Ronald Rosaliere Ronald Rosaliere is a parishioner at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in East Meadow, on Long Island. Could you say a little about your background and how you became Orthodox?
It all started about 35 years ago. I migrated to the U.S. from Haiti in 1987. I had no family here when I moved, but I eventually got a job; then I went to school in Manhattan and earned a degree in liberal arts. I met my future ex-wife at work. After several years together, we divorced. Thankfully, we didn’t have any children together. Then, while I was working for a law firm, I went back to school to get a degree in political science from Queens College. But midway through my studies, the firm ended the tuition reimbursement program and I had to drop out. On the advice of friends, I became a real-estate broker. I’ve been doing that since 1997. I now live on Long Island. My sister also moved to the United States. She introduced me to the Orthodox Church. She was working for a Greek family in the Poconos, and that family shared their faith with her and invited her to church. Once she stepped inside an Orthodox church for the first time, she never left. We were both raised Catholic, and we both felt that something was missing spiritually. We were both looking for something more — we just didn’t know
what it was. My sister had been talking to me about her newfound faith for a while when I saw an ad in the paper for Holy Trinity Church in East Meadow. So I responded to the invitation and went, and never looked back. I was just Chrismated at the beginning of August. I’m told I chose a very unusual time to become Orthodox — during a pandemic. There aren’t that many people of African ancestry in the Orthodox Church in this country. What has that experience been like?
What gave me the courage to visit an Orthodox church was my sister’s story. She was welcomed with open arms. She also related how she was treated as special when she visited Jerusalem, because she was Orthodox. It didn’t matter that she was Haitian; what mattered was her faith. Before I visited the parish in East Meadow, I drove by Orthodox churches several times, but I never saw people who looked like me, so I always passed by, thinking it wasn’t for me. Not having anyone who looks like you or talks like you in the church can make it very difficult to take that first step. What was the most welcoming encounter you had when you first started attending an Orthodox church? 25
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