Divine Liturgy will be served at the chapel in the historic Fort Ross. Liturgy will be held on Saturday, July 4, at 10:00am. Metropolitan Jonah (OCA) and Bishop Benjamin (OCA Bishop of San Francisco and the West, Diocese of the West) will preside.
While there will be no fireworks or John Phillips Souza marches playing, there is expected to be a rich sense of historic connection to those who established this outpost, and a deep reverence for the ongoing present reality that they also maintaned.
The Liturgy takes place in the longest-operating Orthodox chapel in the contiguous United States, and recognizes the Orthodox Russians and indigenous peoples who lay at rest in the cemetery adjacent to the property. The chapel was originally commemorated to Saint Nicholas somewhere between 1824 and 1828. Father Ioann Veniaminov (later Saint Innocent of Alaska) was the presiding priest of the chapel for five weeks in 1836, during which time he "preached, instructed, and conducted weddings, confessions, communion services, baptisms, burials, and prayer services. He also held services for the Aleuts (in translation), consecrated the waters of Fort Ross Creek, and led a festive procession around the stockade exterior."
The tradition of the procession around the stockade is expected to be continued.
The fort represents the farthest-south presence of the Russian Empire in North America. The nobility-owned Russian-American Company, which founded the fort, went bankrupt and abandoned it in 1841, just a few years shy of the discovery of gold only a hundred or so miles to the east.
A choir will be provided by the Holy Cross Orthodox Church from Sacramento, CA.
This tradition goes back at least to 1925, when Highway 1 was not yet constructed, and a group of Holy Trinity parishoners chartered taxicabs to make the harrowing overnight journey.
Any questions in advance of the service can be directed to the Fort Ross Chapel at The State of California Parks and Recreation Office at 707-847-3286.
Sources:
Upcoming Events: Holy Cross Sacramento
Fort Ross State Historic Park Russian Colony
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