On the Fifth Sunday of Pascha, His Eminence Gabriel, Archbishop of Montreal and Canada, Locum Tenens of the Mid-American Diocese, visited St Basil the Great Orthodox Church in St Louis, MO, thus marking the 40th anniversary of the parish.

The initial plan was for the archbishop to arrive earlier on Saturday and to visit the ailing Archpriest Christopher Stade and present him the Diocesan Gramota in honor of the 35th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood and for diligent labors as pastor of St John Chrysostom parish. Then Vladyka would stop by at the aforementioned St John Chrysostom Church in House Springs, MO, to be back in St Louis in plenty of time to preside at the Vigil at St Basil’s Church.

However, as someone has recently remarked: “You have had the worst luck with hierarchical visits and travel in the last few years”, Archbishop Gabriel flight got canceled and he was able to arrive at St Basil’s only towards the end of the Vigil. The evening was concluded with a meal in the church hall for the clergy and faithful.

On Sunday morning, upon Archbishop Gabriel’s arrival he was presented flowers by the children and was greeted by the parish warden Andrew Johnstone with the traditional bread and salt.

Celebrating the Divine Liturgy alongside of Archbishop Gabriel were Archpriests John Whiteford (rector of St Jonah’s parish in Spring, TX) and Sergii Alekseev (St Basil’s rector), Priests Zachary Rose (rector of Sts Peter and Fevronia parish in Kansas City, KS) and Thomas Nichols (St Basil’s Church), Protodeacons Alexander Kichakov (Holy Virgin Protection Cathedral, Des Plaines, IL) and Nikifor Franklin (Nativity of the Mother of God parish in Albany, NY), Deacons Ephraim Galloway (St Basil’s cleric), Stephen Zelesnik (St John the Theologian Mission in New Roads, LA) and Ivan Alekseev (St Basil’s cleric). At the Sixth Hour Seth Williams was tonsured reader and ordained subdeacon for St Justin Mission in Cape Girardeau, MO. After the Great Entrance Deacon Stephen Zelesnik was ordained priest to head the mission in New Roads, LA. After the Consecration of Gifts Subdeacon Daniel Simpson was ordained deacon to continue serving at St Basil’s Church in this new capacity.

The temple was filled with St Basil’s parishioners and guests. Holy Communion was administered from three chalices.

In his homily after the Amvon Prayer, Archbishop Gabriel spoke about the unending joy of Pascha which was especially felt on that day. He spoke of the events described in the Gospel reading for the day – Christ’s conversation with a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. Connecting the Biblical events with our times, Archbishop Gabriel recalled a tragedy which happened at Jacob’s well a few decades ago. Then, in 1979, at the Orthodox Monastery of Jacob’s Well in Samaria, an ultra-Orthodox Jew threw a grenade on the monastery grounds, wounding Archimandrite Philoumenos, as the latter was walking to hear confessions. Seeing that the explosion did not kill the monk, the murderer finished his diabolical work by striking Fr Philoumenos several times with an axe. Nonetheless, our archpastor encouraged the faithful, when the situation in the Holy Land improves, to make an effort to visit the holy sites in this unique place on earth.

At the end of the Divine Liturgy a Gramota from the First Hierarch was presented to St Basil’s choir director Carol Surgant for her “noteworthy efforts on behalf of St Basil the Great parish in St Louis … and the worldwide Orthodox Christian English-speaking community.” Metropolitan Nicholas stresses in the Gramota, that the recipient has been “an unending font of Liturgical information for clergymen, singers, and the laity … at first at St John Chrysostom parish and now for many years at St Basil the Great parish”.

Another Gramota – read by Protodeacon Alexander – was from the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America, signed by Archbishop Gabriel. In this Gramota, addressed to the parish of St Basil the Great, the ruling hierarch honored the founder of St Basil’s “the Ever-Memorable Archpriest Martin Swanson, [who] having labored zealously to find the Truth, and having found it, worked tirelessly for the glory of God and the service of those made in His Image”. Recognizing the labors of Fr Martin, the Gramota extols also “his wife Katherine, and all the founders of the St. Basil community – both those still with us striving for the Heavenly Kingdom, and those who have gone to their reward there”. The Gramota ends with the words of profound encouragement: “If this service to God and man can be adopted as a gift from the founders of the parish to future generations as a call to action, we have great hope that in sixty years the ruling hierarch of this diocese will present you a similar gramota on your one hundredth anniversary. May the merciful Lord grant it!”

After the Divine Liturgy the festivities spilled into the parish hall and outdoors – under a huge tent, where the tables were set for the clergy and the faithful. The parish Sisterhood prepared a great variety of delicious dishes, while a small choir treated the guests to a choice selection of church hymns and folk songs, sung in English, Georgian and Russian.