The liturgical unity of the faithful, under whatever conditions and in whatever institutions, networks and structures, is the starting point for the transformation of mass coexistence into a communion of persons, a society; for the achievement of social justice and not merely a program for it; and for liberating work from slavery to mechanized necessity and transforming it into a personal relationship, an event of communion.
Only the life of the eucharistic body of the parish can give flesh to the formal idea of the ‘priestly’ character of politics, the prophetic character of science, the philanthropic character of economics and the mystical character of the family. Without the parish, all this is theory, naive idealism and a romantic utopia. Within the parish it becomes a historical reality, an immediate possibility and a concrete experience.”
From “The Freedom of Morality” by Christos Yannaras (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1984)
St. Nicholas Orthodox Church is a parish of the Orthodox Church in America in San Anselmo, CA. The Orthodox Church in America is the autocephalous (self-governing) Orthodox Church on this continent, whose jurisdiction runs from Canada through Mexico under the omophor of His Beatitude, our Metropolitan TIKHON.