Holy Trinity hosts Pan-Orthodox Vespers and Seminar

With the blessing of His Grace Bishop Irinej, on Sunday, March 26, Holy Trinity Serbian Orthodox Church on Racoon Rd hosted a Pan-Orthodox Lenten Vespers, bringing together clergy from the Serbian Eastern Diocese Cleveland Deanery and members of the Youngstown Orthodox Clergy Brotherhood. 

In front of a completely full congregation, the clergy prayerful moved from the light-colored vestments donned for Sunday’s resurrectional service and back into the royal-purple reserved for solemn Lenten prayers.  Following the dismissal, all in attendance gathered for a wonderful meal in the parish hall.

The evening’s speaker was Rev. Presbyter Aleksa Pavichevich, who offered an interactive seminar based on the theme, “Forgiveness: A Miracle”. Beginning with a powerful story of forgiveness pulled from the recent news, Fr Aleksa discussed the ways in which we avoid seeking true forgiveness, and transitioned into various methods by which we can learn to forgive.  The presentation was steeped in Scripture, and those in attendance were given paper and pencil and asked to write responses throughout.  The questions and answer session afterwards lasted more than an hour, with faithful and clergy alike commenting on the topic and asking Fr Aleksa a variety of questions.

In addition to approximately 200 faithful, 15 clergy were present, representing 7 different Orthodox Christian jurisdictions: Fr. Basil Duesenberry, OCA – Bulgarian Diocese; Fr. Andrew Goal, Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Fr. Michale Lillie – Russian Orthodox Church in the United States of America; Rev. Deacon David Gemmel , OCA – Diocese of the Midwest; Fr. Thomas Constantine, GOA; Fr. Daniel Rohan, Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese; Fr. John Harvey, Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Very Rev. Protopresbyter-Stavrophor Vladimir Demsuk;  Ven. Protosindjel Sava (Medakovic); Very Rev. Protopresbyter Milan Pajic; Rev. Presbyter Aleksa Pavichevich; Rev. Presbyter Bosko Stojanovic; Rev. Presbyter Vedran Grabic; Rev. Deacon Zeljko Jurosevic; and host-priest, Rev. Presbyter Dragan Goronijc.

Source: easterndiocese.org