Theophany at St. John's Mission

Yes, I live in the desert so water is as scarce here as it was in Jesus' land. Arizona has only one natural lake, all the others are created by dams. Tempe, the home of Arizona State University, has dammed up part of the "river" and created Tempe Town Lake, along which is being developed hotels, malls, a river walk and condos. This is where our Mission went to bless the waters on Theophany.


The visitors to the Town Lake Park had never seen anything like THIS before at the Lake...a bunch of boys and men in satin, gold and purple dresses parading around.... well, I take that back, Tempe IS a University town and does have a Mardi Gras party every year. Maybe we weren't noticed after all.



We had a couple special visitors. The Tribune Newspaper's religion editor and photographer came to do a story on our Mission and came for the Divine Liturgy and the Blessing of the Waters. I gave him a CD of our radio program on Theophany (there's two parts, actually) and the program notes. He commented to me as he left, "This was a beautiful service and there is a LOT to write about here..."





Everyone got a shower....