The third Sunday after Pascha (Sunday of the Myrrhbearing Women) was a great celebration day for the Annunciation parish community in Olmsted Township, Ohio. HE Metropolitan Nicolae installed as a parish priest Father Petru Neaga, ordained priest on the Sunday of Orthodoxy this year. The feast began on Saturday evening with the Vespers service where HE Nicolae spoke to the faithful about the martyrdom of St. John the Romanian, celebrated on May 12th in the Romanian Orthodox Church, urging them to meditate on the way we confess the Christian faith.

On the second Sunday, May 12, at the Divine Liturgy along with Metropolitan Nicolae served Fr. Ion Gherman, parish priest until Sunday, Fr. Petru Neaga, Fr. Lucian Criste of Sălaj, the godparent of the new parish priest, and Deacon Aurel Pâra of the Eparchial Center in Chicago. At the time of the sermon, HE Nicolae spoke of the testimony of the Myrrhbearing Women, the first announcers of the Lord's Resurrection: Meeting with their Risen Master was certainly a unique experience, a troubling experience but filled with joy. They recognized their Master and received the confirmation of what they had heard for more than three years about His Passion and Resurrection. Their joy was about meeting with their Master, but it was mainly about the fact that this Master is God who overcame death. This joy was revealed to the Apostles by the Myrrhbearing Women.

At the conclusion of the Liturgy, the ceremony of the installation of Father Petru Neaga as parish priest was held. HE Metropolitan Nicolae handed to Father Petru the Holy Gospel, the Holy Cross and the keys of the church, explaining the significance of these gestures. HE Nicolae spoke of the parish priest's mission that Father Peter is taking on at this time, about the responsibilities for each parish believer and the future of the parish, urging those present to work together and to help Father Petru in his new mission. HE Nicolae then thanked Father Ion Gherman for his 34-year ministry in the Annunciation parish, wishing him, to his wife and the whole family health and joy. As a token of appreciation for the service of Father Ion, HE Nicolae offered the family an icon of the Mother of God. The new parish priest asked for the help of the Savior and the Mother of God in the new mission, entrusting himself to the prayers of the faithful. The brotherly agape offered by the Annunciation community ended a blessed day. 

Father Petru Neaga