On Sunday, January 14th, we celebrated our time with Father Michael and Matushka AnnaMarie Slovesko and welcomed Father David and Matushka Karen Mahaffey.

It is with heavy hearts that we say goodbye to Father Michael and Matushka AnnaMarie.  Their love and devotion to the Parish Family of Holy Trinity over the last 16 months has been inspiring and touched us in so many ways.  They have left an indelible mark, and will be in our hearts and prayers.  May God Grant Them Many Happy and Blessed Years !

Click here for photos of our Church School Students,

First Confession Class and Celebration of Father Slovesko's Anniversary

Click here for photos from Pascha

coming soon ...   Video from Pascha 2006

View photos from all over the US, Moscow and even Mosul, Iraq (click here)

courtesy of www.OCA.org

His Grace, +Bishop Tikhon visits Holy Trinity.

On behalf of Father Michael Slovesko, the newly elevated Protodeacon Peter Skoog, the newly Tonsured Reader Jon Black Sr, the Parish Council and the entire Holy Trinity Parish Family, we would like to thank his grace +Bishop Tikhon for celebrating with us this weekend.

... click here for photos from the weekend ...

On Sunday, March 12th, Father Slovesko and Protodeacon Skoog inducted the first Holy Trinity Youth Council.  Under the leadership of Mr. Moore, the Youth Council's Mission is to find ways to reduce the suffering of youth throughout the world.

www.orthodoxpresence.net

Introducing the

Holy Trinity Orthodox Church

Study Site

www.orthodoxpresence.net

Thanks to Mr. Moore's talent and dedication, we now have a site dedicated to the Church School program at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church.

Please visit and see

what our children are learning !

Satellite view of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church (click here)

Christmas Yolka photos (click here)

Holy Trinity Orthodox Church held the Annual Meeting

of the Parish on Sunday, January 22nd.

The Parish Council would like to thank our entire Parish Family for their overwhelming

support and trust.  We would also like to thank the Very Reverend Protopresbyter Michael Slovesko and the Very Reverend Stephen Kopestonsky for their support and spiritual guidance in our time of transition.

2005 was a year of growth for Holy Trinity, with the addition of several new families

and individuals even after the departure of our pastor.  In addition, we saw the

renovation of the Parish House, as well as the donation of many major gifts.  We look

forward to continued growth in 2006, and are honored to be given the opportunity

to work for the growth of Christ's Church on earth.

New Areas of Growth for 2006:

* Creation of the Holy Trinity Youth Council, with a mission to find ways to help relieve the suffering of children throughout the world

* Youth Sundays: our Church School students will participate in the Liturgy by singing and reading the Hours and Epistle

* Further outreach to the community to bring awareness of Orthodoxy and the Holy Trinity Parish to our friends and neighbors

 

Some of Our Significant Projects Slated for 2006:

* Completion of the Parish House Renovations

* Installation of the new boiler system that was graciously donated

* Completion of the renovations to the storage and office areas in the church basement

* Continued development of the new Parish Library

* Purchase of a new winding sheet that was graciously donated

* Design and installation of new doors into the church that were graciously donated

* Completion of Parish Photo Directory

 

 

Miraculous Icon Visits

Holy Trinity

Orthodox Church

Father Stephen Evanina, Father Deacon Peter Skoog and the Faithful of Holy Trinity Church would like to extend our deepest gratitude to His Grace, Bishop TIKHON, the Philadelphia Deanery of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania, the Orthodoxy Clergy Brotherhood of the Delaware Valley & all of the visiting faithful who worshiped with us for the Lenten Mission Vespers on Sunday, April 17th!

Over 200 people came together for worship this evening and all were able to venerate - and be anointed by - the precious myrrh from the Icon of St. Anna. We thank Fr. Athanassy Mastalski-Pastor of the Orthodox Church of Our Lady, the Joy of All Who Sorrow, Philadelphia, for bringing the Icon to our parish.

To everyone who cleaned, cooked, landscaped and prepared for this mission, together with all who came to pray with us...we pray that Our Lord will bless each of your richly for it and grant you all

MANY BLESSED YEARS!

Please check back in a few days

“Last year, on Mothers' Day,

the icon began to stream

myrrh (sweet-smelling oil)

from the cuff and collar of

her garment, and from her halo."

"When the kivot (box built to

protect the icon) was opened,

the church was filled with

the sweet aroma."

On Sunday evening, April 17, 2005, in conjunction with the Archpastoral visitation of His Grace, The Right Reverend TIKHON, Bishop of South Canaan and Administrator of the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania - the Wonder-working Myrrh-streaming Icon of Saint Anna and the Virgin Mary visited Holy Trinity Orthodox Church (OCA), Mervine & Juniper Streets, Pottstown, PA. 

Father Igumen Athanassy relates the story of the icon: How he, as a young man, had fallen out of a tree and broken his arm, and how the doctor said that the arm had no pulse and would have to be amputated, and how Father's mother anointed his arm with oil distributed on the feast of Saint Ann, and how, the next morning, his arm was healthy and needed only to be kept in a cast until the bones healed. The doctor predicted that as Father grew older, he would most likely have arthritis in that arm, and in fact, Father says that he does suffer from arthritis - everywhere except in the arm which was healed.

From that time, Father had a devotion to Saint Anna, and when he was later ordained to the priesthood and assigned to be the Chaplain for the Nuns at the Monastery on the Mount of Olives, the sisters there painted an icon of Saint Anna and the Virgin Mother of God for him.

In his former parishes, as well as in his current parish of the Church of Our Lady, Joy of All Who Sorrow, in Philadelphia, Father Athanassy regularly keeps the feasts of Saint Anna - Saints Joachim and Anna on the Synaxis of the Feast of the Nativity of the Virgin, and the feast of the repose of Saint Anna.

Last year, on Mothers' Day, the icon began to stream myrrh (sweet-smelling oil) from the cuff and collar of her garment, and from her halo.

Father sent photos of the wonder to all the bishops and deans of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. When he lifted the icon out of the kivot (box built to protect the icon, with a hinged glass door), the back of the icon was saturated with the holy myrrh. Now the back of the kivot is also becoming saturated.

His Eminence, Metropolitan LAURUS came to visit the parish on their feast day, and brought with him the Miraculous Wonder-working Kursk Icon of the Mother of God, and after inspecting the icon of Saint Anna, venerated it, and placed it in the center of the Church, next to the Kursk Icon, giving both the respect due to miraculous icons – censing them first, and singing the troparia of the icons at the end of each service. His Eminence also blessed Father Athanassy to take the icon to visit other parishes.

After His Eminence's visit, the icon began to stream myrrh again, this time with two additional clearly visible tracks of myrrh from the eyes of Saint Anna down on the head of the Virgin.

Asked if he understands this miracle as having any particular significance, Father replied that he did not see it as a warning nor as a particular blessing for his particular parish, nor as a personal blessing, but rather that, Saint Anna, as the grandmother of Our Lord, is present with us as grandmother to us all. 'Everyone needs a grandmother,' Father says. 'And as every grandmother does, she watches over us, protects us, blesses us and calls us to love and emulate her divine Grandson.'

Saint Anna's icon has visited Assumption of the Virgin Church (OCA), Philadelphia, Saint Demetrios' Greek Orthodox Church, Upper Darby, and Saint Stephen's Cathedral (OCA) for the annual OCA Philadelphia Deanery Advent Akathist and Lecture, and Saints Peter & Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Wilmington, Delaware. Large crowds have assembled for each of these visits. Father Athanassy has requests for parish visitations with the Icon throughout the country.

The icon of Saint Anna and the Theotokos can be normally viewed at the Church of Our Lady, Joy of All Who Sorrow, on Brandywine Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Thanks for your great support of the website.  There have been over 30,000 visitors, that's over 1,000 visitors a month, since March of 2003.  This is important for a lot of reasons.  It helps us get information about the Orthodox Faith out to our own parish family.  It also helps us get this information out to many more people outside our parish.  As more and more people visit www.htoca.org, the internet search engines (like www.google.com) rank our site higher when anyone is searching for an Orthodox Church.  That means as more people visit, more people will find us, and more people will visit, etc, etc, etc.

We've received a lot of positive feedback about the site, and appreciate the compliments.  If you have any suggestions, questions of comments, feel free to send them to webmaster@htoca.org.

And yes, we're working on getting the Guest Book fixed so you can leave feedback and read the comments of others. 

There is something YOU can do to help.  We placed a spot on the home page for you to enter your email address.  When you do this, we'll be able to keep you up-to-date on Parish and Social events - you'll be able to pick what information you'd like.  Your information will be kept private and never shared with anyone outside the parish.  Pass this on to everyone you know.

Holy Trinity Privacy Policy

Our policy is simple.  We will ONLY contact you with respect to those topics you requested, and your information is private.  We will not share it with anyone, ever.