Namesday of His Grace Bishop Irinej

On Tuesday, September 5th, clergy and faithful from throughout the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Deaneries of the Eastern-American Diocese gathered around His Grace Bishop Irinej at New Marcha Monastery in joyful celebration of their Hierarch’s Names Day. Services began with fourteen clergy greeting His Grace outside of the small monastery church of St. Archangel Gabriel. The clergy entered in solemn procession as faithful sang gloriously in the nave. Blue vestments were worn by all concelebrating clergy in honor and celebration of the Apodosis of the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

During the Little Entrance, an additional and joyous moment was inserted into the Liturgy as His Grace elevated two of his diocesan clergy, Fr. Bosko Stojanovic, parish priest of Holy Trinity in Youngstown, and Fr. Aleksa Pavichevich, parish priest of St. George in North Canton, to the distinction of “Protonamesnik”. As he presented the two faithful servants to the congregation, His Grace offered his gratitude at the hard work and dedication of Fr. Aleksa not only in the life of his parish, but also in maintaining and improving the diocesan website. As he brought Fr. Bosko forward, His Grace not only thanked Fr. Bosko for piloting him from Ohio to North Carolina, but he also shared the challenging early days of Fr. Bosko’s ministry servicing the spiritual needs of the Serbian Diaspora in South America.

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2017-2018 School Year of Christian Education begins!

The 2017-2018 Church School year officially began on Sunday, September 17th with the blessing of the children, teachers, and parents.  Immediately following Divine Liturgy, the children gathered around Fr. Aleksa Pavichevich in the center of the church and offered prayerful thanksgiving to the Lord.

Fr. Aleksa reminded the community that the true work of Christian Education takes place as a family at Divine Liturgy, and as a family at their home-church. It is there where the children are nourished and fed.  The classes offered by the parents and stewards of the St. George parents are a supplement, meant to offer children an opportunity to explore their faith in new ways.  If they do not reinforce those lessons at home in prayer, repentance, and love, modeled and taught by their families, then the lessons offered at church will struggle to form deep roots within them.

The following Wednesday, Fr. Aleksa and a few children from St. George joined the children of St. Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church in Akron, Ohio to begin a new season of Folklore and Church School education.  Fr. Aleksa and Fr. Milan Pajic offer lessons to the Folklore children between lessons.

On Saturday, the children of St. George began their Serbian Language lessons. Parents and community members expressed a sincere desire to learn Serbian so that they might better communicate with faithful from other communities, and to prepare for a future pilgrimage to the holy sites and locales in Serbia.  Under the direction of Mira Lazic, the children began learning the Cyrillic alphabet, along with beginning conversation.

On the following day the students had their first lesson on “Charity”.  This year the St. George students will complete an OCEC curriculum with interspersed lessons on “the virtues”.  They will not only learn about their faith, but they will also learn about how to practically live out that faith in a positive way.

Their first activity was to create donation boxes that they will use to collect money throughout the year.  After the St. Sava break, our students will submit that money to a charity or cause that is important to them – and their families.

Many thanks to our church school instructors and volunteers including:  Kathy Tobias (Pre-K organizer), Svetlana McCully (Elementary), Rajko Radonjich (Middle), and Mark Resanovich (High School and St. Sebastian).  God-willing, this will be a wonderful year of Christian Education for the St. George parish community!