Diocesan Faithful Celebrate Fourth at Fort Ross

His Eminence, Benjamin, Archbishop of San Francisco and the West, led the annual pilgrimage of clergy and faithful from the Diocese of the West to Fort Ross State Historic Park on Saturday, July 4, 2015. Faithful have been gathering at Fort Ross every year since July 4, 1925 for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and fellowship at the first Orthodox chapel of prayer in the lower forty-eight.

Following the Divine Liturgy, the faithful went in procession to the Cemetery of the nineteenth century Russian settlement and celebrated a memorial service. The Fort’s Chapel, dedicated to the Most Holy Trinity, was built in the mid-1820s. Although Ross had no resident priest, in 1836 Father Ioann Veniaminov — glorified in 1977 as our St. Innocent of Alaska — visited the settlement and conducted sacraments of marriage, baptism, and the Divine Liturgy. The faithful of the Bay Area worked with the State of California and other benefactors in the twentieth century to preserve the Fort and the Chapel. More history can be read here. The annual Fourth of July visit to Fort Ross is a beautiful opportunity for the faithful of the Diocese of the West to gather together and to offer thanksgiving to God for those who brought the faith to this land and for the United States, where we are free to worship the Most Holy Trinity in the Orthodox manner.

Source: Pravoslavie.ru