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Last Sunday Holy Apostles Orthodox Church opened its doors in Lansing for the first time.   The new congregation is using the old All Saints Catholic Church building for services.   The church has been a year and a half in the making, propelled by a Lansing Orthodox priest, Matthew Binkewicz and his wife Katrina.  They have been quietly working to find a meeting place, to identify the need and people who would want to attend Orthodox services, and coordinate with the larger Orthodox Church hierarchy.

"It came about from a need for an Orthodox church in the Lansing area," Fr. Matthew says.  "You could say there is a need in the northern part of Tompkins and the Southern part of Cayuga County, and a bit of Cortland County.  The closest Orthodox church outside of the Greek Orthodox churches in Ithaca are in Auburn, Syracuse, Elmira, Binghamton/Edicott -- all about an hour drive away.  Most people would not drive that distance.  We thought there was a need in this area."


Fr. Matthew became a Russian Orthodox priest in 1994.  He is of Russian, Polish, and Ukranian extraction, a second and third generation American.  He ministered to congregations in Johnstown, PA, Maryland, and Washington, D.C..  He was granted a leave of absence, during which time he moved to Lansing and was married to his wife Katrina.  He works with hospice patients as a chaplain and bereavement counselor in Auburn during the week, and delivers eulogies at local funerals, as well as speaking and writing about ministering to the bereaved.

"I grew up in the Orthodox faith," he says.  "At first I was fascinated with the priesthood, but as I grew older and began to study the theology, which we get from the Greeks I was fascinated with the depth and the mysticism of the Orthodox Church.  I was struck by it's early roots in Platonic philosophy and how it was transformed into a truly Christian philosophy."

He is currently undergoing the process of economia, which eases the restrictions on issues such as married priests if a need arises that may be filled by that priest.  While he undergoes that process Fr. Alexey and Fr. Tim will commute from Endicott to conduct services.  At this time the plan is that Fr. Matthew will become the call the 'priest in charge' of the mission once his faculties are restored to serve the sacrament.

For a while it seemed unclear whether the church would be formed.  Fr. Matthew contacted his former bishop a year and a half ago to see about establishing a mission (starter) parish in the Lansing area.  He received an initial OK, so he established a Web site, conferred with the priest at All Saints, and began gathering names of people who might like to form a new congregation in Lansing.  A year went by with nothing happening, so he went to negotiate with the Bishop.  In January 2010, he received a phone call from that bishop to say he couldn't help. 

Next Fr. Matthew contacted a priest friend in Endicott, New York who was very interested in the idea.  He called his bishop, and a week later Matthew was on the phone with Bishop Michael. 

"I knew him as an alter boy, and we were priests together," Fr. Matthew says.  "Now he is a bishop.  He thought it was a great idea."

Two Endicott priests came up from Endicott to look at possible locations.  One choice was Saint George's Orthodox Church, an Eastern Orthodox church on Syrian Hill that is only used a few times each year.  They also looked at the old All Saints Church.  Built in the 1930s by eastern European immigrants, the old 249 seat structure was replaced with a larger building in 2007.  

"We fell in love with both, but realized All Saints would be the parish for three reasons: heat, parking, and accessibility," Fr. Matthew says. 

He says the new church will be a welcoming parish unified by the English language.  35 showed up for the first service (called the divine liturgy in the Orthodox Church).

Saint Catherine's Greek Orthodox Church lost its priest last spring, so a substitute priest comes twice a month.  Binkewicz says that the new church will give parishioners from Saint Catherine's an opportunity to attend church in the off-weeks when they don't have their own priest.  He says that attendance will also increase when school begins and students from Cornell University and Ithaca College learn about the new church, and as other Orthodox community members learn of Holy Apostles.

"That's the really great thing about this.  All the pieces fit together so well that one can only say it was divinely appointed.  it just needed someone to get the ball rolling.  Not only are there native-born people who won't go to church because it's not in English or they're not welcome, but there are many people from the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe that live here in Lansing, Ithaca, Cortlandville, Dryden... you know a certain percentage of them are baptized Orthodox Christians and they would likely come to an Orthodox church service."


After the service the church offers a fellowship hour at which Fr. Matthew likes to offer more than just punch and cookies.  A 12 hour fast precedes services for congregants, so he says he likes to have soup, salad and bread as well as snacks.  While it seemed like the culmination of a year and a half struggle to form a church, the service was the beginning of a very old tradition that will be a new tradition in Lansing.  Fr. Matthew says that the most rewarding aspect of the service was the most very basic gathering of faith.

"I love the worship service," he says.  "It's a real interplay with the priest, the faithful, and the choir.  You are transformed by the beauty, by the smell from the bees wax candles and the incense, and the vocal harmony.  All music is a cappella in the Orthodox Church.  You are lifted spiritually out of the cares and woes of the world into a real feeling of worship.  Just simple, old fashioned worship."

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