Ukranian Festival

What a treat! This year at the Ukranian Festival I saw four Orthodox churches represented: Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church (my parish), St. Andrew Orthodox Church (my former parish), Four Evangelists Orthodox Church, Christ the Savior Orthodox Mission (Fenwick Island, Delaware), and St. Michael Ukranian Orthodox Church.

The attitude at Christ the Savior booth was that they were there not to make money, but to spread the Faith. This, in my mind, is the best reason for any church to be at a festival like this one. Making money is great, but it is much more important to spread the Gospel. Some times the two actually do work together.

Of course I enjoyed visiting the various booths. To me it was like visiting family. Bill and Kathy at Christ the Savior booth used to be members of St. Andrew Orthodox Church when I was there. Sue at St. Andrew was also a member of the parish and her son was one of my altar servers and one of my students in church school. In one class Stephen made some very good observations about the physical needs of the parish. He pointed out, for example, that there was no fire extinguisher in the altar. That situation was immediately corrected, of course.

David, who is working on the grill, fixed my flat many years ago when we came back from a trip to New York. The front driver tire was flat and I did not have the proper tool in the van. He took me home and the next day after Liturgy he took me to the van and changed the tire.

John, who used to be one of my altar servers, was one of the dancers. The whole parish is proud of him. His father used to be my supervisor at Comcast when I first started working for them. Don't let me get started on talking about Holy Trinity. I could write a book on that parish now. Transferring to Holy Trinity was definitely the right move for me to make, especially under the circumstances. I feel that I have really grown since the switch.

St. Michael Ukranian Orthodox Church is the only Orthodox church in Baltimore which I have not yet visited other than the new Greek mission in Bel Air. I hope to correct this deficiency soon. But I also have other churches which I must visit, but my first commitment is to my own parish.

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