Our parish was founded in 1907 and has served as the Mother Church of Orthodoxy in Michigan, spawning many other parishes of various ethnic backgrounds over its rich 101 year history.

We have had many wonderful years raising generations of families in the Glory of God, with Love, and as a Community; but like any other family, we have seen our share of challenging and desperate times, as well.

On November 30, 2008, we had our first New Commitment Core Group Meeting as we strive again as a people who are working very hard to bring our church back to health and prosperity. 

 Subjects that we have been addressing include: 

Coming to Church as often as we can and participating in the Sacraments.

What our commitments should include, and our Stewardship List.

How can we make people feel welcome when they visit.

How can we get our Family and Friends to come and visit. 

What are we teaching our children - influencing good impressions.

How can we make our parish community strong in our social life?

Can church be fun, too?

.

We work really hard in order to come up with ideas on how to work together and grow as a parish, and by the Glory of God, it has been Great!

.

.

.

While the kids enjoyed visiting with Santa and eating cookies, a Christmas Raffle entertained the adults.  Nearly 40 prizes were on display in the raffle.  Tickets could be purchased for just $ .25.  Prizes ranged in value from $ 1 to $50.  Participants were able to place as many tickets as they wanted - into the bag for the prize of their choice.  Tickets were pulled out of each bag at 2PM.  Most participants stayed until the end of the drawing to claim their prizes.  Those who left early were contacted by phone, and collected their prize at a later date.

.

On Forgiveness Sunday many attend Forgiveness Vespers.  This service marks the beginning of Great Lent. They hear on the Lord's teaching about fasting and forgiveness and enter the season of the fast forgiving one another so that God will forgive them. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses (Matthew 6:14). 

After the dismissal at Vespers, the faithful come up one by one and venerate the icon, after which each asks the priest for forgiveness.  Each parishioner takes a place in the aisle to give and receive forgiveness from each-other.  It is a wonderful way to start the fasting season and New Year.

After the Divine Liturgy and Forgiveness Vespers, we all went over to the Cultural Center for the traditional Blini brunch.  Many thanks go out to Lisa Franks for making the Blini batter.  She followed a traditional recipe and allowed the batter to rise the night before. (You’ll have to ask her about that…) There were many others that helped prepare the food – Liza Salowich-Palm, Marge Salowich, and Bill & Tia Earp.  Tia did an excellent job of cooking the Blini!  Maria Earp and Liza Salowich-Palm also did a wonderful job preparing the tables in the dining room.  Let’s also give praise to Devern Brewer, who is so often found helping with the clean-up and dishes. 

.

.

As we prepared (as a group) for our Holy Pascha, many of us made promises to ourselves and each other to be better people, better neighbors, better community and most of all: a better church.  The journey we traveled was long, but meaningful, and we have so many things to be thankful for as we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

We started at Forgiveness Vespers, and made every effort to do everything we could to inspire and grow, whether it was attending the Divine Liturgy on Sundays, Reader's Service on Wednesdays; giving to the poor, participating in functions and events, or just cleaning up when we needed it done.  Everybody was there in some capacity, and Fr Alexandru Partioc led us on a freshly inspired road full of love and caring for ourselves and all around us.

I have prepared a very nice story in pictures of our lives at the Cathedral during Great Lent - culminating with an absolutely wonderful, inspirational, emotional Holy Pascha.

Christ Is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

.

.

.

.

Christ Is Risen!      Let us all Celebrate

.

CHRIST IS RISEN!  -  INDEED HE IS RISEN!

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Our Church Picnic – Very Nice!

.

On Sunday, July 19th, our Church Council along with the Ss Peter and Paul Cultural Community Center sponsored a little Church Picnic in the School Courtyard under an absolutely Beautiful Summer Sky - The weather was perfect!

.

Our Men did everything to make a nice intimate setting by putting up a couple of canopies/tents with lots of tables and chairs, barbecued a lot of hamburgers, hot dogs and brats with some salads and popsicles for everyone!

The kids had a great time at their own table, playing music, and some very interesting tricycle races in the hallway.

Special Thank Yous to Luis Nino, Keith Qualls and Victor Pruchniewski for setting everything up, Rick Tymoc and Greg Kuprianiak for preparing the food, and Walter Nowak for supervising everything.

.

.

.

.

Election Day in Detroit

On Tuesday, August 4, 2009, the City of Detroit held a Primary Election to narrow the balloting for Mayor and City Council in November, and we were selected to host 4 Precincts in the Ss Peter and Paul Cultural Center.

.

Many people came to our facility for the very first time to cast their ballots and see our beautiful facility.  Sub-Deacon Michael Boyar was on hand the entire day to serve refreshments and guided many personal tours of the hall and the church to those interested. 

.

Many were impressed and took literature.  We have seen some guests at church, and have taken some deposits for the hall.  It was a wonderful day for us.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

FESTIVAL WAS HUGE SUCCESS

In recognition of the 10th year anniversary of the Head Start (Vistas Nuevas) program at our facility, we celebrated with a "Neighborhood Multi-Cultural Family Festival" on Saturday October 3, 2009 (from 11am-5pm) on our grounds.

This was a combined cooperative effort between the Cathedral and the School, and was open to the neighborhood as well as the entire Orthodox Community.

We had about 500 guests come and visit us (in only 6 hours).  All generations of many cultures of people enjoyed activities (including bounce houses, a petting zoo, pony rides, music and dancing, an authentic Mexican children dance group performance, face painting, balloons, different raffles and drawings), and a special appearance by PAWS - mascot of the Detroit Tigers.

There was wonderful food served, tremendous attention at our huge Bake Sale tables, and with more than 70 items available, our 10 cent Penny Social style raffle drew a lot of people into the lower level of our Banquet Hall.  In the meanwhile, several local non-profit organizations came with representatives and/or literature - including our own Orthodox Christian Women (OCW) to help local families solve any of their personal or family issues (IE: drinking/drug abuse, homelessness for families, teens and men, job referrals, medical needs, etc) filled the Main Banquet Hall upstairs.  We also brought in the Smoke House (which is a Winnebago-style trailer that has non-toxic smake pumped in (on cue) to teach young ones how to escape a fire) by the Detroit Fire Department. 

We had 6 Orthodox people on-hand providing tours and answering questions about Orthodoxy, inside our Cathedral building - in 3 Languages! (English, Spanish, and Russian), and serveral items that were placed on consignment to us from Pascha Bookstore which we displayed and made available for purchase as people exited from the church into the church school - where members of Vistas Nuevas Head Start stood by to tour people through our school building and explain their programs. 

Although we placed a high expecation for the event and our people to support this with labor and love, this event - by far - surpassed everything that we had hoped for.

Fact:  The Vistas Nuevas Head Start Program started this school year with pre-enrollment from last year, which realized about 140 neighborhood children benefitting from this wonderful program at our facility alone.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Please Notice Our Sponsors and Give them Your Business

 Warholak Tire Service

LaCarreta Market

Professional Mortuary Services

Abick's Bar

Jordans Restaurant

Pascha Bookstore

Gracie See Pizzeria

St Hedwig Florist

.

And a Special Thank you to

Michigan Avenue Business Association (MABA)

Southwest Detroit Business Association (SWDBA)

for their help putting everything together.

.

.

Photos courtesy of 'Our Official Photographers" Christine Trojan and Victor Pruchniewski,

(with a few sent to us from generous people.)