Orthodox Mission Forms
After More than a Decade, the Eastern Orthodox Church of Hernando County Achieves Official Status
BROOKSVILLE, FL, February 23, 2002 (SPT) — At the request of a group of Orthodox Christians who began worshiping together unofficially more than 12 years ago, an Orthodox mission has been formed for Hernando County.
The announcement was made recently by Bishop Alexios, who heads the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Atlanta. Alexios, 58, appointed the Rev. Stanley S. Harakas to serve as the mission’s priest.
The church is new only in the sense that although it has existed for 10 to 12 years, it never had official status until now.
The name of the new mission is Eastern Orthodox Church of Hernando County, said Harakas, and will be under the spiritual oversight of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.
”Eventually, we’ll find a saint’s name or an event name from the life of Christ or the blessed Virgin Mary,” Harakas said. However, Harakas believes that will not happen for a couple of years, when the congregation moves from the status of a mission to a church or when it builds its own structure.
Worship services have been held, and will continue to be held, at St. Nicholas Chapel at the Olympic Village Camp. Harakas conducted his first service there Jan. 20.
Connie Mourgides, the parish council president, said the congregation was glad to have the support of Bishop Alexios and pleased that Harakas will be their spiritual leader.
The mission is the second Orthodox Christian community in the county. Its sister parish is Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in Spring Hill, part of the Carpatho-Russian Diocese in America.
”Holy Trinity has more Slavic traditions, and we have more Greek traditions,” Harakas said. ”Not that that divides us by faith, but what people are more comfortable with. Both parishes are under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.”
Harakas pointed out that although the liturgy is conducted in English, some Greek and other languages are also used and services are open to people of all national and cultural backgrounds.
Mourgides, 74, has attended the newly formed mission for all of the 9 1/2 years that she has lived in Spring Hill, after moving from Rochester, N.Y. She said her parents were from Turkey and she has been Greek Orthodox all of her life.
”I’m tickled pink to have Father Harakas,” said Mourgides. Before joining the church more than six years ago, she knew Harakas only through his writings and by his presence when he served the parish as a fill-in priest. ”His reputation preceded him.”
Mourgides describes Harakas as ”the gentlest, kindest person I’ve ever met. He has the energy of a 30-year-old and is very, very interested in growing the church,” which now has between 35 and 40 member-couples.
”A very intelligent person, he is generous to give to anyone his knowledge and (recently) began a Bible class,” said the part-time Blue Cross/Blue Shield staffer. ”I don’t know how he gets everything done in a 24-hour period. He obviously is a good organizer of time and has the nicest, sweetest wife, Emily, who works along with him and writes also.”
Nick Kastelan, an altar server at the church, visited Florida as a serviceman in World War II and dreamed for more than 30 years of returning to live out his life.
Kastelan, who turned 70 three days ago, retired in June 1987 and moved to Spring Hill soon after.
In the early years, Kastelan and his family, all of the eastern Russian Orthodox faith, worshiped at St. Andrew’s in Port Richey. After experiencing two car accidents on U.S. 19, and suffering long commutes to services, they decided to explore the possibilities of attending a church closer to home.
The family found St. Nicholas chapel 12 years ago and has been attending ever since.
Kastelan, the youngest of five altar servers, sees Harakas as a ”dynamic” person who is well-known throughout the world as a lecturer and author. ”The congregation thinks the greatest of him,” he said.
”I think father is trying to get the church growing and (welcome) the Eastern Orthodox people in the county, have it grow and get the young people to take over,” said Kastelan. ”In our church there are Romanians, Serbians, Albanians, Russians and Greek. There are some who travel as far as I used to do to Pasco County.”
Harakas, well known for the dozen or so books he has written on Orthodox theology, was ordained into the priesthood in 1956 and started out in an Orthodox church in Lancaster, Pa.
He received his undergraduate degree and master’s in theology from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Mass., at which he began teaching in 1966. He received a doctorate in theology at Boston University. He has served in churches with congregations of 30 families and those with more than 1,000 families.
He began teaching at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and in 1970 was appointed dean of the School of Theology, where he stayed for 10 years. In May 2000 he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by Holy Cross.
During his years in Spring Hill, Harakas has been filling in at various posts including acting dean and assistant dean at a cathedral in Atlanta and serving as a supply priest when required.
If you go –
WHAT: Divine Liturgy
WHERE: St. Nicholas Chapel, 13460 Olympic Village Lane, Brooksville
WHEN: 10 a.m. Sundays
For directions and information, call Rev. Harakas at 688-2382 or write Mrs. Connie Mourgides, Eastern Orthodox Church of Hernando County, P.O. Box 5566, Spring Hill, FL 34611