Beloved in Christ,

 With the annual commemoration of the Raising of Lazarus, we once again enter into our annual observance of the week we refer to as “Great and Holy.”  Through the beautiful and solemn services of Holy Week, the Orthodox Church offers the amazing opportunity to walk with the Lord in His last days, the saving days of His Passion, Death, and Resurrection.  The Orthodox Church’s Services of Holy Week offer a truly blessed opportunity to not only observe, but to fully enter into the experience of the Lord’s salvific death and life-giving resurrection. 

 Anyone who has participated in these services can witness to what a powerful experience it is- there is no experience like it found outside the Orthodox Church.  And there is no celebration of Pascha like one that has been prepared for beforehand by participation in the services of Holy Week.   The schedule of our parish Holy Week and Pascha Services is included in this monthly newsletter and may also found on our parish website; feel free to copy it and share it with family and friends and others you might wish to invite to share in this deeply spiritual and life-changing experience.

 I look forward to celebrating and praying the Divine Services of Holy Week with you all.  May our participation in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Our Savior bring all of us to the eternal joy of the Kingdom He has opened unto us.

I invite you to join me as we walk with the Lord as He enters Jerusalem in triumph, carries His cross to Golgotha, and is laid in the tomb.  And then, with the Holy Myrrhbearing Women, we discover that the tomb is empty and that Christ is risen.

 With love in the Lord Who, for our salvation, suffers, dies, and is buried… and rises again in glory, bring new life to us and to all the world,  

 +Bishop Daniel

NEW ICON STAND – Thank you to Subdeacon Michael Wagner for the new, beautifully-made analogion (icon stand).  The new analogion is a beautiful addition to the temple and provides a fitting place on which to display our patronal icon or the festal icon for our veneration.  Thank you!

NEW ICONS – The icon of Saint Daniel of Moscow (in which he holds Saints Peter and Paul Church in his hand) has been joined by a matching icon of Saint Sergius of Radonezh, recently arrived from Russia.  This pair of icons has now been installed on the upper back wall of our church and further enhances beauty of the Lord’s house.  Thank you to the donors of these icons!  May Saint Daniel of Moscow and Saint Sergius of Radonezh intercede before the Lord that our souls may be saved!

INSTALLATION OF NEW DOORS AND WINDOWS – The special parish meeting convened last Sunday, March 25, unanimously approved the installation of new church doors and windows.  The fabrication and installation will take place within the next weeks.  An update on installation will be provided once the process begins.  We are grateful to the ever-memorable servant of God, Protodeacon Alexis Washington, for remembering our parish in his will and for making this much-needed addition to our church a reality.  May his memory be eternal!

HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA PARKING – Parking can be at a premium for the services of Holy Week and Pascha, during which we are happy to welcome our many guests - in addition to the faithful members of our own parish family.  We enjoy a good relationship with the Bamboo Bakery, directly across the street from the church, and are able to use their parking lot for our overflow parking.  (They use our parking lot on the first Thursday of every month.) Those who can are encouraged to park there in order to reserve parking spaces for guests as well as for our own parishioners who need to park in closer proximity to the church.  Please remember that the space between the back of the church and the hall is to be kept free for fire and emergency services. Please note that, as usual, security services have been retained for the Pascha services on Saturday night/early Sunday morning.

THANK YOU – to all who assisted in cleaning the church in preparation for Holy Week and Pascha.  Many thanks to David Bieber and Nick Bock for coordinating and directing the cleaning project on Saturday, March 24.  This “spring cleaning” of the church is a reflection of the spiritual “spring cleaning” that we have engaged in throughout the weeks of Great Lent.

Welcome to the website of Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Phoenix, Arizona.  We hope you find our site informative and helpful. We also invite you to join us for worship – worship that follows the ancient tradition of apostolic Christianity since the earliest days of the Christian Church.  We also invite you to join us in fellowship as together we celebrate the goodness of God and rejoice in His many blessings.

Our parish, founded in 1951, is a parish community of the Diocese of the West of the Orthodox Church in America.  As a faithful community of the Orthodox Church in America, we are heirs to a great legacy of missionary outreach and ministry.  This legacy of missionary activity dates back to the time of the Apostles who received the “great commission” from our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:16-20).  Our missionary legacy also finds more recent origins in the band of Russian Orthodox missionaries who traveled from Russia to Alaska in 1794.  They traveled to Alaska to bring the Truth of Christ’s Gospel to the Alaskan natives and, by their teaching and through the example of their lives, proclaimed the fullness of the Gospel that has been proclaimed always and everywhere by the Orthodox Church.

You will find that Saints Peter and Paul Church is a vibrant faith community of people of all ages, cultures, and backgrounds who are living and celebrating their faith together, working together as the Body of Christ, and reaching out together to all who seek “to come to the knowledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). Many of our parishioners have journeyed to the Orthodox Church from other Christian faith traditions and denominations and some non-Christian religious and spiritual traditions as well. Whether you are “on a journey” or just wanting to visit a local Orthodox parish you will be welcome at Saints Peter and Paul Church. We are always honored to have visitors join us for prayer, worship, and fellowship.

Yours in service to Christ,

+Bishop Daniel, Rector