2007 and earlier 2008

Blessing of the Schuylkill River on the Sunday after Theophany

Jan. 21, 2007, 1 p.m.: A yearly tradition at Our Lady! There will be a banquet afterwards; cost is $25. Call 215-277-9300 us for details.

Russian New Year roast-pork meal

Jan. 14, 2007 after Liturgy.

St. Herman’s Youth Conference 2005 hosted at Our Lady

During the conference Fr. Athanasy was made an archimandrite (mitred abbot).

Shrine of St. Anna has new stand with canopy

Bringing the icon to St. Tikhon's Seminary in Pennsylvania

The myrrh-streaming icon of St. Anna now has a beautiful carved wooden stand with domed canopy, made in Greece. This is a gift from the many Orthodox churches of several ethnicities the icon has been taken to. Thank you!

Fr. Athanasy takes the icon of St. Anna to other churches

Here is an account with photos from Reader Michael Bishop of Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church, Baltimore.

The icon has also gone to a Ukrainian church in Bayonne, N.J. where 100+ were anointed with her oil. The icon also went to the Hermitage of the Holy Cross in West Virginia for a pilgrimage the first weekend of October 2005.

Special collection for Hurricane Katrina victims

During September 2005 the basket on the antidoron table after Liturgy collected money to help the many thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi, arguably the worst natural disaster in American history, virtually destroying the city of New Orleans and forcing its evacuation.

Feast of St. Anna brings hundreds of pilgrims for services, all-day festival and street procession

Sunday, August 7, 2005 was the first feast of St. Anna since the miraculous icon was venerated by Metropolitan Laurus back in November. Orthodox pilgrims from the churches the icon has visited joined us for the day, which included an akathist to the saint and a street procession chanting the canon to the saint, going all the way round the city block just like at Pascha.

Our choir director also sings with New York choir

On May 15, 2005 our regent, Maria Greendyk (far left in the photo), who belongs to the Diocesan Holy Myrrhbearers Women's Choir, celebrated its "name day" by singing the festive Paschal divine service in honor of its heavenly protectresses, this year at Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ.

His Eminence visits our church

His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia graciously visited our parish to celebrate our feast day with us as we inaugurate our 55th year as a parish family and the 30th year of ordination for our Rector. To our great joy, His Eminence served the All-Night Vigil on Friday evening, November 5, as well as the Liturgy on the following day. There was a well-attended banquet afterwards.

Not only was the icon of the parish's feast day honored but the miraculous medieval Kursk Root icon of the Mother of God was in the church for the veneration of the faithful.

The Father Rector received a gramata for his service to the church. The phenomenon of the oil drops on the icon of Holy Righteous Anna has been approved for veneration.

Update: On November 9, 2004, the icon of Holy Righteous Anna was found to have wept myrrh.

Election Day Nov. 2, 2004

This church's hall is a polling place in Philadelphia.

New iconography in altar by David Mastroberte

New marble tiling in altar and new memorial wall of the dead

Many thanks to artist Ted Efremoff, originally from Russia (his American grandmother, the recently departed Margaret Wettlin, wrote the book Fifty Russian Winters about her many years there), for his wonderful work on the new memorial wall for the parish's deceased members.

Matching the faux marble paint on the iconostasis and the kiot shrines we now have actual marble tiles for the sanctuary floor, fitting for the place of the weekly (and holy-day) Christian sacrifice of the altar.

Myrrh appeared on the icon of Holy Righteous Anna

This icon, painted especially for Father Athanasy by the nuns at Eleon in Jerusalem where he once served (for a year), recently showed drops of myrrh. Father has an especial devotion to this saint, the mother of the Mother of God and thus Our Lord's grandmother, as her prayers helped save his shattered arm from an accident when he was a child, enabling him to be a priest today. Слава Богу! Glory to God!

New dome

A lovely blue cupola onion dome with a gold Russian cross and icon of Our Lord 'Not Made By Hands' is now over the church door, in memory of longtime parishioner and choir member Capt. Alexis Gougnin. Вечная память. Eternal memory.

New kliros and choir stands

Custom-made from 200-year-old gospel oak (the trees used to build old New England churches) from Kizhi woodworks, the workshop of Nikolai Lukianov.

Mr. Lukianov writes:

The unique design and the construction of the choir and directors stand was accomplished by Nikolai R. Lukianov, proprietor of Kizhi Woodworks, Saxonville, Massachusetts. They are built of quarter sawn oak. The construction methods used were fine joinery of all panels, and then countersunk screw/grain matched tapered oak plug construction. Each side panel is composed of two boards joined together, with the back of the director's stand composed of six. The stands include a 40-watt music lamp, hidden wiring, and an eight-foot retractable electrical cord. The storage interior beneath the hinged face panel has been lined with fine maroon felt.

Interestingly, all the oak is from three trees, one red oak (5 stands), one white (2 stands, plus the director's stand a combination of white oak with red oak trim), and one black (shelves). The slight contrast is beautiful, and we have taken advantage of it to accent the panels and trim accordingly.

The original raw logs came from the Walden Woods area of Massachusetts, home of Henry David Thoreau, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Louisa May Alcott. We estimate the wood to be approximately 200 years old. The oak was "quarter sawn" at Red Rail Farm, in Lincoln, Massachusetts, and barn dried there for three years. Quarter sawing is a unique (and somewhat difficult) way of sawing a log, that creates a very artistic and consistent grain pattern, with 'medullaris' splaying like little leaves. All panels are bookmatched. Quarter sawn oak is a grain pattern used for building the interiors of many churches here in New England, and is commonly known as "Gospel Oak".

Visit of miraculous icon of St. Nicholas

Originally from Michigan City, Indiana, the myrhh-streaming icon of the saint - the real 'Santa Claus' - came to the church Nov. 15 and 16, 2003. In some photos you can see the oil cascading down the front of the icon, a simple paper icon mounted on wood, covered with a metal riza and glass and with a relic in the lower right corner.