On Wednesday, July 28, on the day of commemoration of the Holy Equal of the Apostles Great Prince Vladimir, Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov attended celebration of the patronal feast at St. Vladimir Memorial Church in Jackson, NJ.

Coming early before the Liturgy, our Rector visited the lower temple dedicated to St. Olga. Fr. Igor offered his prayers for the repose of the known archpastors of the Russian emigration buried there and venerated the altar of the lower church. Later he joined the clergy in meeting the celebrating bishop in the main, upper temple of St. Vladimir.   

The Divine Liturgy at that temple was headed by His Grace, Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan. He was co-served by the 8 priests, including Archpriest Igor Tarasov, as well as 2 deacons.

The divine services were held in the presence of the wonderworking Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God which our Rector had an opportunity to venerate before the Liturgy.

After the Ambo prayer Bishop Nicholas preached a homily about the significance of the celebrated Saint, the Baptizer of the lands of Rus’.

Upon completion of the Liturgy the clergy performed a short prayer service to St. Vladimir in the middle of the church. Then His Grace congratulated all those present on the feast. The Protodeacon intoned the Polychronion for the hierarchs, clergy, and all who prayed at the services.

Following the services the clergy and the faithful gathered for a festal luncheon in the Parish Hall. Our Rector had a speech in which he expressed gratitude to His Grace, Bishop Nicholas for leading the clergy and faithful in celebration of St. Vladimir. Fr. Igor also pointed out how important is to follow the true Christian faith in our difficult times. We are going through a pandemic which threatens our health, however we are in danger of losing the true faith and moral values due to different attempts to eradicate religious and ethical principles from the society. It is very important to adhere to the true Orthodox faith of St. Vladimir. It is uplifting and encouraging to learn that yesterday in Kiev, in the ancient city of St. Vladimir’s Baptism of Rus’, Orthodox Christians had a great cross procession which gathered thousands of members of the canonical Church of Ukraine. These brethren of ours manifested that they are the heirs of St. Vladimir and they belong to the true Orthodox Church, not to some schismatic group. Thus we here, across the ocean, should rejoice and should cherish the same Orthodox faith and to be joyful in celebrating today’s feast of our holy Baptism.

After the Patronal feast celebration in Jackson, Fr. Igor visited a place in Freehold, NJ dedicated to be a future St. Nicholas Skete of the Russian Church Abroad. A prayer service with the blessing of the newly-constructed gazebo chapel was held there. That service was headed by Abbot Eutychius (Dovganyuk). His Grace, Bishop Nicholas was present at the service and performed the blessing of the chapel. He also brought there the Kursk Root Icon. A small group of faithful who support the future skete gathered there for the blessing and had an opportunity to venerate the icon. Following the blessing and veneration a dinner was served by the hospitable activists of the future holy place. Bishop Nicholas, Fr. Igor and Fr. Eutychius enjoyed a quiet and beautiful farmland place, as well as a nice company of dedicated faithful.

On July 25, on the 5th Sunday after Pentecost, ,Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy in our parish temple. After the readings from the Sacred Scripture he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s Gospel lesson is about casting out the demons who possessed two men in the country of Gergesines. It is telling us that our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to bring salvation to the human race. Even before dying for us on the cross and being risen from the dead, He rescued people from different forms of evil. He healed the sick, but His sovereign power was not only over physical infirmity. Mental illnesses, demonic possessions were also subject to His miraculous power”.
“But today’s reading also shows us how limited is our human understanding of divine works, how ungrateful people may be towards their greatest Benefactor. After our Lord healed two demoniacs, the whole city came to meet Jesus and begged Him to depart from their region. Despite a great blessing He bestowed upon them, these people did not want Him to stay. To some extent, this was due to the fact that those people were pagans. As such, they could not appreciate mission of Christ. However, similar things always happen. The joyful fact is that the Lord wishes all of us to be saved. The sad fact is that not everybody wishes to respond to that willingness”.
“After His Resurrection our Lord Jesus Christ commissioned the holy Apostles to “go and teach all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28, 19). They did so. Thus we sing honoring the Apostles: “Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world” (Ps. 18, 4). Many pagan nations received the Gospel of Christ and became faithful to the Savior of the world. Presently, all the nations of the world have Christian people who follow the teaching of our Lord. But since the human nature is still imperfect and inclined to evil, there is a great resistance to the divine grace and the Word of God to be spread. Opposing the Word of God to be spread and resisting the divine grace to be bestowed upon them, people help only their enemy and act against themselves”.
”One of the forms of such opposition is persecution of the Church. St. Augustine observed the following: “The first persecution of the Church when Christians were forced to bring sacrifice to idols by threat of exile, torture and death, was carried out by force. The second persecution the Church endures is from false teachers and false brethren, and is carried out by means of craftiness and deceit. The third persecution will be from the Antichrist, and will be the most dangerous of all, because it will be accompanied by force, craftiness and deceit.” It seems like that third persecution is taking place in our days”.
“If you review the history of Christianity, you may see that Blessed Augustine was right. In the first centuries Christians were forced to worship the idols and when they refused, they were tortured and killed. Today we commemorate Holy Martyrs Proclus and Hilarius. They lived not long after the Holy Apostles, in the 2nd century. And when they refused to honor the idols, they were martyred. Then later, after the 3rd century, when the Church became free and Christianity allowed in the Roman Empire, the heresies emerged and some rulers were heretics. They persecuted the Orthodox Church. Nowadays it is the third wave of persecutions. In some places the force is being used against the Church. It was done in our old countries under the Communists. It is still done in some places ruled by Communists, like in North Korea. Recently we heard about terrible crimes against Christians committed by the Moslem extremists in the Middle East”.
“Now we also see many false teachings, as well as a lot of deceit and opposition to the true faith. Jesus is asked to depart again and again from our lives. In fact, He is asked to leave this country by some its inhabitants who don’t want prayer in schools, mentioning God’s name in the pledge of allegiance, who wish to remove God from the courts and other public places. They also became very successful in legalizing such hideous iniquities like murdering the unborn children and entering into same-sex relations. The Supreme Court of the United States approved abortions 47 years ago and it recently decided that same-sex marriage should be legalized in the whole country”.
“We are witnessing that things are getting worse and worse. Holy Martyr Proclus whom we commemorate today was suffering in different ways. One of his tortures was being tied to a chariot. The chariot was driven, so the Saint had to run along with it. And St. Proclus prayed that the chariot would stop, stop just for a moment. And the Lord heard his prayer: the chariot stopped, the horses could not move any further. Of course, the executioners found another way to torture the Saint but his prayer was heard. Like St. Proclus we may also ask when this chariot of our moral and spiritual sufferings would stop. We may pray the Lord that this process of moral and spiritual decay in the human society may stop. It may be stopped either when the world will end or the Lord will bless us with some relief before His second coming. But in any case, let us remember that true followers of Christ will always be persecuted in the world. And the world around us is becoming more and more ugly with those terrible abominations which are now promoted by the leaders of the society.”
“What can we say?! Let these people beware! Because if they chase out God and Jesus who can make lives blessed, they invite evil into their lives, and that evil one will make their lives miserable. It is like we say in our Holy Week hymns about Judas, “Now he is leaving Christ and accepts the devil”.
“Dear brothers and sisters! Reflecting upon all these unpleasant things, let us more appreciate the treasure of the true and orthodox faith we possess. Let us always welcome our Lord Jesus Christ into our lives, our works, our families. Let us be grateful for the salvation He performed for us and for delivering us from evil. Our Lord is the only one who can make us happy. Thus let us not ask Him to depart, but to stay with us forever”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, Fr. Igor proclaimed a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease. After the Litany he also offered a special prayer for the deliverance from pestilence.

Before the Holy Communion the choir prayerfully performed hymns dedicated to St. Olga whose memory was celebrated recently, as well as other singings.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector congratulated our Warden and Choir Director, Olga Roussanow and our active parishioner Olga Vnukova on the occasion on their past name day handing them the Theotokian prosphora. Traditional Polychronion (“Mnogaia leta!”) was proclaimed.

Following the Liturgy the Rector and parishioners enjoyed delicious luncheon. Our guest Vakhtang Kakishvili volunteered to grill some meat on the barbecue. The greetings and toasts were raised in honor of our two Olgas who celebrated their name day.

On July 18, on the 4th Sunday after Pentecost we had a nice celebration at St. George Church. Our Rector, Archpriest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy after his return from Ukraine. After the Gospel lesson he preached the following homily:

“Dear brothers and sisters in Christ! Today’s Gospel reading tells us about a healing of a paralyzed servant of the Roman centurion. Our Lord Jesus Christ performed such a miracle even without seeing or approaching the sick person. It was done through faith and intercession of the ill servant’s master. Let us reflect upon this event described in the Gospel of Matthew”.
“A centurion was a Roman army officer who commanded one hundred men. This person mentioned in the Gospel was a Gentile. But he had a faith that Jesus is the One who can help his servant to be cured from the disease. Although Christ usually stressed that He came to save His own people, the Jews, the whole ministry and the whole message of His teaching was encompassing the whole human race, regardless of the people’s origin. Jesus is really the Savior of all. For Him ethnic or social distinctions are void. In the eyes of the Jews, especially the Pharisees who were always ready to criticize Jesus, coming to the house of a Gentile was inappropriate. If Jesus entered the centurion’s home, it would make Him unclean. However, the Lord could act without entering the Gentile’s house. Doing so, He showed that salvation will come upon all the people of faith”.
“In the words of the centurion we hear the recognition of Jesus’ authority. He calls Jesus the Lord. It was significant for a man who himself had authority. But although the centurion had the power over men, he understood that only Jesus had the power over disease. He also understood his own limitations and unworthiness. Therefore, he said to Christ: “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof “(Mt. 8, 8). But his sense of humility was perfected by his firm faith in the healing power of the Lord. Thus he continued: “But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed”(Mt. 8,  8).  The word of the Savior is enough for a man to be freed from his disease”.
“This event teaches us about the importance of faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ praised the faith of the centurion. He speaks highly about that Gentile person, lifting him up as an example. The Lord goes further and declares nullity of the Jewish supremacy, saying that many from other nations will share the heavenly blessings with the Jewish patriarchs. He prophesizes: “And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness” (Mt. 8, 11-12). We know that the sons of the kingdom are Jews, who had a sense of racial or national superiority as the chosen people of God. Coming of Christ demonstrated that not the Jews but all the people who believe in the Savior will become the chosen nation, the New Israel”.
“The last time I served here, was on the feast of the Pentecost. But then we celebrated two consecutive Sundays dedicated to the Saints. We had Sunday of All Saints and then we had Sunday of the Russian Saints. I was away and celebrated them there. You were celebrating them here. Those two Sundays made us recall that as a result of the descending of the Holy Spirit different nations acquired the right to become the true worshipers of God. Many nations accepted the preaching of the Gospel and produced lots of holy men and women, people we call the Saints. Today we celebrate feast of one of our own Saints, the Uncovering of the relics of Venerable Father Sergius of Radonezh. That Saint certainly did not belong to the chosen people of the Old Testament. He was our Russian, Slavic person. But since he was a Christian, since he cherished his Orthodox faith in Jesus Christ, he was one of the chosen ones, belonging to the New Testament chosen nation. His holy life in Christ and in a special devotion to the Most Holy Trinity made him worthy to sit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Heavenly Kingdom”.
“Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, let us keep and cherish our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Savior. Let us recognize His power and authority over the whole world and over any little thing in our lives. Let us believe that He can help us if we have faith. Let us also understand our limitations and unworthiness and humbly ask Him to help us. And let us be worthy of the name of Christian that means to be among the chosen people of God, His holy nation which is prepared to sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, also with the Holy Apostles, Martyrs and other Saints in the Kingdom of heaven”.

During the Litany of Fervent Supplication, Fr. Igor proclaimed a petition beseeching the Lord to spare the faithful from the outbreak of the disease. After the Litany he also offered a special prayer for the deliverance from pestilence.

After the dismissal of the Liturgy the Rector made some announcements. He expressed his gratitude to those parishioners who assisted in removing the tree fallen after the storm. Especially he commended Emilian Suric who found a tree removing company and donated part of the payment, as well as Alexander Bezkrovnyj who helped working.

Following the Liturgy the Rector served a memorial Litia for the repose of Valentina Malyshev and Larisa Vnukova requested by their families.

After the services the Rector and parishioners interacted at the coffee hour.

The Rector of St. George Church, Archpriest Igor Tarasov from June 22 until July 16 was in Ukraine.
First, he visited the ancient city of Kiev where he had a chance to pray at the Kiev Cave Lavra monastery, to venerate the relics of the Saints in the Caves and to attend the temples there.
Then Fr. Igor headed to the city of Kamianets-Podilsky where he stayed for the rest of his trip to Ukraine. On Sundays and some feasts he served in the local cathedral of S. Alexander Nevsky. The services like All-Night Vigils and Divine Liturgies were usually headed by the local ruling bishop, His Eminence, Metropolitan Theodore.
Following the services our Rector had an opportunity to interact with the clergy and the faithful.