Introduction

Glory be to our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ! 

At the Cathedral of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God in Des Plaines, IL, on the glorious feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ (August 19th, 2012 on the civil calendar) it was announced by His Grace Bishop Peter, Pastoral Vicar of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) that efforts are underway to establish a mission of the Russian Orthodox Church in or near Peoria, IL.

The aim of this mission is simple: to establish a working local community of Orthodox Christians in which the life of Christ is lived according to authentic and ancient unaltered 2000-year Christian Tradition:

• initiated on Pentecost
• preserved by God from antiquity in the worldwide Church of the first millennium, 
• carried forward us today through the worldwide body of Orthodox Churches and watered by the blood of her many tens of millions of Holy Martyrs, and
• still changes repentant sinners into servants of God who live in genuine ever-increasing holiness

This new community will live as part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in communion with the Patriarch of Moscow and all other canonical Orthodox churches worldwide.  We will worship according to the Russian Typikon and on the unaltered Church Calendar, but we will also hopefully be very much a light that shines openly *in* this American community and its history with prejudice only toward the fullness of the life that is in Jesus Christ alone.

"This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent."
- our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ

We are looking for friends who are mindful of history and who crave authenticity, and yet who also appreciate how modern society is ever more systematically and deceptively stacking the deck against such things.  Feel free to reach out to us here, by commenting below.  Also look us up on Facebook.

Grant, O Lord, that Thy servants here in and around Peoria, IL will be illumined with the light of the Orthodox Faith, and numbered with Thy One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church.

O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us, for Thou art good and the Lover of mankind.  Amen.