With the blessing and encouragement of our archbishop, his eminence Dmitri, we celebrated Vigil and Liturgy for the Feast of the Transfiguration on our own “mountaintop”. We not only celebrated this Great Feast of our Lord, but also celebrated that we now have sufficient funds to pay off the church property. At Pascha, we had felt the grace to set the feast of Transfiguration as a deadline to complete our $100,000 Land Campaign. God showed his incredible faithfulness to our parish as the checks came in: On Tuesday evening, at the start of Vigil, we announced that we had not only met our goal, but had in fact exceeded it by $4,000!
It is awe-inspiring to have raised more than $104,000 in less than two years when we consider that these have often been sacrificial offerings — they have come on top of tithes and gifts that have faithfully supported our regular budget and all the work that we do in day-to-day operations as a parish. We are thankful for the generosity of those in our parish, our deanery, our diocese, sister parishes, and our friends around the world who have contributed to help us reach our goal. May God grant this parish — and all those who so faithfully supported us spiritually and financially — many blessed years!
In the Introit for the Transfiguration we hear “let them lead me, let them bring me to thy holy mountain.” We have taken our first steps and celebrate the end of our Land Campaign. We now look forward to the future of building a church upon our hill.