St.Vladimir Orthodox Church
3163 Purcell's Cove Road, Halifax, NS
Welcome to the Orthodox parish of St. Vladimir Prince of Kiev
The first thing you will want to know is something about our parish. Let’s start with our patron saint — St.Vladimir: It was through his efforts that the whole of that part of the world and its people known as The Rus, became Christian and Orthodox. Let me tell you that St. Vladimir Orthodox Church has more English language speaking parishioners than any other.
St. Vladimir Parish was started by Father Vladimir Tobin as an English Mission and you would feel right at home. St. Vladimir, our Patron Saint, the Prince of Kiev was instrumental in the conversion of that part of the world, Rus, to Orthodoxy, more than a thousand years ago? The Orthodox Church has been teaching about Jesus Christ for more than 2,000 years, and that it has not altered those incredible teachings? Frequently we get asked, “Do you believe in the Bible?” Our answer has to be, “Of course we do, Orthodox Christians wrote the New Testament!” Orthodox Christians wrote the Gospels, the Epistles, the Acts of the Apostles, and the great Revelation. The Orthodox Church (Orthodox meaning right believing) is the ancient and the modern Christian Church, which stretched and still stretches as far back as to St. Peter and St. Paul, and the other Disciples and Apostles, who, led by the Holy Spirit, traveled The Holy Land and far beyond.
The Orthodox Church may be more than 2000 years old, but we live now, by holding on to Traditional Christian teachings. We live in and are part of the 21st Century. Glory to God!
It would be an adventure to visit St Vladimir Prince of Kiev church, and you would be welcome. We don’t criticize, we don’t judge, and there are lots of children.
Saturday evening at 6pm we serve Vespers, which takes about an hour. Sunday 10am we serve Liturgy, which takes about two hours on a regular Sunday. The coffee time that follows lasts as long as people stay and chat, and eat, and drink tea and coffee. Our people love being in each others’ company so we don’t hurry away.
How did we learn about the Church? By being part of the community. So, we await — to welcome you.
In Christ,
Father David
Rector
Weekly News
March 21st, 2025
Saturday March 22
10am Divine Liturgy (40 Martyrs)
6pm Vigil
Sunday March 23
Sunday of the Cross
Tone 6
9:40am Hours and Divine Liturgy
Sunday School
1pm Catechumens
Wednesday March 26
10am Pre-Sanctified Liturgy
Saturday March 29
10am Holy Unction
6pm Vigil
Very soon it will be Pascha and that means Flowers. We have two very competent ladies who arrange flowers for us. We will need a lot of flowers to decorate the Tomb of Christ and the rest of the church. For this, we need to make a special collection - flowers cost a lot of money, they probably always did. Please put the special money into an envelope and mark it Flowers for Pascha. Electronically - mark it the same way.
Just a little reminder of the many flowers it takes to decorate the Tomb of Christ at Pascha.
Father Stelian is a member of the Archdiocesan Council. For the first time ever, the Council has asked to meet here in Halifax. Father Stelian is in charge of billeting the other members of the Council; he has to find accommodation for them and has asked that we, the parish, find within ourselves, beds for two nights, April 28th and 29th. If you have a spare bed for these dates, please contact Father Stelian. This is important; it is our chance to show our parish to the Archdiocese. The Archbishop already knows who we are, others in the Archdiocese may not. I leave this in your capable and loving hands.
The Catechumen Class will be on Sunday at 1 pm as usual. This will be the final session until after Pascha. You can join by Teams here. You can download the PDF for free here. There is a general Baptism of Catechumens on Lazarus Saturday (April 12) at 10 am, If you would like to be baptized, please speak with Father David or one of the priests.
The surgery on my back went very well indeed, I no longer get a numb left foot so I can stand at the altar. What has happened since that surgery is a pain on the left side of my back. It makes ascending and descending steps really difficult, thank goodness those poles that Ben installed are there and thank goodness there are folk willing to let me use them as a steadier. (The back pain is likely muscular or arthritis, it has nothing to do with the surgery.)
Mark asked us to note that there will be a cleaning session on April 5. What needs to be done? Only from my point of view, I see that the carpets need a deep clean, the carpet in the altar needs deep cleaning, The big brass candle holder behind the altar needs cleaning (as it always does), wax needs removing from the floor, the candle stands need cleaning. The downstairs needs cleaning. Speaking of all this, there are people who clean upstairs and downstairs after services - we are very grateful for all that work and those who do that cleaning week-in and week-out and of course those who bring the food - it is so excellent. We are very blessed to have so many who don't complain but just get on with the task at hand. Thank You - All of you!
It is really important that when new faces appear you make sure they are noticed and also invited down for coffee. The system of placing food on the tables is working; we no longer have a long queue of hungry children and adults. By the way, the coffee is delicious, whoever buys that.
The translation of this bulletin into Russian was done by Oksana Kim who has volunteered to continue translating even while she is absent from us. We should give her a rest and say thank you to Oksana. There are several people we can call upon. I hear that the family arrived in Warsaw, with a little incident in Germany costing them another plane fare to Warsaw. The details of this are not clear to me - ask Julian.
Father Stelian has asked us to consider a Parish Camp for this year. The possible dates are:
- June 13-15
- July 18-20
- August 8-10
- September 5-7
He asks that people vote on which date they would prefer, giving first and second choice. Please respond to the survey linked here. This is a really good family activity, bringing families and people closer together.
You can download the schedule for lent here. You can download the translation here.
We have a google calendar, which is kept up to date with the upcoming service schedule. You can find it here and add it to your google calendar with the link at the bottom.
That's it -
May God bless us all,
Love in Christ,
Father David
PS I send this now to Deacon Michael who will add some stuff, correct, then send it on for translating into Russian.
Service Times
Saturday: 6:00pm Vespers
Sunday: 9:30am Hours, 10:00am Divine Liturgy, followed by coffee hour
See special service times, feasts, and parish events in our online Calendar.
Our parish uses the Old Style Julian calendar.
Capital Campaign
St.Vladimir‘s has begun the journey towards owning a permanent temple. Join Us!
You can Interac E-Transfer your donations now to halifaxorthodox (at) gmail (dot) com.
Mission of St Seraphim of Sarov in Cape Breton
Saint Seraphim of Sarov Mission Facebook group
The Divine Liturgy will be held on Saturday, March 8th at 17 Marconi St, Glace Bay. Fr. Panayiotis will be coming up to serve Liturgy. We should all share the date and invite friends and family to come along. Our doors are open to anyone who is interested in experiencing the Divine Liturgy.
For further information, contact: stseraphimofsarovmission (at) gmail (dot) com