Rector of St. George Church priest Igor Tarasov visited Ukraine last month. He is working on his degree in Theology taking courses at the Kiev Theological Academy located at the famous Cave Lavra monastery. Fr. Igor successfully took his final exams and is going to begin writing a thesis.
Being in Kiev Fr. Igor participated in an opening ceremony for the exhibition prepared by the Department of External Affairs of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It took place on October 5th. The exhibition was named “No to the revolutions creating anti-Christian attitude”. Some diplomats and community leaders of Ukraine and Arab countries were present and had speeches at the ceremony. Fr. Igor was also invited to speak as a representative of the Orthodox Church from America.
In his speech Fr. Igor stressed that American Orthodox community does not share the same view of enthusiasm regarding revolutions which took place in some Arab countries. These social tribulations very often lead to the rise of anti-Christian attitude and hostility towards Christian communities in the Near East. He expressed the solidarity with the Christians suffering in the Arab countries.
On Sunday, October 7, Fr. Igor served the Divine Liturgy at St. Spyridon’s Church in Kiev. He preached a sermon on the readings from the Gospel assigned for that day. He particularly spoke about the Saint commemorated on that day, the holy first-Martyr Thecla. She was a disciple of St.Paul and preferred to live a life of chastity rather than be married. Finally, St. Thecla was martyred for Christ. The Gospel lesson assigned for her commemoration is  telling about the wise and foolish virgins. Fr. Igor pointed out that while the women Saints like Thecla imitated the wise virgins from the parable, many other young ladies imitate the foolish ones. This leads to the loss of divine grace, but people are always able to change and acquire salvation.
On Sunday, October 14, on the feast of the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos, Fr. Igor was in the city of Kamianets-Podilsky. He concelebrated the Divine Liturgy at the local cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky.
Our parish priest enjoyed his trip to the old country and brought our parishioners little presents – icons of the different Saints from the Kiev Cave Lavra.

On September 23rd, on Sunday before the Exaltation of the Cross, Rector of St. George Church, priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our temple.

 Fr. Igor preached a homily after the Gospel lesson. He said that the assigned reading from the holy Gospel mentions the events from the Old Testament history. It says that “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (Jn. 3, 14). “Our Lord Jesus Christ recalled that to teach His disciples about His own mission in the world, the mission of salvation. And He compared His mission to the mission of Moses who led the chosen people of God from the Egyptian captivity to the promised land. The Jews were wandering in the wilderness for the long 40 years. But God was taking care of them. He gave them food and water, He provided for His people. But the people complained and regretted that they left Egypt where they had a lot of food. They forgot that they were slaves in that country, and remembered only some good things they used to have there. A punishment for that ungratefulness to God and to Moses came soon. The Israelites came to an area full of poisonous snakes. Those serpents bit and kill a lot of people. Everybody could perish there if God did not stop that. God told Moses to make a copper snake and to raise it on a pillar. God told that any person who would look at the copper snake will not die of the poison.”
“This event is the symbol of what happened at Calvary, and a prophecy of what is going on with the whole human race. Desert is this earthly life. It is full of poisonous snakes. Evil bites any human from birth and up to the last hour of his or her life. Countless snakes surround human life from all the sides. These are the sins and passion that surround us.”
“We remember that when Adam and Eve, our ancestors, committed the first sin, they were tempted by a serpent. And when we may become bit by a snake? When we come into a close contact.  Adam and Eve sinned because they entered into a contact, a conversation with the snake. When we commit sins, we do the same. We converse with the snake… And it bites us with the deadly poison, it pours that poison right into our soul. And there is no cure to any man. No cure, if not a merciful God, who sends us not Moses, but His Onlybegotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Only if our gaze is turned to Christ, to His Cross, to the copper serpent of our faith, then we get healed. Just as the copper serpent had no poison, so Christ was similar to all of us, being one of us…”
“Let us also remember how such a salvation is actually obtained. It is obtained through the holy Church. Especially through the holy Eucharist. Only the Blood of Christ can heal us from the deadly poison of sin. We are redeemed, we are purchased from the slavery of sin and death by the Blood of Christ shed on the Cross. That Blood we partake in the Holy Church. Holy Communion is a great cure from our sins and temptations. It also works like the copper serpent.”
“Let us then, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, turn our spiritual eyes to the holy Cross of Christ, let us ask for the forgiveness and delivery. Let us remember that God redeemed us, purchased us with great price of His own Blood shed on the Cross. Let us receive His holy Body and Blood in Communion, so we would not die but have life everlasting.”

After the Liturgy our parishioners and Fr. Igor enjoyed delicious lunch. It had been recalled that these days our Rector marks his 5 years of serving at St. George. For this reason parishioners congratulated Fr. Igor at the table and had a toast to his health and success in pastoral ministry.

On September 16th, on the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church priest Igor Tarasov celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Services began at 10 am due to our return to the winter schedule.
After the reading from the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a homily. He reminded parishioners that on September 14 the Church started the New Liturgical year. That date was set because according to the tradition it is a date of creation of the world. Therefore, the Jews also celebrate their New Year at this time of the year.
Explaining the Gospel lesson of this Sunday, Fr. Igor stressed that in this reading our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the main moral principle of our religion: to love God and to love your neighbor. To understand how we should love God, we have to understand how to believe in the true God.
“We have to believe in a God who is Love. For example, in other religions there is not the same god. Buddhists do not have a god: Buddhism is rather a philosophy, not a religion. Hindus believe in many gods, who try and do the strangest things. Muslims believe in a god who rewards warfare and acts of terrorism. Even the Jews whom we consider having the same religious roots as we do, believe in a quite different god, a god who takes revenge, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. Only the Christian God is the Creator of all and also the God of Love.”
“The second commandment given by Christ is to love our neighbors as ourselves. Christ says that this commandment is like the first one. For if we are called to love the Creator, then we must surely also love His creation, including other people, who are made in the image and the likeness of God the Creator. In this commandment we are also called to love ourselves, not in the sense of selfishness and vain self-admiration, but as a gift of God. The lack of faith in the loving Creator always and inevitably leads to hatred of His Creation, that is, hatred of our neighbors, and then hatred of ourselves.”
To illustrate that statement Fr. Igor recalled that in the 19th century some German philosopher stated that “God is dead”. In the 20st century, within three generations of that man’s death, the leaders of his people had started two World Wars and performed acts of hatred and genocide. The leaders of the Russian people also adopted the thought of this philosopher, and they too carried out acts of hatred of their neighbors, killing a lot of people. And in the 21st century some people may go further and come to a killing of themselves, to a suicide. To avoid that we have to follow the words of the Psalm which says: “Seek God and your soul shall live”. We have to seek God and love our fellow-men. The two Commandments of love are like the sign of the cross where we have to parts: vertical and horizontal. They both have to be straight and long enough. Thus our love of God and love of our neighbor has to be present in our spiritual life. Then we will find God and live forever.
After the Liturgy our parishioners and the Rector enjoyed a delicious trapeza.

On August 28th the Church celebrates the greatest holy day of the Most Holy Mother of God – Her Dormition, or Falling Asleep. On that day this year we had a solemn Divine Liturgy in our temple. It was celebrated by our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov.
After the reading from the Holy Gospel Fr. Igor preached a sermon. Reminding of the importance of the celebrated feast he said:
“Speaking of the Most Holy Mother of God, we have to remember that She is the holy Virgin and the first Christian Saint. In Her we can see a perfect Christian. And we can see our own vocation as a reality, being accomplished in Her life and death…But speaking about the Blessed Virgin, we have to remember that She was also the first Saint before the Dormition. And the life of the Mother of God can be for us an example of a Christian life.”
“Today’s Gospel lesson which is read for all feasts of the Theotokos, tells us that some woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Jesus: “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You.” (Lk. 11, 27). But the Lord said to her: “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” (Lk. 11, 28). If Jesus agreed only with the words of that woman, He would confirm the blessedness of His Holy Mother. It would be right. But our Lord always wishes us to do more than just right. He does not tell that the woman is wrong, but He adds: “More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!” It is good to be the Mother of the Savior, but it is better to hear the word of God and obey it.”
“The Most Holy Mother of God is an example of a human being who obeys the word of God. Secondly, the Mother of God was a human being who prayed, who was always with Christ, not only physically but spiritually… And that is also something for us – to stay in the Church. The life of the Church is necessary for us to be saved – not only the Gospel, the word of Christ, but the work of Christ in the community of the Church. And the third thing – this is very important – the Mother of God is an example of obedience to Her own Son. And that is also important for us, because we have the Gospel – the word of the Lord; we have the life of the Church; and then we have our Church hierarchy, the bishops. It is important and necessary for us to be obedient also to the bishop because he is in the Church the icon of Christ.”
“So we cannot separate the Gospel, Church life and our obedience to Christ, to His icon in the Church which is the bishop. If we accept that, and if we have a life in that spirit, then the end of our life here in this world will be also not a death but a dormition, a falling asleep – a holy dormition – and we will receive from Christ the Kingdom of heaven. Amen.”

On August 19th, on the feast of Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, we had a solemn service at St. George Church. Our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov celebrated the Divine Liturgy.
During the priestly homily which followed after the reading of the Gospel, Fr. Igor spoke about the celebrated holy day. He said: “The reasons we consider that event so important are two. We believe and confess that our Lord has two natures: divine and human. And everything we celebrate about Him concerns those two natures. Today our Lord showed the Apostles that He is God. And this is one reason to honor this event. But we celebrate Transfiguration also because our Lord’s human nature was transfigured. The humanity taken by our Lord became so linked with the divine nature, so it also shone like the sun. And we may add to that reflection that it happened by the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, Whose voice witnessed to the Son’s divine nature.”
“Transfiguration shows us that the human and divine natures of Christ are united in One Person of Jesus. As the Orthodox Church professes, those two natures are bound together in a mysterious way, being not mixed and undivided, not commingled and yet inseparable. It is also important to remember that no such a unity is possible without the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit is taking part in every event of the life of the Lord manifested to us. His action is seen in the Nativity of Christ, in His Baptism and in His Transfiguration.”
“Another important aspect of today’s feast is that our Savior is the Lord over life and death. The Scripture tells us that two holy persons appeared at the Transfiguration: Moses and Elijah. They represent two kinds of people: those who died and those who live. Moses was dead long before Jesus came into the world. And Elijah also lived several centuries before Christ, but he did not taste death, but was taken up to heaven. Now, at the Mt. Tabor they both appeared to worship the Son of God, the Lord of the living and the dead.”
“And lastly, we may notice that today’s feast has been lost outside of the Orthodox Church. In the similar way, the feast of Theophany is almost unnoticed outside of the Orthodoxy. They are not really celebrated in the communities where people do not believe in the words of the Holy Scripture, that the Holy Spirit proceeds from God the Father alone. This error makes those Christians deprived of the right belief in the Holy Trinity. But it also makes them deprived of the true understanding of the importance of the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ becoming a Man, so men could become divine, could unite with God. Such a unity was shown in Christ Transfiguration. Such a unity is possible through Christ and through the Orthodox faith. Because Christ united those two natures for us. And the Orthodox faith gives us an opportunity to unite them in our lives, being partakers of the divine nature. Let us then keep our faith in true God and pray that His everlasting light may shine to us.”
It is customary in the Orthodox Church to bring the new fruits to the temple to be blessed on this feast day. In Russia mostly apples are being blessed while in Greece the people bring grapes to be blessed. Thus, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, after the Prayer behind the Ambo, Fr. Igor performed the rite of blessing of fruits.
Following the solemn service the Rector and parishioners had a delicious trapeza.

On August 12th, on the 10th Sunday after Pentecost priest Igor Tarasov, Rector of St. George’s Church celebrated the Divine Liturgy in our temple.
After the reading from the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a homily. He pointed out that the child described in the Gospel was really tormented by a demon, and was not just mentally ill. And the Scripture tells us that the evil spirit forced him to fall into the fire or into the water. “The falling into fire and water show us how the demons abuse God’s creation. Fire is not a tool with which to burn and kill, but a gift of God for heating and cooking. Water is not a tool with which to drown, but a gift of God for drinking and washing. We bless the water in the church and we baptize the babies in the water immersing them, and, of course, not drowning them”.
Fr. Igor continued: “We may wonder how did the demon get inside the man’s son and possess him? And our Lord Himself answers that question saying that it happened because the people are often a “faithless and perverse generation”. Our unbelief lets the evil one to overcome us.”
“A cure to such a spiritual state is a two-edged sword of prayer and fasting. Our Lord tells us that in today’s Gospel. And as St. Theophan the Recluse wrote: ‘Where there is no prayer and fasting, there are the demons’. Referring to the word of St Theophan, we could say therefore that much of the modern world has become the dwelling-place of demons. It seems that each day that passes brings us news of some new instability, some new disaster and misfortune”.
“The fact is that, whenever we are faithless and cease to pray and fast, then we lose the protection of the grace of God and we are besieged by demons and the world falls into fire or water. For instance, sometimes we can hear that terrible crimes happen in small towns. These are the places where nothing could ever happen.  In Russia before the Revolution people said the same thing, but holy men like St Theophan the Recluse, St Ignatius, St John of Kronstadt and many others, all correctly prophesied that if people did not return to faithfulness, to prayer and fasting, then a great disaster would befall them. And so it happened and Russia became the favorite resort of the demons: ‘Where there is no prayer and fasting, there are the demons’. Even today, although Christian faith is being reborn in Russia, a lot of people still do not believe. And in this country, in the United States, we are losing faith more and more. If we do so, terrible things like shooting in the movie theaters or other crimes happen where they never been seen. Let us thus be faithful and practice prayer and fasting” – said Fr. Igor.
After the Liturgy our parishioners enjoyed a common meal with the church Rector.

On July 29, on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost we gathered for the Divine Liturgy at St. George Church. Service was celebrated by our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov. On that Sunday we also honored the Holy Fathers of the Six Ecumenical Councils.
Following the readings of the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a homily. He pointed out that the lesson from the Gospel of Matthew for that day has a number of aspects:
“First of all, we should note that this was an enormous crowd of five thousand men plus women and children. We notice how they followed Christ on foot in the heat of the day into the wilderness and without food. What faith and devotion we see here, when there are Orthodox who claim to be unable to come to church on Sundays in their cars, because the church is too far from their beds!”
“Secondly, we can see that this miracle took place not for the personal vanity or glory of the Savior, but out of pity for the people. Each miracle of Christ is an act of love performed out of compassion.”
“Thirdly, we see also how before He performed the miracle, Our Lord took up the five loaves and fishes, and then looked up to heaven and thanked the Father and blessed the food. Here He sets us Orthodox the example of praying before eating. How many Orthodox often forget even to make the sign of the cross before eating! And yet the Savior Himself, ‘by Whom all things were made’, asks for the blessing of the Father before eating.”
Fr. Igor also said that in this miracle we see how Christ not only feeds us with material food, but also with spiritual food, for, as it is written in the Holy Scriptures, man shall not live by bread alone. Holy Fathers of the Six Councils whom we commemorate today were given us and confirming spiritual nourishment of the true faith leading to eternal life. The second Gospel lesson of today says: “And this is eternal life that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent” (Jn. 17, 3). To live eternally we need spiritual nourishment which the Church is giving us.
At the end of the Liturgy Fr. Igor congratulated our Warden and Choir director Olga Roussanow on the occasion of her past name day and led us in singing “Mnogaya leta!”
After the service parishioners and priest enjoyed our delicious refreshments.

On July 22nd, on the 7th Sunday after Pentecost, priest Igor Tarasov, Rector of St. George Church served the Divine Liturgy in our temple.
After the Scripture readings Fr. Igor preached a homily on the lesson from the holy Gospel of the day. He said: “Today’s Gospel is about healings of the blind men and of a man who was demon possessed. There are many similar stories of healing in the holy Scripture. And we should notice that each time our Lord Jesus Christ performs the miracle of healing He asks: “Do you believe? Do you believe that I am able to do this?” When our Lord asks these questions he is knocking at the door of the hearts of men. He is looking for an opening to be let in, so that not only healing, but salvation may occur. This is described for us in the Book of Revelation of St. John where it says “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him” (Rev. 3, 20).”
Fr. Igor pointed out that we should also knock at the door of our Savior by praying and asking Him to help us and then by confirming that we do believe in His power.
“All too often we seek after God through miraculous signs of His action in creation and fail to see the spiritual miracles that occur around us. St. John Chrysostom speaks of this in the following manner: “Do not therefore seek signs, but the soul’s health. Seek not to see one dead man raised; nay, for you have learned that the whole world is arising. Seek not to see a blind man healed, but behold all now restored unto that better and more profitable sight; and do you too learn to look chastely, and amend your eye.”
“So my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, seek not after miracles. Seek rather after salvation for Christ is knocking at the door of your heart. Open the door of your hearts to Him that you may enter into the New Creation and receive the spiritual miracles that will change you and the world around you. Through this change you will be able to respond truly: “Yes, Lord, I believe” and to receive according to our faith.” – said Fr. Igor.
Parishioners enjoyed our common trapeza following the Divine Liturgy.

On July 15th, on the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, Rector of St. George Church, priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at our temple. On this day, feast of the Deposition of the precious Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God is celebrated.
Following the reading of the Gospel Fr. Igor discussed the Divine Liturgy. This was his last talk on the meaning of the main Orthodox service. He interpreted the conclusional rites of the Liturgy: Prayer behind the Ambo, the Final blessing and the Liturgy Dismissal.
After the celebration of the Liturgy Fr. Igor preached a short sermon about today’s feast in the Russian language. He recalled the history of the feast of the Deposition of the Robe of the Holy Theotokos. This happened in the 9th century when the royal city of Constantinople was besieged by the enemies. A fervent prayer of the inhabitants and the intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God through Her precious relic saved the city from the invaders. Those invaders were our ancestors, Eastern Slavs. They received a generous contribution from the city and departed. But they also wished to embrace Christian faith. Their leader, prince Askold of Kiev, became a Christian and attempted to introduce Christianity in the ancient lands of Rus’. Unfortunately, his plan was not fulfilled. But since that time our ancestors began to be acquainted with holy Orthodoxy, and Christian temples began to appear in Kiev. This was the result of the miraculous intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos who protected Christians in Constantinople and also enlightened our pagan ancestors.
Following the service our parishioners enjoyed our delicious trapeza.

On July 12th, on the feast of the Holy Major Apostles Peter and Paul, the Rector of St. George Church served the Divine Liturgy.
After the reading of the Gospel Fr. Igor preached a short homily in English, and after the Liturgy dismissal he repeated his sermon in the Russian language. He pointed out that although Holy Apostles Peter and Paul were two very different men who had a number of disagreements regarding pastoral matters and ways of preaching the Gospel, they both were united in the same faith, the faith of Christ and of the Apostles. “That same faith was expressed by St. Peter in today’s Gospel lesson. When our Lord Jesus Christ asked His Disciples who they think He is, Simon Peter answered: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God’. This was the right answer. This was the true faith held by the Apostles. And due to that faith the Lord said to St. Peter that on this rock He will build His Church, so the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Simon’s faith was firm and solid like a rock. Thus Simon acquired the new name – Peter meaning ‘the Rock’”
Fr. Igor also discussed the wrong interpretation of that Gospel passage done by Roman Catholics. They find here a clear confirmation of their teaching that the bishop of Rome being the successor of St. Peter must have the power over the Church and is supposed to be the head of the Universal Church. We, Orthodox, do not agree with such a simplistic interpretation. The Church of Christ is built upon all the Apostles and upon their faith expressed by St. Peter. And the Head of the Church is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And He wishes now to build His Church on us, its members, and on our firm faith. “Let us then keep and cherish our holy Orthodox faith and let us pray that our Lord Jesus Christ through the prayers of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul may preserve us in that faith and piety!” – finished his sermon Fr. Igor.