Address on the Laying of the Foundation of the Memorial Church of St. Vladimir

People of the Russian Orthodox faith!

From the wide-open spaces of the United States of America we gather here in this slice of Russian land to lay the foundations for a Memorial Church. May each one of us delve into the meaning of this momentous occasion. Let us remember how in 1862, the 180 million people of the Russian nation from all corners of our great land gathered in the ancient city of Novgorod to lay the foundations for the memorial of the thousand years of the Russian state.

Now we--that branch of our multitudinous people tossed across the ocean--gather here on free American soil, as her citizens, to lay within our new homeland the foundations of a Memorial Church for the thousand years of our Russian culture, towards the eternal memory, for us and for our progeny, of what we stand upon and from what root we have sprung.

Let us bow with strong faith and profound humility before the Will of God that led us to this land. In the days of old, the father of the faithful, Abraham, accepted God's Will with that same humility : "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee..." And Abraham came to an unknown land, which became the "promised land." He traveled its breadth and saw it, then built an altar to the God of his fathers in Sichem (Genesis XII, 1-7) And so emigres came to this new and unknown American land from different peoples: Irish, French, Italians, Spaniards, Jews and others. They brought with them the faith of their fathers and the cultures of the generations before them. They built temples and monuments to preserve their spiritual treasures. This did not hinder but enhanced the blossoming of American life and culture.

Our Russian people came to this free American land later than some others and found the same task before them: how to bring together their ancient, holy past with the contemporary and the vital.

Let us take the example of other peoples and diligently hold onto the Orthodox Faith of our fathers, let us remember the land whence we came and let us in future generations preserve and develop our Russian culture, so that it would introduce its own treasures to those of America.

For this eternal memorial for us and our future generations, our spiritual leader and head of the Russian Orthodox Church in America together with the highest representative of the local government will lay the cornerstone of the Memorial Church to our Grand Duke St. Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles.

Let this Memorial Church be an eternal witness to our Orthodoxy and Russianness, for both to grow and flourish in unity for future generations of Russians in the free land of Washington.

+Archbishop VITALY (Maximenko)