Claremont’s Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church begins
100th Anniversary Celebration
March 17th, 2009 marks the 100th Anniversary of the Holy Resurrection
Orthodox Church in Claremont . Originally established as part of the Russian Orthodox Church
to serve the spiritual and cultural needs of Russian immigrant workers, HROC
today serves an ethnically diverse group of families and individuals both
cradle Orthodox and converts from Vermont and New Hampshire . Over those many
years the community has lived through the Bolshevik Revolution, two World Wars,
the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Empire. Ironically, this community
exemplifies a perseverance and evolution of a church that continually returns
to its ancient roots.
In 1970 the American arm of the Russian
Orthodox Church was given its independence. The Orthodox Church in America became the 15th canonically united Autocephalous
Orthodox Church in the world. Together the Orthodox Church represents the
second largest Christian communion in the world.
In April 1979, one week before Pascha
(Easter), Fr. Andrew Tregubov and his wife Galina came to Claremont to
serve the parish. The history of Holy Resurrection Church
since then has been guided by a single fact: that Fr. Andrew has been the
pastor. Through his and the parishes efforts the church has gone through
continual refinement and beautification of both the temple and liturgical life.
In anticipation of this 100th anniversary celebration the church
interior has been totally transformed with a new wood finish and many new icons
accented with a wood carved iconostasis and trim work.
Two factors—apparently contradictory—have
shaped these past thirty years. In being a stable priestly presence, Fr. Andrew
has given the parish the kind of focus and continuity that the village priest
provided in Orthodox Russia for nine centuries. The second factor is that the
parish is now made up of a majority of non-Slavic converts who live some
considerable distances away from Claremont . The
great issue in the parish's past—how to retain the ethnic
"Russian-ness" that seemed the very core of its Orthodoxy—has given
way to its true calling, the witness to Christ as God and Savior and the
Biblical admonition to, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…”
Thus now begins a remembrance that starts
with the traditional Lenten preparation for and the celebration of the Lord’s Crucifixion,
Death and Resurrection on Holy Pascha and will continue to August 22nd
with the Hierarchical visit of His Grace, Nikon, Bishop of Boston and New England. In between are
scheduled an open house, lectures and a concert reflecting on the 100 years
that Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church has been an integral part of the
Claremont community.
Release Date: 2/26/09 Contact
Information:Dn. Gregory Uhrin, 603-648-2870greg@yankeecommunications.net
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Orthodoxy in America
