On February 20-24 our Rector, Rev. Priest Igor Tarasov was in Kiev, Ukraine to continue his theological education. He studies at Kievan Theological Academy, the most ancient religious school of the Russian Church founded in 17th century. It is presently located at the Kiev Cave Lavra, a very revered and holy place, a cradle of the Russian monasticism. At the Academy Fr. Igor took final exams of the second semester of his third year of studies. Fr. Igor also had an opportunity to visit the holy places at the Kiev Cave Lavra.
    After a successful taking of his exams Fr. Igor was asked to perform a rite of blessing of the newly purchased vehicle. A nice local man named Yuriy who is often driving Fr. Igor in Kiev was very happy to get his new car blessed at the holy place of the Kiev Lavra and by a priest from a remote America.

On February 15 Russian Orthodox Church celebrates a great holy day of the Meeting of the Lord. Priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church. In his sermon after the reading from the Gospel, he preached about the meaning of this important feast.
He said: “The history of salvation may be called the history of the meetings with the Lord, the history of our encounters with our God and Creator. Thus, the name of today’s feast sounds very meaningful. We celebrate a meeting of our Lord with Himself in His Temple. We also celebrate a meeting of the elder Simeon with his Savior. When righteous Simeon took the child Jesus into his arms, a new era began; the era of the meeting between God and His children”.
Fr. Igor also stressed the importance of being prepared to meet the Lord. “We all know that our meetings with the Lord can take place every time when we participate in the Church services, especially in the Divine Liturgy. However, such meetings do not happen for many, even if they come to the temple. Why? Because they come unprepared, destructed or unworthy. Even if they think that they may get something out of their visits to the church, such thoughts may be in vain. For instance, if the people come to the church just to light a candle and then leave, they do not get much out of their visit. An encounter with the Lord does not take place,” he said.
Fr. Igor concluded his sermon with the following words: “Let us imitate the holy people like righteous Simeon and Anna the prophetess… and await our meeting with the Lord, let us be prepared for it, so our expectations will not be in vain.”

Annual Parish Meeting of St. George’s Church was held on Sunday, February 12, following the Divine Liturgy. Most of the parish members were present at the meeting and the Rector, priest Igor Tarasov presided. Church Warden, Olga Roussanow read the minutes of the last Annual Meeting held in 2011. Parish Treasurer Vera Koretz reported on financial situation. She informed that parish income from the year 2011 was higher than in the previous year, and that we had a surplus. Introducing of the special collections for building and ground maintenance was commended. Some other parish issues were discussed, among which a possible replacement of the carpet and setting up of the new heating system.
Same persons were elected for the leadership positions in the Parish. Olga Roussanow was re-elected as the Church Warden and Vera Koretz as Treasurer.

On February 12, on Sunday of the Prodigal Son priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church. On that day the Church also celebrated feast of the Three universal Hierarchs and Teachers, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom.
Following the Gospel lesson Fr. Igor lectured on Divine Liturgy. This time he described the importance of the Gospel reading, instructed on how faithful should behave at such an important moment of the Liturgy. Walking around, lighting candles is inappropriate when you listen to the Gospel. A proper position is to stand, listen attentively and to bow your head a little.
At the end of the service Fr. Igor said a couple of words about the feast of the Three Hierarchs.
“Introduction of the feast to honor those three Saints together was to overcome a division which took place among the Orthodox. Each group argued that one of these Hierarchs was greater than others. Thus all the three appeared in a dream to a bishop to proclaim that they are equally honored in heaven. This teaches us not to divide, not to create a party or a group within the Church. Orthodox Christians should not argue that their parish, their priest, their bishop or their particular jurisdiction is better. We may like our own more but we cannot claim that other Orthodox are worse. We cannot divide the Body of Christ which is the one Church,” – said Fr. Igor.

On February 5th, on Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee, the Church celebrated Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church followed by a memorial service (litia) for the deceased who fell asleep during the time of godless persecutions of Christian faith in Russia.
After the reading of the Gospel Fr. Igor continued his lectures on Divine Liturgy. He spoke about the ceremony of the Little Entrance, about the singing of the Troparia, Trisagion hymn, as well as Epistle reading. After serving the litia Fr. Igor had a short sermon about the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. He stressed that we should watch out to avoid being deceived by the evil forces as many of our ancestors became deluded by the false ideals of building a paradise on earth without God. They lived in a state called prelest by the holy Fathers, a spiritual delusion to which the people of Russia were drawn by the deceptive promises of the Communists.
Parishioners enjoyed some fellowship at the trapeza following the services.

On January 29, 2012, on the 33rd Sunday after Pentecost priest Igor Tarasov served the Divine Liturgy at St. George’s Church. Following the reading from the holy Gospel he continued to lecture on the meaning of the Divine Liturgy. This time Fr. Igor described the beginning of the Liturgy of the Catechumens, explained the meaning of the exclamation “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, as well as talked about the Great Ektenia and Antiphons.
Following the service parishioners enjoyed our common trapeza.

On January 29, 2012 His Eminence, Archbishop Justinian celebrated his 51st birthday.
Representatives of our Parish attended St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York to
greet our Archipastor on that joyful day. Our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov concelebrated the Divine Liturgy headed by His Eminence. The Liturgy attended our Cantor and Warden Olga Roussanow and Andrew Malyshew participated with the altar servers. Following the Liturgy they joined the Archbishop at the lunch in the cathedral hall. Archbishop Justinian was greeted by the clergy of a number of parishes and presented with a birthday cake.

On Christmas day our Rector, priest Igor Tarasov marks his anniversary of priestly ordination. This year it is his 22nd year of priestly service. Let us wish him many more years of serving the Holy Orthodox Church!