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Glory to God for All Things

We're off to a great start for the first Saturdays' Divine Liturgy. Couple of Orthodox UC students came along with a Catholic (UC student?) who comes to OLF periodically. They know one another from the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute [orthodoxinstitute.org], a wonderful place which provides for the Orthodox here something like the Newman Center for the Latin Catholics. Fr. Vito who has initiated these first Saturdays DLs did so in part to offer Liturgy for those who have a conflict for the regular Sunday DL. Having these young Orthodox join us was a good example of that, to me. I'd love to go to the DL at PAOI more often but it happens Tuesday nights and I have a standing commitment then.

God bless our choir who showed up in full force yesterday and today!

(Fr. Tom Loya [catholicradiointernational.com] spoke to the Newman Center on Tuesday, after being at Stanford on Monday and St Dominic's on Wed. and hoping to get him back to talk at the Latin Seminary, St. Patricks's next year.)

And today we had a really fun treat-- a couple from Denver came for DL. With only 4 of us Russian parishes in the US it's really exciting to have someone visit from another Russian parish. And it was their first wedding anniversary. :-)

Scott Peter gave his first is a short series of talks he's offering monthly on the Sundays after first Saturday. Today was a brief description of our history in Russia. Next month he'll talk about the the Byzantine Catholic Russian Center and the founding of the parish of OLF.

We're such a tiny, commuter parish. It's exciting to be able to add to our offerings. It takes a significant effort from our clergy and choir.

Many thanks to Fr. Eugene, our ever faithful and wonderfully orthodox pastor, for blessing these additional offerings!

And major rehab of our choir area is nearly complete which is thrilling for them and all of us. We should have taken before pictures (as well as during....)!

Mary Louise,

Thank you for sharing what sounds to have been a wonderfully spiritual series of events.

I'd just note that the PAOI is actually much more than an Orthodox counterpart to a Newman Center. It is a fully accredited educational institution and offers a Master's in Theology, as well as being a full participant in and member of the Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of almost a dozen seminaries in the SF Bay area.

Many years,

Neil

Thank you for bringing this up, Neil. You are correct, their purpose is first that of a graudate with their ministry to the college students as an adjunct. As their site says


I was introduced to them by Fr. Maximos of Holy Resurrection Monastery who had been a student there while earning his MA though GTU. Fr. Christopher when he was serving as a deacon with OLF while preparing for his ordination to the priesthood was taking courses there.

(I'm also much indebted to Fr. Maximos for recommending I go visit the Russian Orthodox parish I now go to for most festal vigils/Vespers, a community which has so enriched my faith journey.)