With the blessing of His Eminence KYRILL Archbishop of San Francisco and Western America, all are welcome to join members of the Western American Diocese for the traditional pilgrimage to Fort Ross on Memorial Day, May 26th, 2025.

The Holy Trinity/Saint Nicholas Chapel at Fort Ross is the first Russian Orthodox Church in the contiguous United States. Fort Ross is "holy land" – where two saints have labored: St Innocent of Alaska/Moscow and the Holy Martyr Peter the Aleut. Two other saints, St Tikhon and St John of Shanghai, have prayed here and sanctified the lands, the chapel, and the cemetery.

After the liturgy, a procession to the cemetery with a "Litya for the Departed."

Lunch will follow at the Kazan Church on the Russian River. 

Schedule of the Day:

St. Herman’s West 2025 will be held this year at St. George Russian Orthodox Church in West Jordan, UT. This year, the conference will be held in the summer to avoid some of the weather and scheduling issues that sometimes happen in December. So this year you’ll need sunscreen. Registration is $250 before July 15. Space is limited!

The conference is for youth of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, ages 15-21. Priority is given to youth from the Western American Diocese.

Arrival airport is Salt Lake City International Airport. The conference starts at 5:00 pm on August 7 (earliest airport pickups that day will be at 1 pm) with departure in the morning on August 11.

The 35th session of the Synodal School of Liturgical Music is scheduled for July 13 to 26 at Holy Dormition Convent “Novo-Diveevo” in Nanuet, New York. The coming session promises an immersion in courses in Typicon, choir conducting, voice, Church Slavonic, church music history, liturgical performance practice, music theory, and sight-singing.