Gallery — Saint Philaret Orthodox Church

The Parish

Photographs

Every photograph here is of this parish and its own people. None are stock.

The feast of Saint Philaret

The parish keeps its patronal feast with the hierarch, the icon wreathed in flowers.

The icon, wreathed for the feast.

The bishop and clergy standing before the flower-wreathed icon of Saint Philaret during the service — The hierarch before the icon.

The bishop in red vestments and mitre censing in the chapel, flanked by clergy holding candles — Censing at the feast.

Clergy and the bishop in festal vestments standing with three children of the parish — Clergy and children after the Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy

The services as they are served week by week.

A priest preparing the gifts at the table of oblation, with chalice, diskos and candles — Preparing the gifts.

Two priests in green vestments serving at the altar — At the altar.

A priest in green-crossed vestments giving Communion to a small girl in a headscarf — Communion.

Prayers read over a parishioner.

The bishop and a deacon standing in the darkened church during Vigil, lit by candles — Vigil, by candlelight.

The interior of the wooden church: a brass chandelier hanging beneath a vaulted ceiling before the iconostasis — The church.

The children of the parish

Children are part of the congregation, noise and all.

Three small girls in headscarves holding lit candles — Candles at the feast.

A girl in a headscarf lighting a candle at the candle stand — Lighting a candle.

A mother in a headscarf holding her baby during the service — During the service.

A mother standing with her small daughter in a headscarf on the church carpet — Mother and daughter.

Parishioners seated together in the icon-lined hall, holding painted bells — In the hall afterwards.

A baptism in open water

In summer, baptisms happen outdoors in open water, as they were done for the first thousand years, with the parish standing on the bank.

Clergy and parishioners in white at the edge of a pond ringed by pines under a summer sky — At the water's edge.

A priest with a white beard reading the prayers of baptism beside the water — The prayers.

Clergy and the candidate gathered on a wooden dock at the pond for the baptism — On the dock.

Worth confirming

These photographs show identifiable parishioners, including children. Before the site is announced widely it is worth checking that the families are content to appear on a public website — it costs nothing to ask, and it is easier to ask now than to take a picture down later.