JOHNSTOWN, PA -- The schedule of His Eminence, Metropolitan Gregory of Nyssa for March 2025 has been released by the Diocesan Chancery.

My beloved Faithful Clergy and Laity (Young and Old) of our God-Protected Diocese:

As we begin Holy and Great Lent this year on March 3rd, I want to share with you a few thoughts so that we may journey through this reflective period and arrive at the Great Feast of Feasts, PASCHA to receive the Resurrected Christ.     

We are reminded that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we at the same time reconcile with one another.  In this holiest period of the ecclesiastical year, we should honestly examine our relationships with our families, our Church families, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and the society in general.      

JOHNSTOWN, PA  [Diocesan Chancery] -- The Diocesan Chancery is pleased to release the schedule of  this year's ,  in-person Diocesan regional Lenten Retreats for youth and adults, hosted in various regions of the Diocese. The details are as follows: 

JR ACRY Lenten Youth Encounter March 7-9, 2025 - Camp Nazareth, Mercer, PA

Eastern Region Lenten Retreat - Sat March 29, 2025 - Sts Peter and Paul Orthodox Church, Rockaway, NJ.

Central Lenten Regional Retreat - Sat April 5, 2025  - St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Homestead, PA. 

  Western Region Lenten Retreat - Sat April 5, 2025 -St. Michael Orthodox Church, Niles, IL. 

In the 2024 Summer Camp article we talked a lot about memory and what good memories from Camp can do for campers and staff alike.  A truly good memory from Camp (really from anything) can “feed” a person for a lifetime and lift them up again and again each time that memory is recalled.  The completion of the Camp’s Business Wing remodel, newly dedicated as the Polanichka Wing in loving memory of Very Rev. Protopresbyter Michael and Pani Eleanor Polanichka, is something that helped Camp, and those involved in the project, remember two people and their family who were dedicated to the Camp and the Camp’s ministry even before there was a Camp Nazareth.  Given the stories we heard about Fr. Michael and Pani Eleanor, it is safe to say that without both of their efforts, there would be no Camp Nazareth as we know it today. 

During the course of the summer, one of the CN Staff members mentioned that they wanted to come away from Camp with good memories.  It was apparent that the good memories hoped for were (already) precious to them.  It was one of those conversations that left a deep impression because you got to see Camp from yet another person’s perspective and there was something in their desire that made you pay attention to what they were saying even more.  Why would they stress those good memories?  Did they have bad memories elsewhere?  Why would they consider those good memories more important than other things to them at Camp?