Dear brothers & sisters in the Lord,

A confrere and I have been given permission to travel this summer. I would like to make a visit to St. Elias church in Canada since it is named after my heavenly patron. Does anyone know if they have any services during the week? Or would it be better to stop by on Sunday? (I checked out their website, and couldn't find any mention of weekday events). And isn't there an Eastern monastery nearby in Orange, ONT.?

Also, we will be going back to our monastery in Missouri by way of Cleveland. Is there anything Byzantine to see there?

Thanks for any help!

PAX

Br. Elias OSB

Br Elias,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
In Cleveland, I would recommend you visit St. John's in Solon OH. That is a suburb southeast of Cleveland.
The parish is small, but very friendly. The icons on the iconostas and the interior of the sancutary are magnificent. They were written by Fr Joe Loya, who is now in Chicago.
Please call Fr Michael for service times.
Have a wonderful trip,
Deacon El

Dear Br Elias,

I can't give you an exhaustive list, but let me recommend:

• Holy Spirit Ruthenian Church, in Cleveland's "South Side". The iconastas is incredible.
• St Theodosius Russian Orthodox Church (OCA?), also South Side. I'm not a huge fan of the iconastas, but the church is quite nice, and also famous (appeared in the film "The Deer Hunter").
• St Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral, 5720 State Road, Parma. The iconastas is only one row, but the rest of the church is floor to ceiling mosaics.
• St Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, State Road (about 2,000 feet from St. Josaphat). recently 're-decorated'. Great mosaic on the front, as well as icons on the wall and ceiling.
• St John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Cathedral, Rockside Road, Parma (Rockside cuts across State Road between the 2 Ukrainian Cathedrals). Nice mosaics on the outside, been ages since I've been inside and as such don't feel comfortable to comment.
• St Sava Serbian Orthodox Church [1], Broadview Road, Parma. Rather plain interior, but wonderful carved iconastas from Serbia.
• St Sergius of Radonezh R.O.C. (ROCOR?), Broadview Road, Seven Hills (just up the hill from St Sava). Small, not very impressive from the outside, but floor to ceiling (and on the ceiling) frescoes.
• St Mark Coptic Orthodox Church, Pleasant Valley Road, Seven Hills (off Broadview Road, 10 min drive from St Sergius). The icons of Christ and the Theotokos on the iconastas at one time were weeping oil. Not sure if this still occurs. Being possibly the only Coptic church in the Midwest you'll see cars from at least 4-5 different states on any given Sunday.
• St Paul (?) Greek Orthodox Church, Sprague Road, Seven Hills (15? min drive from St Mark). Kinda modern, but still worth a look.
• St Sava Serbian Orthodox Church [2], Wallings Road, Broadview Heights (?). Yes, there are 2 St Sava SOCs in the Greater Cleveland area, and yes, it's all due to politics. In a way I'm glad - I think this one is musch nicer than the original, both inside and out.
• There is a Belarussian Orthodox Church as well. It backs on to W 25th Street (before it becomes Pearl Road) near a huge hospital (I can't believe I've fogotten the hospital's name!)

It's been years since I've been around to lead one of my church tours, and I can't remember all the important details. Feel free to send me a PM and I'll help you as much as I can.

There are plenty of other Eastern churches in the area, and I'm sure some of the other Forum members who still live in the area will recommend some more.

Enjoy your trip.

Andrij

I thought it was St. Theodosius Cathedral that appeared in that movie. I checked out the OCA website and couldn't find a St. Sergius in the Cleveland area.

http://www.oca.org/pages/directory/list_results.asp?location=OH&B1=Submit

Tony,

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! (Yes folks, some of us vostochnyks know, and use, a bit of Latin on ocassion ).

Thanks for the correction. Attribute the error to today being the end of an extremely taxing month and being away from Cleveland for too long

Andrij

Dear Br. Elias,

You may want to check the Eparchial website:

www.parma.org

I have a question for anyone who might know. Is Parma the smallest city in the world with so many Cathedrals? I counted three on Kobzar's list.

John
Pilgrim and Odd Duck

From the list above, it looks like Brother Elias is going to be spending a LOT more time in Cleveland than he anticipated!! (Now, if the Eastern churches had the Latin custom of the "7 Churches" on Holy Thursday, Br. Elias could do it almost twice over!)

"Hello. Dr. Scholl's???"

Blessings!

Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,

Thank you all for the wonderful information!!

Here I thought Pittsburgh was the Byzantine "Holy Land" in the U.S. - looks like Cleveland can compete with the city of 3 rivers for that title!

Maybe I could talk my abbot into letting me stay a little longer. If only St. Benedict in his Rule didn't have this thing against traveling monks.

Again many thanks!

PAX

I believe you meant Holy *Ghost* Ruthenian Church in the Tremont (the "Flats") area - a few blocks away from St. Theodosius Cathedral. There is also a Holy Spirit Ruthenian Church down the road from the Ruthenian and Ukrainian Cathedrals in Parma. The iconostasis at Holy Ghost is wood and reaches the ceiling. Was made in the Old Country.

And the Icons in Solon were written by Fr. TOM Loya.


Sharon

Dear Brother Elias, it is definitely better to go to St. Elias in Brampton on the weekend, as they have Vespers Saturday night and Matins Sunday morning before the Divine Liturgy. Unless it is Holy Week, Bright Week, etc. or a major feastday (or the vigil of major feastday) they do not have regular services during the week.

Also they are on the Old Calendar so if you are going in the summer and want to be there for a particular fixed feast day (Sts. Peter and Paul, Transfiguration, etc.) you will want to take that into account.

If you need driving directions to St. Elias or the monastery in Orangeville feel free to send me a PM. Actually Orangeville is less than an hour north of St. Elias. We drive up there at least once a year from Kansas and will probably be going again in May. I can also give you some contact #s for things you may also want to see and do when you are up there.

The St. Elias website lists a calendar for the entire year, so you should check that. Generally, no, as Diak says, services are on the weekends and on feasts only. Regular services during the week do not happen unless during Great Lent or for feasts.

If the website does not provide you with all you need to know, there is an option on there to contact the webmeister, Fr. Richard Soo, and he will happily answer your questions (although it might take him a few days to get back to you).

Of course, the socio-liturgical event of the year at St. Elias will be 30 August 2003 when I and my betrothed will be crowned in marriage.....! LOL

Adam

Dr John
Easily three times! I can think of almost a dozen on the Greater Cleveland area I haven't included in the list. Now, if you start going as far out as Solon, Lorain, Akron...


Brother Benedict
As tempting as it is to show where Pittsburgh falls in comarison to Cleveland, it is Lent so with great difficulty I will abstain.

J Thur
Yes, you are correct. As I said, I've been away too long. And that part of Cleveland will always be "Southside" to me, and the park near Holy Ghost will always be "DP Park", never Lincoln Park.
As for Holy Spirit, that's the one on W 54th, right?

Andrij