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I have a few questions about Our Lady of Fatima and St. Andrew Russian Catholic churches in California.

1. Just how authentically Great Russian are they?
Do they follow more traditional ROCOR usage, more modern stuff i.e. New Skete, or somewhere in between? Are there pews, a full weekend cycle of services, etc?

2. What calender do they use-Julian, Reformed Julian, or Gregorian?

I'm thinking of possibly going down to one or the other for Pascha next year, assuming it doesn't conflict with my Roman obligations at home.

I wish there were more Russian Catholic parishes in the U.S.!

In Christ,

Michael

I've visited Our Lady of Fatima several times. They have a nice web-site that should fill-you in on many of your questions.
http://www.byzantinecatholic.org/home/

It's a tiny parish and the temple is in an old Lake street home. The ambience - no pews, icons all over the walls, Iconostas with curtain, ripidia, zapivka - is very Russian. I think that the usage is OCA: nothing oddly modern, standard Russian chant, no litanies for Russia (does ROCOR still do this?); "all" the litanies are taken, and the anaphora is taken aloud.

It's in a cool part of Richmond district, after the liturgy you are a short walk from some great Russian delicatessens and bakeries, and arguably the best dim sum in the US.

djs

I have frequently been both at St. Michael's in NYC and St. Andrew's in LA. While they are both small communities, they are wonderfully warm, friendly and hospitable. Most of the community are, as you say here, "transritualist" but elements of Russian customs remain. The services are mostly in English. Both also seem to follow the Catholic custom of everyone receving communion.

Axios

[ 07-21-2002: Message edited by: Axios ]

Whatever became of Kurt, anyway?

Axios, you and he are both very "ecumencial", so to speak. Separated at birth?

[ 07-21-2002: Message edited by: Lemko Rusyn ]

St. Michael's is strictly Gregorian calendar, and I believe all of the other Russian Catholic parishes in the U.S. are unfortunately also Gregorian calendar. The only Greek Catholic parishes in the U.S. that I know of on the Julian Calendar are Ukrainian Catholic.

I don't know about the California parishes, but St. Michael's where I attend at least once a year follows the OCA-style usage and not ROCOR. Their Divine Liturgy pew books are the OCA books put out by St. Vladimir's Seminary edited by Father Alexander Schmemann.

No kinder word could be said of me than to call me ecumencial. Thank you!

Axios

Glory to God for all things!

Dear friends,

I am an active member of St. Andrew's. Our parish was founded by one of the two Russian Catholic priests sent to the U.S., Fr. Mikhail Nedtoshin in 1936. He was a Great Russian trained at the Russicum. Since our foundation our priests have followed Muscovite liturgical practices. Our pastor and parishoners strive to form and maintain a community which lives up to the ideals of the first bishop of the Russian Orthodox Catholic Church, St. Leonid Feodorv (1879-1935.) St. Leonid offered his life to Christ in order to reunite Orthodox Russia with Catholic Rome.

Our parish, therefore, differs very little from a Russian Orthodox parish in America. We commemorate "Our Holy Ecumenical Pontiff_____, Pope of Rome". We venerate Russian Byzantine Catholic saints. Our pastor aquired a relic of St. Josaphat for our veneration. We will soon have an icon of St. Leonid. We sell booklets about St. Feodor Romza. We are praying for the glorification of Hieromartyr Andrej Sheptitsky and the Priestconfessor Walter Ciszek. We sell Russian icons of Our Lady of Fatima. We also follow the Calendar of Pope Gregory XVI.

We agree with you, Michael. We also wish that there were a few more Russian Catholic parishes.
You are always welcome to visit us.

Presviataya Bogoroditse Fatimskaya, spasi nas.
RusOrthCath martyrs and confessors, pray for us.

[ 07-22-2002: Message edited by: PaulOrthCathConfessor ]

[ 07-22-2002: Message edited by: PaulOrthCathConfessor ]

Dear Paul,

How much are your icons of Our Lady of Fatima?

I want to do some business with you . . .

Alex