Blessed be You All, God-beloved Brothers and Sisters!

Two years ago, upon the blessing of the Most Reverend Peter, Archbishop of Chicago and Mid-America, we commenced a soul-savings God’s work of construction of the church addition. As you know, any construction, even the construction of a house, requires a lot of physical, moral, and financial effort. Construction of a church is a highly responsible and work-intense mission.

Our decision to build a church addition was driven by several reasons including:

– poor condition of the church building that required a total renovation;

– church’s limited capacity that was especially challenging on major feast days when visitors would be standing outside of the church, often in bad weather;

– lack of accommodations for people with limited mobility.

The limited capacity of the church has become even more problematic due to COVID-19, which requires social distancing of 6 feet. This last reason is forcing us to accelerate the construction. While we all are committed to investing our time and energy, we face financial limitations.

Therefore, we ask for Your help, our former compatriots and lovers of Russian culture. We all were taught the old proverb: Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and raise a child to become a worthy man. Once done, your critical life mission would be accomplished. But often, we were not told the most important thing – that after short-term life in this world, there is eternal life. and our place in that life depends on how well we prepare ourselves for it in this mortal life. In that future eternal life, only our acts of mercy would matter and all material goods would be left behind. Feed the hungry, dress the naked, visit the prisoner, comfort the suffering – these are the acts that we should collect for the future life. But there is one more act of mercy that opens the doors to eternal life. Our Lord mentioned it when he spoke about the poor widow who put in two mites into the treasury – the smallest money at that time. The Lord praised the widow for contributing not from the surplus wealth, but from her poverty, for giving all she had. She did it because she knew God would never leave her as long she would remember Him and pray to Him in the Holy Church. This speaks of how important the Church was for this woman. And how wonderful would it be if the Church played the same important role in everyone’s life?

What role does the Church play in your life? Some have already answered this question and some are still looking for an answer. But parishioners of the Saint Panteleimon Church know that without Church one cannot understand God and only in the Church one can find redemption for themselves and their future generations.

We believe that our Church would become the center of life for our children and grandchildren. We welcome everyone and hope that our Church would become a refuge for you in the days of joy and heartbreak.

To make it happen, we look for your help, your contribution, and participation – your smallest mite.

God bless You All!

Rector, Rev. Fr. Ioann (Komisarchuk)
Fall 2020