Bishop Longin's visit to Galveston

His Grace Bishop LONGIN visited our church on December the 4th and 5th 2010. His Grace landed on Saturday in the late afternoon, early evening and was picked up by the church-school president, Pete Kovacevich and Mimo Milosevich. They took His Grace and deacon to our local,favourite restaraunt, The Olympia Grill were our guests were treated to traditional hospitality, Greek style. The owners overdid themselves in honouring our and their guests. Many thanks to Larry and Tiki Kriticos.

On Sunday morning we were especially thrilled that Vladika Longin was able to serve the hierarchical liturgy together with his deacon Nikolai Kostur. Following the Divine Liturgy we all proceeded to go outside for the groundbreaking of the land where our future parish hall will be built. His Grace also blessed the adjoining land that was purchased by Dr. Zoran Cupic. We were fortunate enough to have our Mayor of Galveston Joe Jaworski present as well. His Grace Bishop Longin together with Mayor, Doctor Zoran Cupic and Mitch Chouke, who has a direct link to the original founders of the church, broke ground. And no, those are not golden shovels we see in the photos. I would like to thank Demo Kouzounis for being instrumental in having the shovels plated as we were thinking of having then spraypainted gold originally, perish the thought now as they really turned out magnificent.

As can be seen in the photos we then went to the back of the church were a memorial service was held for the first priest Father Theoclitos who is buried under the altar as per his instructions. The reasoning for this is that Father Theoclitos believed that as long as a person was buried it became a "sacred" site and that the city could not use the land for any other purpose. In this way he wished to safeguard the church and its property from any sort of seizure. His Grace made himself available to all, both young and old and shared much joy, heartening words of faith but especially love with the members of our small but ever faithful parish. We all joined for lunch at the Pelican Club for fellowship with His Grace Bishop Longin and then sadly bid him farewell back to Chicago but before leaving his Grace promised us that he would return upon completion of the hall to bless it. Many Years to His Grace Bishop Longin!

Bishop Longin's Visit to Galveston and Groundbreaking of New Church Hall Land