The Monastery and the Missions of the Church

St Gregory of Sinai Monastery is currently involved, at the instance and with the blessing of our Bishop, His Eminence Auxentios of Etna and Portland, with staffing 3 diocesan Missions - SS Peter and Paul, in Tucson, Arizona; St Michael the Archangel, in Bakersfield, California, and a new mission in the San Francisco Bay Area, St George, in Piedmont, California.

Although our Monastery is small to begin with, we all see our participation in supplying a Priest to serve the Liturgy in these 3 areas as a service fully consonant with the monastic heritage, and we're grateful for the opportunity to help out at a time of acute clergy shortage - a problem hopefully about to be addressed when our new Theological School, St Photios in Etna, opens its doors to its first class of students.

Hieromonk Parthenios (Hansen) has been given charge of SS Peter and Paul in Tucson; Bishop Sergios and Hieromonk Patrick take turns serving at St Michael the Archangel in Bakersfield; and Bishop Sergios is serving at St George in Piedmont.  

This new community in the Bay Area had its first liturgy on Sunday August 28 (August 15 on the Church calendar), the Feast of the Dormition.  Fifteen people gathered in Piedmont for the service, much blessed by having a well-trained choir on hand.  Piedmont is adjacent to Oakland, and we hope that it can serve the needs of the largest urban area in Northern California worthily.

+Bishop Sergios of Portland (emeritus)