Klamath Falls, Oregon, September 28, 2026
Photo: Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church - Ashland/Phoenix, OR
A new mission parish in southern Oregon held its first service this weekend.
On Saturday, September 26, Fr. Peter Runyon of Archangel Gabriel Orthodox Church in Phoenix, Oregon (OCA), celebrated Vespers for a new satellite mission in Klamath Falls, an hour and a half to the east, Archangel Gabriel Church reports.
The faithful in Klamath Falls then traveled to Phoenix for the Sunday Divine Liturgy.
The Archangel Gabriel Church itself has, like many others across America, been experiencing rapid growth especially over the past few years. The parish has celebrated several mass Baptisms and Chrismations over the past year.
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The parish traces its roots to the late 1970s, when a small group of believers began meeting in homes to celebrate major feast days. Visiting priests started celebrating Liturgy in the area beginning in 1985.
In 1997, Fr. David Fox arrived as the mission’s first permanently assigned priest, strengthening its liturgical singing and giving the community its present name, Archangel Gabriel’s, before his sudden death from a heart attack in December 1998. He was succeeded in August 2000 by Fr. Isaac Skidmore, who arrived after attending St. Vladimir’s Seminary in New York and served the parish for over a decade, also working as a counselor in the Rogue Valley starting in 2008. Fr. Andreas Blom then arrived in the summer of 2012, following his graduation from St. Tikhon's Seminary in Pennsylvania.
The parish purchased nearly 7 acres of land near I-5 in Ashland in December 2014, and moved to a larger temporary space in Phoenix, Oregon, in April 2015 as it grew and prepared to build a permanent church. By 2020, the parish had completed the planning phase for the building project and begun developing the land, including a perimeter fence and sewer extension. In June 2024, Fr. Andreas was reassigned to a parish in Colorado, and Fr. Peter Runyon and Matushka Sophia arrived that same month, having previously served at St. Susannah Orthodox Church in Sonora, California.
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