A few days before Holy Friday, our mission parish, St. Mark the Evangelist Orthodox Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, received a donated Crucifix for use during its Holy Week services. As is the custom during Holy Week, a Crucifix is carried out into the sanctuary during Holy Friday Matins at the singing of the XV Antiphon: “Today, He who hung the earth upon the waters…” and during Vespers, the Corpus is removed from the Cross, wrapped in white linens, and symbolically taken to the tomb (the altar upon which the bloodless sacrifice is offered at each liturgy during the year).

The Crucifix was a gift from our sister community of St. Peter the Aleut near New Orleans, Louisiana, pastored by Fr. Mark Templet. St. Peter is a mission parish under the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, an anti-ecumenist Orthodox Synod based in Suzdal, Russia, which does not participate in the World Council of Churches, as does the numerically larger Moscow Patriarchate, the “official” Church in Russia.

Fr. Mark had received another such Crucifix for use in his parish, and wanted to use the opportunity to bless another fledgling mission, so he donated the surplus item to us in time for Holy Week. We thank Fr. Mark and his flock for their kindness and fraternal spirit. We add our prayer that Orthodox Christianity might continue to grow in Louisiana to our long-standing prayers that the Orthodox Church might continue to take root and develop in Raleigh, North Carolina, and surrounding areas. By working together for the promotion of the Gospel of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ, this is all the more likely.