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Hey Friends,

I've been in San Francisco with the family for a trip for a couple days and we'll be here until late Sunday night. I just wrote a long post but accidentally deleted it, so this time I will be brief: can anyone recommend some good Eastern churches to attend? I'm thinking Holy Virgin Cathedral of the Russians or St. Gregory the Illuminator (Armenian). Any other suggestions?

Alexis

If you are talking about Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral, the one where the relics of St John Maximovitch are, then I would definitely recommend that Church.

There is the Russian Catholic Church. It is called Our Lady of Fatima. You can find it on the web. Also Holy Trinity Orthodox Cathedral has a great choir. They also have a website. That one is OCA. On the Latin side St Peter and Paul is stunning. They still have candles.

Make sure to see at least one of the Spanish missions if you haven't already. I always say that one can't fully comprehend California without looking at it's early history.

Yes, go to the ROCOR Cathedral and venerate St. John's relics. They also have daily liturgical services there. If you can do it, go to the Vigil on Sat. night for a while. When I was there they had the clergy/men singing on the ambo, and the mixed choir singing on the loft and singing antiphonally. Plus they have a nice little bookstore counter there as well.

I recommend San Juan Bautista, about 100 miles southeast, off of US101. It still functions as a parish Church in a small town.

San Carlos Borromeo, just south of Carmel and Monterrey, is also functioning as a parish.

Hopefully you can visit all these suggested here? Let us know....enjoy,
CS

Thanks for all the recommendations, folks. I ended up attending liturgy at Holy Virigin Joy of All Who Sorrow Cathedral, the one where St. John the Wonderworker's relics are housed.

It was a very positive experience! The inside of the temple was stunningly beautiful. I venerated the relics of St. John, so that was another positive. Not incredibly huge numbers of congregants by any means, but the ones who were there venerated the numerous icons placed throughout the temple with great intensity. Honestly, in the Greek Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox, Ukrainian Catholic and Melkite parishes that I've been to, I've never seen many people venerate icons (not much, anyway). But it was constant here. Is that typical of Russian churches (this was a temple of the Russian Church in Exile)?

I did make one minor faux-pas, however. I received the antidoron at the end of the liturgy and then afterwards saw a sign in the narthex saying that non-Orthodox weren't allowed to receive blessed bread, blessed oil, etc. I am allowed to in the Greek parish near where I go to school and have been at every other Orthodox church I've ever attended so it didn't even cross my mind to ask and make sure. Whoops.

Oh, and the choir was great! Right on target.

On a side note, I had settled on attending an Armenian church for Sunday morning, but I called St. Gregory the Illuminator and could never get a time for liturgy with the recorded message. However, I looked on the website of the Armenian Archdiocese in the West (or whatever it's called - the point being it's the archdiocese's website for the western U.S. and lists all the parishes therein), but to my surprise this Armenian church isn't listed! They have another one listed in San Francisco, St. John Etchmiadzin, but not St. Gregory the Illuminator.

But the latter even has a website: stgregorysf.org

But the schedule of liturgy isn't on there, and I cannot understand if this church is or isn't connected to the Armenian archdiocese. Anyone have any idea?

My family went to Glide Memorial United Methodist Church while I was at liturgy. Ah well!

Alexis

Armenian Churches: there are three parallel jurisdictions in the USA:

1) the Armenian Church which is allegiant to the Supreme Catholicos of Holy Etchmiadzin;

2) the Armenian Church which is allegiant to the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia; and

3) the Armenian Catholic Diocese, allegiant to the Armenian Catholic Patriarch.

Fr. Serge

Thanks, Fr. Serge. I see that that church is part of the Cilician See. Anyway, when I called I could never ascertain the time of liturgy in the morning, so I settled on the Russian church.

There is virtually no Armenian presence in Atlanta, so I'll have to wait until I go to another big U.S. cosmo area to attend a Soorp Bedarak or whatever they call their liturgy!

Alexis