The Montrose Mission of the Orthodox Church in America will bless the waters of the Uncompahgre River Saturday, January 11 at 11:00 AM by the footbridge in Baldridge (Riverbottom) Park. Everyone in the community is invited to participate. We will enjoy lunch together afterwards at a local restaurant. This is part of the Church’s annual Feast of Theophany, the celebration of Jesus Christ’s baptism in the Jordan, when He blessed all the waters of the earth. We do the same, blessing the waters that sustain our community. Please call Fr. Joseph with questions, 970-778-7581.

Each year around Theophany, January 6, when Christians around the world celebrate the baptism of Jesus Christ in the River Jordan, Orthodox congregations also bless “living” sources of water, including rivers, lakes, and streams. In Colorado, Orthodox churches brave winter storms to bless the snowpack on Monarch Pass every January. This is the fourth year the mission parish in Montrose will be blessing the Uncompahgre River.

According to Fr. Daniel Jones, the retired Rector of St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church in Delta, as Theophany is “the manifestation of God’s light” and the “revelation of the Trinity through the Baptism of the Lord,” its “further significance” is that, “when Christ went down into the waters, … He also made clean the nature of the waters themselves. … Christ came not only to redeem man, but the entire creation.”

We hope you’ll join us!