Updates from St. Luke

Glory to Jesus Christ!

Dear friends and parishioners of St Luke Church,

I would like to share some updates with you about what’s been going on here at St Luke the last couple months.

First of all, for those of you who don’t know me, I am Fr. Philip Gilbert, and I the newly-assigned priest at St Luke, taking over from Fr. Roman. I split my seminary studies between Washington, DC and Lviv, Ukraine, the latter being where I got my master’s degree at Ukrainian Catholic University, met my wife Christine, got married and was ordained a deacon. When the war began in 2022, we moved to the States, and from then until my being ordained a priest in May of this year, we have been living in Kansas. We arrived in Cody at the beginning of September. We’ve mostly unpacked and settled in, and we are very much liking living in Wyoming! We already feel at home here. And we have been keeping busy!

In addition to everything at St. Luke in Cody, I have been down to the new community that has formed in Casper (which is only a short three hour drive away) twice now and served some beautiful Divine Liturgies there. The community is enthusiastic and welcoming and has a lot of potential. I look forward to seeing how it grows and develops as time goes on. Here’s a picture taken before Liturgy in our temporary space in Casper:

I am proud of our singers, who have been working on some new pieces to enrich our liturgical services. We’ve recently begun singing a new version of the Great Doxology from Matins (which you can listen to here) as well as a couple other things. Keep an eye out for more recordings in the future!

In late September we had a Saturday breakfast and liturgical training with the altar servers’ guild (picture below). It’s such a blessing to have such a great team assisting me at the altar. Not long after that we had a baptism (also below), which was my first as a priest, and it was absolutely beautiful.

We’ve had festal Great Vespers with Lytia for a number of great feasts, including Exaltation of the Holy Cross (with the veneration of the holy relic, shown above), and the Nativity and Protection of the Mother of God. We also celebrated our patronal feast with a wonderful celebration of Vespers with lytia on the eve of the feast, and on Sunday we had a

festal procession around the church building and a celebratory parish luncheon afterwards. The church was beautifully decorated, our relic of St Luke was placed out for veneration, and we were honored to have a number of guests celebrating with us. Everyone had a good time. You can see some highlights of the feast here, and our parish photo from that day is here:

We’ve been doing some improvement work around the church: we’ve had some trees and brush removed, including some rather dangerous dead trees that were threatening our parking lot. We’ve also put up a sign on the roadside billboard, so that the local traffic will know where we are located.

We are also beginning some improvements to our liturgical space. In preparation for our patronal feast, we sealed off the window which was between the church and the kitchen, thus eliminating distracting noise and smells in an attempt to keep the church a prayerful environment. Likewise, we’ve put in a doorway (with the door itself soon to follow) in the corridor leading from the church into our dining room so that those socializing in the hall after services won’t disturb those who have remained in the church to pray.

Our next projects,which I am very excited about, will involve putting up some walls to create sacristies, and the construction and installation of an iconostasis. The iconostasis, or “icon screen”, is one of the most essential parts of Byzantine church architecture. It separates the nave of the church from the sanctuary, not only serving the practical purpose of keeping the holy things safe from those who might disturb them (for example, quick-footed children, of which we have many), but reveals to us the fullness of the kingdom of God and “at the same time indicates that we must continue journeying to the kingdom” (Christ our Pascha, 340). The iconostasis, as indicated by the name, contains a number of icons, reminding us that when standing in the church, we are standing in the presence of the saints and angels and the entire Mystical Body of Christ, and it is through the intercession of the saints that we may enter the Kingdom of Heaven. In the center of the iconostasis there is to be a pair of doors, known as the “holy doors”, or “beautiful gates”. It is through these doors that the Gospel is brought out to be proclaimed, and the Eucharist is brought out to the people. These doors are always adorned with the icon of the Annunciation: for it was through the annunciation to the Virgin and the incarnation of the Word that our salvation was brought about and the kingdom of Heaven was opened to us.

We are going to start this project as soon as possible, since just yesterday we received a pair of beautifully carved holy doors, shipped to us all the way from Poland (see picture below). This provides you with an opportunity: We are looking for someone to donate $2500 for the purchase and installation of these beautiful doors, which will enrich our liturgical life and bring great beauty to our church. We pray for our benefactors and their intentions at every Divine Liturgy, so this is a beautiful way to commend your beloved departed to the Lord and the prayer of the Church. If you would like to donate these doors to our church, perhaps in memory of your deceased parents or other loved ones, please contact me. [Update: These doors have already been donated, but there will be more similar oportunities. Please contact me if you are interested!]

If you would like to contribute to the beautification of our church in a smaller amount or a more general way, you may do so here.

May God richly bless you all!

—

In Christ,

Fr. Philip

Cody

You may also like