Holy Cross + Orthodox Mission

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX MISSION

The Universal Faith (Holy Orthodoxy) is to be presented and offered to each and every person. To those who are searching for the Kingdom of God, we extend our welcome. Come and experience the true, God-centred worship, which reflects the worship of the heavenly Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit, working together with the apostles and their successors in the Church, exclaimed;

"Your servants(the apostles), O God incarnate, were called drunken, although they had driven out the drunkenness of delusion; and through the Spirit, they taught your divine doctrines in many languages, to the scattered nations, which were immersed in the drunkenness of dark ignorance."
[Aposticha Wednesday of Pentecost, Vespers],

And because of this; "the languages peculiar to each nation, become common property in the mouth of the Church." [Saint Leo: Sermon LXXV, 2, in Nicene re: Book of Acts 2:4]

To our city and nation, we offer in its own language (English), and within its own cultural umbrella, apostolic Orthodox worship, as spoken and understood by the people of the nation. Therefore, services must be held with proper decorum and according to the Church protocols. Everything in it must edify, and not scandalise participants and worshippers. Reading and singing must be clear and precise, without any special effects and artificial theatrics, but intelligent, so as to reach the mind and conscience of the congregation. [Notes taken from the Synod of bishops of ROCOR, Nov. 12, 1959, re: Statutes for Orthodox communities]

The core and heartbeat of the Holy Cross Mission is worship.

Prayer is the means itself and the most effectual of measures, for without prayer we cannot expect success even under the most perfect of circumstances. [St Innocent of Alaska]