Following last week's Damascus journey of five Archdiocese bishops, Matthew Namee, host of the new Ancient Faith Radio podcast American Orthodox History, spent some time talking with His Grace Bishop Basil of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America. "We have a father in God who loves us," says Bishop BASIL of His Beatitude Patriarch IGNATIUS IV, "a father in God who knows us by name." Listen to the 10 minute interview here.

For more details on the American Orthodox History podcast, including the introductory program on the importance of learning about the history of the Church on this continent, click here.

Bishop BASIL writes:

6th Century Church of St. George in Izraa

Your prayers are requested for our brothers Fr. Richard Petranek of St. Paul/Houston, TX and Fr. Matthew MacKay of St. Joseph/Houston, TX, who will be heading to the Middle East this Sunday, May 24, 2009, with a number of our DOWAMA young adults for our Diocese's first College Mission Trip to the Archdiocese of Bosra-Hauran in southwestern Syria where they will visit and work with Metropolitan SABA and his flock.

In addition to several work projects, the group will also make pilgrimage to many of the most revered holy sites within our Patriarchate, including the Patriarchal Cathedral and residence in Damascus, where they will be received by our Father-in-God Patriarch IGNATIUS IV; the house chapel of St. Ananias where the Holy Apostle Paul was baptized; the women's monasteries of Our Lady in Saydnaya and St. Thekla in Ma'aloula; the men's monastery of St. George al-Humayrah in the "Valley of the Christians;" and the reliquary shrine of the Martyr and Unmercenary Healer St. Julian (Mar Ilyán) in Homs.  The group will return to the U.S. in time to attend our Parish Life Conference in Wichita where they will share their experiences with us!

Fr. Mark Wallace recently discussed his journey to the Eastern Orthodox Church through the Western Rite on Ancient Faith Radio's Illumined Heart podcast with Kevin Allen. Click here to listen.

Fr. Mark serves at Saint Andrew the First-Called Mission in Oklahoma City, OK.

by Dn. Mark Berge
Photos by Kirk Tatusko and Ron Brotzman

On February 14, 2009, the parish of St. Luke Orthodox Church in Lafayette, Colorado was honored to welcome His Grace Bishop Basil for the service of ground-breaking at the site of our new temple.

Our parish has been blessed with increasing membership since its founding in 1991. The current temple, seating 200, was built in 1995 with a subsequent expansion in 1998. We tried to expand our church again, but this proved impossible given the county's firm rules on development and our lack of sufficient land. With steady growth in new members our beloved Bishop Basil challenged us in October of 2007 to move to a new location and erect a beautiful temple with seating for 400 to 450 people. We were frankly astounded when he went on to predict that such a task could be done in about two years if God blessed it. Our priest Father David Mustian had been encouraging us to pray about our space needs for several years. With the core of a building committee already in place we were eager to try to meet our bishop’s challenge.