What’s Going on in Oneonta

By the grace of God, great things are happening at St. Innocent of Alaska Orthodox Mission in Oneonta, New York. Over this past year, we have been increasing our outreach efforts in Oneonta and in the surrounding communities. We have begun first by continuing the beautification of our worship space with our new iconography project. We discovered many beautiful paper icons that were donated to the Mission from various donors in the past and Fr. Vasil Dubee is in the process of building appropriate frames for them. We also purchased an updated, more visible sign with our parish name and service schedule listing. It was designed by the parish council, purchased, installed and blessed.

Sunday School and Adult education are held following every Sunday Divine Liturgy. It has created an excellent environment for Q&A discussion on various topics and aspects of the Orthodox Faith. The Mission continues to increase its outreach any way possible, striving towards our ultimate goal of building a church, building a permanent community to offer the Orthodox Faith to the people of Oneonta and the surrounding area. Fr. Vasil teaches classes about Orthodox Christianity for the local Center for Continuing Adult Learning and a summer course on Orthodoxy at the Seminary Institute at Hartwick College in Oneonta. In addition to this, Fr. Vasil has been granted a bi-monthly column in the local Oneonta newspaper, The Daily Star, where he writes articles about Orthodox teachings and theology.

We have discovered that ethnic food is very difficult to find in the Oneonta area, so we decided to try our first ethnic food sale in the summer of 2016. It was a tremendous success and to our surprise, we sold out of food within one hour! Eastern-European foods made by Fr. Vasil, Pani Lesya and parishioners have given us the opportunity to meet more people and introduce our parish further into the community. All of the profits go towards our building fund. Our parish also holds food drives for a local Oneonta soup kitchen, The Lord’s Table, to give back to the community for those in need.

Perhaps our greatest accomplishment to date has been our land purchase. The Mission bought 10-acres of land and the property was closed on in January 2017. The day the land was purchased, it was also completely paid off. This was thanks to a most generous donation by the A. Lindsay and Olive B. O’Connor Foundation, a foundation which donates money to such projects, churches, bridges, townhalls and multiple charitable causes. After having the parish’s 10-acre plot of land surveyed this summer, the land is currently being logged with over 100 hardwood trees being harvested to be sold for timber. This will make the task of clearing the land for future building plans much easier. A 7’ tall Jerusalem cross was donated to our parish by the Very Rev. Jason Vansuch and the Orthodox Church of St. George in Buffalo, NY for us to plant on our acreage when we break ground. The cross will stand to show all who pass by that we will build an Orthodox temple there.

Our parish is grateful for His Eminence, Archbishop Michael’s visits, pastoral leadership, and constant encouragement. In addition to His Eminence’s love and kindness, we also want to thank our Dean, Archpriest Alexey Karlgut and all of the clergy, matushki and parishioners of SS. Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Endicott, NY for always coming to our aid whenever we need assistance, especially during the hierarchical divine liturgies. We also wish to thank all of the Distinguished Diocesan Benefactors and Diocesan supporters for their generosity. Without their help, the parish could not be what it is. THANK YOU from everyone at St. Innocent of Alaska Mission!