April Services
+June 5th: Feast of the Ascension.
+June 15th: Feast of Pentecost.  Following the Liturgy, we will have a potluck picnic on our lovely grounds, with the new barbeque available to anyone who wishes to use it.  Since this is also Vidovdan, the day when Orthodox Serbs commemorate their defeat at the Battle of Kosovo, we will take a collection for Kosovo relief and view a couple of videos about the current suffering of Orthodox Christians in Kosovo.  The service of Kneeling Vespers will begin at 1 pm.

Cornerstone To Be Rededicated
At the conclusion of the Liturgy on the Feast of All Saints of North America, we will rededicate the cornerstone of our temple, which was dislodged in the recent vehicle collision.  A special effort is underway to contact descendants of those parishioners who signed the 1924 dedicatory letter found in the time capsule discovered within the cornerstone.  We would like to invite them to attend the service and a special meal being planned for that day.  The original signers were: Ilija Radakovich, Dragutin Studen, Andrei Pavel Monchak, Pavel Monchak, Mihail Monchak, Andy Kascak, Hrihori Mihalso, Stevo Chanak, Jovo Chubrilo and Steve K. Rechis.  If you know any living descendants of these people, please help Barbara Negomir get in touch with them.  We would like them to know that the temple built by their forefathers still stands, and that they are invited to be a part of its ongoing life.

Women's Group
At their last meeting, the women did a wonderful job organizing old and new parish photos into albums so that we can view them.  This month's meeting on Tuesday, June 10th, will involve plans for a meal on All Saints of North America, a day when we shall remember all our forefathers who have labored in this land.

Choir Festival
The annual Orthodox Choir Festival will be in Littleton, CO on Saturday, June 7th.  Popadija has all the information, so let her know by June 1st whether you plan to attend.  We started this "tradition," so let's keep it going strong through our participation.

Thanks to Jordanna for volunteering to be our librarian!  Quality donations are always accepted.

From the Archives: Return to the Faith of Their Fathers
With the death of Father Nicholas Seregely, who had served the Denver and Pueblo Uniates in the face of great obstacles, Holy Transfiguration Church was confronted not only with the death of her pastor, but with an attempt by the local Catholic bishop to replace the Eastern Rite with the Latin one (it is not known whether he had any designs on Pueblo).  Confronted with this new threat to their faith, coming as it did after centuries of discriminatory treatment, the lay leaders of the Globeville parish decided in 1903 to petition Bishop Tikhon of the Russian Orthodox Mission in America to receive them into Orthodoxy.  One June 15, 1903, the request was granted, and an Orthodox priest came from Pittsburgh to formally receive the parish into Orthodoxy on behalf of the bishop. 

These details are recorded in the Holy Transfiguration centennial booklet.  Our parish has no record of the process whereby, or date upon which, we were received into Orthodoxy.  Father has contacted the OCA Archivist with a request for such information if it be available.  What is known is that we followed Denver's lead and came to Orthodoxy some time in 1903 as well.  The next installment will introduce us to the first Orthodox priest who served this parish.

Recommended Reading
It may seem a tardy thing to recommend a pair of Lenten books during the Paschal season, but you will want to get the following works in advance of next year's struggle: Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, by Alexander Schmemann, and The Lenten Spring, by Thomas Hopko.  Great Lent is Schmemann at his usual best, uncovering the meaning of Lent through an examination of the Lenten services and themes of pre-Lenten and Lenten Sundays.  His presentation of the Pre-sanctified Liturgy is particularly revealing, presenting it as the culmination of what Lent is all about, of that "bright sadness" which has become almost a cliché.  One parishioner who bought this book read through it before Great Lent, then read it again during the fast.  You will want to reread it year after year.  Father Hopko's work is a bit more conversational and contemporary, though not quite as in depth in its liturgical-historical analysis.  The layout is easier to follow, with one short reading for each day of the fast.  During Lent, priests often recommend to their flock a "reading project" to help actualize more of the potential benefits of the season.  Either book fits this role.

Sponsorship
We now have an area of the church where children can pray without causing distraction.  This area needs a rug, and to get a nice one will probably run around $200.  If you are interested in sponsoring this rug, please confer with Father and we will get something appropriate.

Parishioner Profile: The Lynch's

By the time this month's bulletin comes out, we will be bidding farewell to Zachary and his family as they depart for seminary.  Needless to say, they will remain a part of this parish's life, just as St. Michael's will always remain part of theirs.  As with many converts to Orthodoxy, the path that led them here was so circuitous that we can safely say it was God who finally brought them home.

Zachary was born in Colorado Springs in 1977.  That almost makes him a local, but for the fact that he went on to live in 10 different places during the course of his youth, never staying anywhere for more than a few years at a time until settling in Pueblo, his home since 2001.  Zachary's parents, Tom and Kristine, were Evangelical missionaries, which necessitated an itinerant lifestyle.  They were affiliated primarily with the Vineyard Christian Fellowship, a denomination in which Zachary was baptized at the age of reason.  During his adolescent years, a missionary trip abroad seemed imminent, and the ultimate destination was Ukraine, where Tom's brother had established a mission.

During his time in Ukraine, a seed was planted in Zachary's heart.  He experienced no sudden or dramatic conversion experience, but recalls being attracted to Orthodox churches, and in particular to the Kiev Caves Monastery, where the incorrupt relics of the saints fascinated him.  In retrospect, he surmises that, "Those saints must've took it upon themselves to pray for me, or else I wouldn't be here now."  It was also in Ukraine that Zachary met the love of his life.                                  

People may assume that Natalia was born and raised Orthodox, but she too is a convert.  The daughter of a Soviet officer, Natalia also traveled during her youth.  Born in Poltava, she also spent a decade in Irkutsk, "where I first began to think about God."  Her parents were not militant atheists, but neither were they pious believers.  It was the beauty of Siberia, of the natural world and the fairy-tale churches, that made her think of things heavenly.  Natalia initially approached Orthodoxy, but when she spoke with a priest about entering the Church, he simply told her to bring the appropriate fee and he would baptize her - no mention of catechism, or of developing a spiritual life.  She eventually found in Roman Catholicism a much more vibrant faith, and was baptized at 17.

Natalia met Zachary through her parish youth group, with which Zachary had become involved both through his missionary work and on account of a budding interest in liturgy.  Their relationship began as a casual friendship, then developed into something more.  One day Zachary decided to propose.  Since he did it following a guitar serenade, she could not resist.  He was 19, and she 21, when Tom married them.  And then Isaiah came along.  Due to differing medical practices and standards, the couple decided to return to the States to have their firstborn.  Isaiah ('97) was followed in due time by Aidan ('99), Trinity ('01), Arseny ('04) and Seraphima ('07).

Stateside, the family settled in Pensacola, where Zachary enrolled at Brownsville Revival School of Ministry (now known by the more catchy "Fire International").  There he earned an AA in Practical Ministry, after which he did some work as an ordained youth minister.  Though she enjoyed Protestant worship, Natalia missed many things about Catholicism, a faith she was discouraged from talking about, or at least talking about positively, by her newfound Evangelical associates.  Zachary's interest in liturgy and the historic Church also began to grow.  Around this time, an old colleague of Tom's, who had become an Old Catholic bishop, brought the family into his fold.  Tom became a priest and Zachary a deacon at the Denver congregation.  At first their new church seemed an answer to prayer, but disillusionment set in when the fragmented ecclesiology and simonaical approach to acquiring 'apostolic' pedigrees became evident.  Zachary drifted back to the Vineyard for a time, and even youth-pastored a Pueblo congregation, but this was only temporary.  He knew there was something out there he just wasn't getting, so he began a period of fasting and praying for God to show him the right path.

Around this time, Tom began to discover Orthodoxy as a living, vibrant faith, and recommended that Zachary look for a parish in Pueblo.  This led Zachary to Vespers one night at St. Michael's.
"It was Father Christopher, Matushka, Gabrielle Kuzmiak and me," he recalls.  But the small number of worshippers didn't matter.  What did was the sense of awe and wonder he felt at the Kiev Caves, which came rushing back as he stood in our temple.  He went home and told Natalia, "This is it.  We have to do this."  When she got over the momentary vexation of switching faiths again, Natalia's next emotion was a feeling of irony.  She had journeyed from Ukraine to Pueblo in order to become Orthodox!  Zachary had to say goodbye to his old congregation, and the family was received into the Church on Lazarus Saturday 2003.  In addition to the truth of the faith, their admiration was won by the strong sense of community, and the resilience of the faithful of St. Michael's.

Zachary has felt called to ministry since his teenage years, and now prepares to pursue that calling within the Apostolic Church.  As he does so, he prays that more people find Orthodoxy at St. Michael's.  "The people here have been like blood family to me," he feels, "I hope they can continue to do that for others.  As they've been icons of Christ to me, I hope they continue to be that for others and welcome the next family who come here searching, like we were."  As for Natalia, she prays "that one day we'll come back and this church will be too small."

April Treasurer’s Report

Summer Camp
Only one parent so far plans to send a child to the Rocky Mountain Orthodox Youth Camp from August 3rd to 6th.  If you are interested in sending a child, please speak with Father very soon.  The cost is $115 per camper.  His Grace, Bishop Benjamin will once again be present.

Father Away
Father has been invited to attend a weeklong workshop on disaster response offered by International Orthodox Christian Charities.  It will take place at St. Nicholas Ranch in Fresno during the second week of June.  Please keep Popadija company during this time.

Safety
The Parish Council recently heard a presentation on church safety, the gist of which was that we should call the police at the first sign of suspicious behavior in or near the church (such as at Vespers).  We don't want to be alarmist, but nor should we be naive.

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