we see first hand the most excellent humility and the beautiful love Christ has for all of us. He is willing to do the most menial and demeaning task.. wash our feet. In his Love for us, he has provided us with the Eucharist so that He can remain close to us always, living deep within our bodies and souls. He loves us so much, that he is willing to die for us and prays with such intensity for our well-being and salvation that he sweat blood.

May we always, be mindful of this love and return this love to Him, by being Eucharistically minded, that is by regularly receiving this Holy Mystery, and by "living the Liturgy after the Liturgy" by loving our families, neighbors and all that we come in contact with - by being willing to die to ourselves and humbly serve them.

Please make every effort to attend tonight's service, and prepare your children to come to tomorrow Evening's 7:00 pm Vespers Service with the procession and entombment of our Lord. It is vitally important that that they witness this service and venerate our Lord's Tomb. A beautiful service of Royal Hours will also take place tomorrow morning at 11 am - where we will read the prophecies of our Lord's passion and Epistle and Gospel Readings.

Stay focused and mindful of our Lord. Keep strong with your fasting and stay the course... Our Journey ends in a few short days...

Assuring you of my love and prayers always,

Fr. Peter

04/10/2026

Pastoral Ponderings for Holy Wednesday

Dear Parish Family,

Glory to Jesus Christ!

The Bible doesn't say what the Lord did on the Wednesday of Passion Week. Scholars speculate that after two exhausting days in Jerusalem, Jesus and his disciples spent this day resting in Bethany in anticipation of Passover.

Just a short time previously, Jesus had revealed to the disciples, and the world, that he had power over death by raising Lazarus from the grave. After seeing this incredible miracle, many people in Bethany believed that Jesus was the Son of God and put their faith in him.

During This Morning's Bridegroom Matins service the Holy Fathers of the Church determined that anointing of Christ with sweet smelling myrrh by the woman in the house of Simon, the l***r, in Bethany be remembered. Repentance was the mission of the prophets. It would be an appropriate one-word title for the Bible, because "repentance" was the mission of our Lord. This woman who demonstrated her repentance and her warm faith toward our Lord to this day still presents to us the "aroma" of her virtue for imitation today.

At this service the beautiful "Hymn of Cassiane," probably a work of Patriarch Photius is sung. It begins: "The woman who had fallen into many sins recognized Your Godhead, O Lord; Woe to me, says she; receive the sources of my tears, O You who gathers into clouds the water of the sea. Who can trace out the multitude of my sins and the abysses of my misdeeds? "O You whose mercy is unbounded."

Tonight we will celebrate the Service of Holy Unction I strongly encourage you to attend with your family. Holy Unction is given for the cleansing sins and the healing the body and soul. Holy Unction is one of the seven Sacraments of the Church.

Have a wonderful day! Stay Strong and keep focused on the Lord.. you can do it!

Love in Christ,

Fr. Peter

04/07/2026

Glory To Jesus Christ!

Good Morning Parish Family

Today promises to be another bright but a bit chilly day. Hope you all get to spend some time outside enjoying the brightness of the sun and getting some fresh air.

Today is a double blessing, it is both on Holy Tuesday and the Annunciation of the Most Holy Mother of God.

On Holy Tuesday, the usual scripture readings, and hymns for this day which are partially set aside due to the celebratory nature of the Annunciation, encourage us to be watchful in the spiritual life. We are also reminded in the Gospel of the talents entrusted to each servant. Each one is given something—something precious—and each one is called to respond, to act, to bear fruit. And then, standing right beside this call, we see the Most Holy Theotokos at the Annunciation.

Her response to God is not hesitation, not calculation, not fear—but a total offering of herself:

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

This is the fullness of what it means to “make the most of the talents entrusted to you.” It is not merely productivity or effort—it is self-emptying trust. It is offering everything—our time, our gifts, our very lives—back to God with openness and courage.

Holy Tuesday asks us: What have you done with what God has given you?

The Annunciation shows us: This is how you respond.

As we continue through this Holy Week, I gently but heartily encourage you—come, be present, step into the services of the Church. The Vesperal Liturgy offered on this unique day is not simply another service; it is an invitation to stand at the crossroads of watchfulness and surrender, of calling and response.

And let this not end with Pascha.

The temptation is always there—to return to привычное, to settle back into routine. But the Church is calling us forward. The Bridegroom is still coming. The talents are still in our hands. The example of the Theotokos still stands before us.

Let us not bury what has been given.
Let us not delay our response.
Let us not hold back from what God is asking of us.

Instead, let us say—today, this week, and in the days beyond Pascha:

“Let it be to me according to Your word.”

Enjoy this beautiful day. Stay strong and focused, come to services today if you are able.

With Much Love and Prayers,

Fr. Peter