Metropolitan Jonah visits Oklahoma communities
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, visited two parishes in Oklahoma November 5-7, 2010.
In addition to his duties as Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, Metropolitan Jonah serves as Locum Tenens of the Diocese of the South.
His three-day visit began with a well attended public lecture on spirituality, the enlightenment of the heart, and the Orthodox Christian understanding of faith and works at Tulsa’s Grace Lutheran Church.
The following day, Metropolitan Jonah traveled to Saints Cyril and Methodius Church, Hartshorne, OK, where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy and met with the faithful. One of the Orthodox Church in America’s rather remote “pioneer” communities, the parish was established in the 1890s and serviced by Saint John Kochurov.
On Saturday evening, Metropolitan Jonah attended Great Vespers at Holy Apostles Church, Tulsa, where Priest Ambrose Arrington serves as rector. At the reception that followed, he encouraged the faithful to pursue a mature Christian spirituality and the life of the family within the Church.
During the Sunday morning Divine Liturgy, Metropolitan Jonah tonsured four men to the order of Reader and ordained a fifth to the Subdiaconate. He also awarded Father Ambrose the right to wear a gold cross in recognition of his dedication and service in building the parish’s new temple. A festive meal followed.
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