Hierarchical religious service in St. Nektarios Mission from Kelowna

St. Nektarios Mission dressed in festive attire on June 29 and 30 on the feast of St. Peter and Paul and All Saints' Sunday. The events organized in the parish began on Saturday, June 29, with the service of the Holy Liturgy by a group of priests - Hieromonks Ștefan Nuțescu and David Gălbează from the Lacu Hermitage, Protosingellos Cosma Giosanu from the Neagoe-Vodă Basarab Hermitage (Argeș), Fr. Ciprian Pavel Roman parish priest and Fr. Nicu Liuță. On the same day, there was a meeting with the faithful in which the Hieromonk Ștefan Nuțescu answered the questions of those present and offered spiritual advice.

On Sunday, June 30, 2024, All Saints Sunday, His Grace Bishop Ioan Casian was in communion of prayer with the Orthodox Christians of Kelowna. Present at the Divine Liturgy at St. Nektarios Mission, the hierarch had by his side the clergy mentioned above and the believers of various ethnicities who were present.

In his homily, HG Bishop Ioan Casian first spoke about the importance of faith and the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers:

"All Saints' Sunday shows us precisely this particular importance of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers. We cannot be truly Christians and full members of the Church without the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Christians we have the duty to bear witness to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The experience we have in the Divine Liturgy is the anticipation of the Kingdom of Heaven and the encounter with God. The latter is already signified there through the Body and Blood of the Lord in which we participate by partaking the Holy Communion for out salvation and our restauration.

St. Apostle Paul shows us that in this spiritual growth, faith has an important role. Faith is witness to a mysterious reality that the Christian lives in the Church and confesses in view of salvation.

Through its teaching of faith and its practice, the Church tries to give us a foretaste of the standards of the life of heaven, of the divine life.

Saints are those who realize these divine standards in their lives here and now. That is why they become examples for us.

All Saints Sunday is the celebration of all those who through faith received grace of God that transfigured their lives. It is the Sunday of hope of our renewal. The saints show us that the way to God, that the transformation of our life in the sense of the divine life is possible.

Our spiritual life in a secularized world as we call it, thanks to the examples of the saints, becomes possible and real. The saints are those who inspire us and show us the particular way in which holiness can be embodied in the lives of all of us."

Next, the hierarch thanked the monastic clergy who came from afar for their effort and celebration together.

HG Bishop Ioan Casian awarded the Diploma of Merit and the anniversary medal of the Diocese to Fr. Ciprian Pavel Roman for the special activity carried out among Romanian Christians and of different ethnicities in Kelowna, to Otilia and Christian Patru for the initiative of setting up this new mission and to Mr. Laurentiu Știrbu for his major contribution to several parishes of our Diocese in Edmonton, Vancouver and Kelowna.

After the final blessing, all those present participated in the fraternal agape prepared with great dedication by the ladies of the parish.

Let’s give thanks God for everything!