Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

When Chris and I first came up with this idea to visit houses of worship in Upstate, New York, one of the first places that made our list was the Greek Orthodox Church on East Avenue in Rochester, more properly known as the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation.  Even though Chris and I first started doing this back in January, it is now June and we can finally cross this place off our list.  One of the things that made it real easy for us is that this past weekend was the annual Greek Festival, and part of the celebrations consists of free tours of the church being done every two hours…so Chris and I jumped at the chance.

As Chris and I arrived, the weather was very temperamental and the crowd was light.  We walked through the different tents selling a plethora of Greek cuisine and Greek souvenirs, and inadvertently met Paul, who we would meet up with later.  Eventually we sat down where the tour group was instructed to meet and were joined by our mutual friend Peter Veitch, who at this point has been mentioned on this blog more than anybody else!  Shortly after Peter joined us, the sky opened up and it began to rain quite hard, and of course this is exactly when we needed to leave the shelter of the tent to walk inside for our tour of the church…oh well.

Protection of the Mother of God Russian Orthodox Church

Protection of the Mother of God Church

If you’re looking for it while driving up Blossom Rd or Indian Landing Road, in between the treetops and homes you can catch a quick glimpse of a few golden crosses atop the gold onion domes of the Protection of the Mother of God Russian Orthodox Church in Brighton. Without knowing it, you could easily pass through this area and assume the only inhabitants of these few blocks are homes.  Since 2002 when it was built, a small congregation of parishioners (about 130 total) have worshipped weekly. As you drive back down Stanford Road, the residential neighborhood soon gives way to a small driveway that opens up in to a large plot of open lawn, and the church sits in the back. Compared to the land it rests on, the church seems small and simple at first, but features the traditional Russian Church gold onion domes, commonly believed to symbolize a burning candle, and an ornate piece of artwork above the door of Mary, the Mother of God.

Neither Luke nor myself had ever been to an Orthodox mass before, so the customs and traditions were only familiar to us by what we had read about beforehand. When we are visiting a new place, we typically try to blend in as much as possible and “do as the Romans do”, so that we’re not interfering with a group’s normal practices. For these folks, I think it was pretty obvious we were tourists.