[Magdalen] Prayers for my church

[Grace Cangialosi]

Ah, church politics! They’re everywhere, they’re everywhere! Hope you’ll find someone soon. I know a Russian Orthodox priest—John Moses—in Waynesboro, but that’s a fur piece from you.

> On Oct 17, 2018, at 1:05 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> It's been awhile and I've kind of let this percolate before I make this
> request, but I would like to ask y'all to pray for my church, Sts. Joachim
> & Anna Orthodox Christian Church. We are sort of in limbo right now as our
> bishop retired suddenly and a decision was made to dissolve our deanery.
> This means we have to find a new bishop to oversee us. Heaven help me,
> church politics are byzantine, but I will try to explain!
> 
> Our little parish is one of the many flavors of Russian Orthodoxy called
> Old Rite or Old Believers. Specifically our branch is called "stranniki" or
> wanderers....mainly because every time they were being persecuted, they
> just moved....mostly farther and farther east, into Siberia and eventually
> on into Alaska with the Russian fur traders, though some also went into
> Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey. (Just as an aside, many Cossacks were/are Old
> Rite, Nicholas II's personal bodyguard were almost all Old Rite, and it is
> rumored that several of Putin's close advisors are also Old Rite, but that
> is neither here nor there.) In any case, Stranniki parishes are
> autocephalous and generally serve at the pleasure of whatever bishop
> chooses to take charge of them....at least that's how I understand it (this
> whole thing makes my eyes roll and my brain hurt, but Kate, that's why you
> couldn't find us.). We have been canonical all along and want to stay that
> way. So we now have to find a bishop to "adopt" us since ours retired. We
> are also without a building as the lease expired on the one we had been
> renting in Mt. Jackson.
> 
> SO (big breath) I am asking your prayers for the parish and for our priest,
> Fr. Kyrill, as he is currently in talks with a bishop. Also for the rest of
> us, who are currently kind of at loose ends. Also that we may find a place
> in which to worship so we may be back together as a church family under one
> roof.
> 
> Jay the newly chrismated