Glory to Jesus Christ!
Welcome to our Orthodox Christian parish and website!
Come worship with us in spirit and truth!
We are a parish of the Orthodox Church in America meeting at the Amanda Chapel of Our Saviour Anglican Church, 6301 West Olympic Boulevard between Fairfax and La Cienaga in West Los Angeles. We gather every Sunday for Divine Liturgy at 12 Noon, with fellowship and refreshments in the adjoining hall immediately following. We also gather for Great Vespers Saturday at 6 PM, and meet for a class in the hall afterwards. All services are in English and Romanian. Our parish priest, Rev. John Beal, can be reached conveniently at the parish mobile office phone: 323-309-5669, or by email: admin@stjohnlosangeles.org.
Please feel free to post comments directly to the web site – it is published in a blog format so the administrator, Fr. John, can read and respond right away. Simply click on the link, “Leave a Comment” at the bottom of any posting you see on the site and a new page will open for you to type in.
History
The origins of St. John the Baptist’s community lie in the early 1980’s, when Rev. Gheorghe Mircea Niculescu, a recent immigrant from Romania to Los Angeles was ordained by His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill of the Toledo Bulgarian Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America. Abp. Kyrill appointed Fr. Mircea to serve fellow immigrants in their native Romanian tradition of Orthodox Christian worship. Fr. Mircea was a well-known poet and man of letters in his native Romania and an outspoken critic of the Romanian Communist regime.
The new-founded parish of St. John the Baptist, led by is archpastor Abp. Kyrill, celebrated its first Divine Liturgy on its feast day, the Beheading of St. John the Forerunner, Sunday, August 29. Fr. Mircea pastored a growing flock in West Los Angeles and was soon rewarded for his successful work with elevation to the ecclesial rank of Archpriest. But he untimely succumbed to illness in 1989. The widowed parish persisted through the next year with the help of Fr. Cornel Avramescu, Rector of St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Church in Anaheim.
In the Spring of 1990, a new rector, Fr. Remus Bibart was sent from Romania to serve St.John’s community. In 1998 Fr. Remus received tonsure as Hieromonk Nikodim, and was afterwards elevated to the rank of Archimandrite by His Eminence, Archbishop Kyrill. By 2001 Archim. Nikodim arranged reassignment as clergy of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas, and afterwards sought and received canonical release from service as a priest of the Bulgarian Diocese of the OCA.
Since 2001 the parish had been served in turn by the Rev. Viorel Vişovan, Hieromonk Teodosie Marius Bordieanu, and VRev. Dumitru Ionescu. In October 2010, the parish welcomed Rev. John Beal, his spouse Popodia Medea and their daughter Magdalen Maria Theresa. Fr. John is the first clergyman to serve the parish in his own native English.
Our Pastor and His Family
Rev. John Beal is a native Californian who found and watered his Orthodox faith in the San Francisco Bay Area, received into the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’s communion in 1994 by VRev. Victor Sokolov of blessed memory at Holy Trinity Cathedral. Fr. John received his MDiv. at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary in New York in June of 2001, and married his lovely and talented Popodia Medea Magdalen in the ancient Primatial Cathedral of Svetitskhoveli (“Living Pillar”) in Medea’s native Republic of Georgia, on September 30, 2001. In 2003, the couple were blessed with the birth of their vivacious and talented daughter Magdalen Maria Theresa.
Fr. John was ordained to the Diaconate at the hand of His Grace, Bp. Benjamin of San Francisco and the West at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco, on June 21, 2005, and by His Grace to the Holy Priesthood on the feast of the Conception of St.John the Baptist, September 23, 2007. He served a full year in the Cathedral before being assigned to parish work abroad in the Archidocese.
Popodia (Georgian equivalent of Rom. Preoteasa, Gr. Presbytera) Medea Magdalen is a graduate of the College of Foreign Languages at Tbilisi State University and was a long-time worker in the Tbilisi offices of the International Orthodox Christian Charities. She now works in the field of English-Georgian translation. Popodia Medea Magdalen is a skilled singer and pianist and a boon to the liturgical life of the parish as reader, chanter and arranger. Daughter Magdalen Maria Theresa, at this date 8 years old, also assists in Divine services as liturgical server, reader and singer
Fr. John brings ‘mainstream OCA’ liturgical practice to St. John’s parish and as its first native English speaking pastor he is poised to introduce a new spectrum of parishioners without any specifically Romanian roots, but sharing with extant parishioners a love of Christ and desire to participate in His Life in Divine Worship through the hearing of the Word and Holy Communion. We look forward to a season of spiritual and demographic growth and enrichment under the pastoral care of Fr. John.
La mulţi ani!