Winfield, Pennsylvania, July 4, 2025
The growing St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco Mission Church in Winfield, Pennsylvania, celebrated its first patronal feast in its own church building on Wednesday, July 2.
In honor of the occasion, the mission was blessed with a visit from His Grace Bishop Luke of Syracuse (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia), the abbot and rector of Holy Trinity Monastery and Seminary in Jordanville, New York, and several other visiting clergy.
The parish was founded in 2015, and for several years worshiped in rented spaces in and around Lewisburg. A cross was erected on the future site of the church in June 2021, and the groundbreaking was celebrated in October 2023. In January 2025, the mission began holding services in its own building, which sits on a 6-acre plot in Winfield, including a small cemetery and room for future expansion.
Accompanying Bp. Luke were Fr. John Boddecker, professor of Scripture at Holy Trinity Seminary, who offered a lecture on Parallelism in the Psalms at nearby Bucknell University the evening before, Hierodeacon Panteleimon and Riassaphore Monk Nicholas from Holy Trinity Monastery, Dcn. Michael Pavuk, director of development for Holy Trinity Seminary, who directed the choir for the feast, and seminarian Thomas Lyall.
Fr. George Sharonoff, former rector of St. John’s, also returned to celebrate the patronal feast. The current rector is Fr. Paul Siewers, who is also a chaplain and professor of Christian literature at Bucknell University.
The tonsuring of Rdr. Luke
Vladyka Luke was greeted at the entrance of the church at 9:00 AM. During the Hours, St. John’s parishioner Luke Soboleski, a student of the Pastoral School of the ROCOR Diocese of Chicago, was tonsured as a reader. At the end of the service, Bp. Luke offered an exhortation for Rdr. Luke to conduct himself worthily as a member of the lesser clergy and to continue assisting Fr. Paul in the work of growing the mission.
Many parishioners and visitors partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ.
Following the Liturgy, Bp. Luke blessed the cross and dome that is scheduled to be erected in early August.
He then offered a homily, encouraging the mission to take inspiration from St. John’s complete dedication to Christ, saying:
St. John was 24/7, all the time, always dedicated to Christ our Lord. We should begin, even today, to add a little bit each day to our devotion to Christ, to the pious growth of our souls, so we can prepare ourselves for the other life; and every day to cut out something that takes us away and distracts us from our life in God. We can do this. All we need to do, as Fr. Seraphim of Platina said, is be determined. All we have to do is have the desire, and God will help us. All things are possible with Him.
His Grace also shared a story about the grace-filled fragrance that emanated from hairs of St. John that the future Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral) used to distribute to encourage the veneration of the Holy Hierarch before his canonization.
The celebrations concluded with a short coffee hour and lunch at a nearby restaurant.
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