ST. INNOCENT/
FIREBIRD
Videos, Audios & Books
Producers of Educational Materials about the Orthodox Faith and Cultures
14 Years of Service: 1992-2006
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FIREBIRD Videos, Audios & Books Producers of Educational Materials about the Orthodox Faith and Cultures 14 Years of Service: 1992-2006
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TO THE WEB PAGE OF ST. INNOCENT ORTHODOX CHURCH & RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY REDFORD, MICHIGAN
Contents of this page:
1. ABOUT THE PARISH
St. Innocent Church is under His Excellency, Bishop Mercurius (Vladyka Merkurii), whose center is at St. Nicholas Cathedral, New York City, originally built by Patriarch St. Tikhon, when he was Bishop/Archbishop of America. For more information about the historic 100-year-old cathedral and the Moscow Patriarchate in the US, see their web site: http://russianchurchusa.org. St. Innocent Church offers a fairly full liturgical life (with the
hope of
Recent Russian-Ukrainian-Belarus immigrants are also discovering that St. Innocent Church makes them feel welcome and at home, and they appreciate the unpretentious and prayerful atmosphere of Divine Services, the fuller liturgical life, the family atmosphere of the parish community, and the feeding of their social as well as spiritual needs. A "Law of God" (Zakon Bozhii) class is being taught in Russian most Sundays after Divine Liturgy. Previously, we had a weekly "English as a Second Language" (ESL) class, and perhaps this might be done again sometime in the future.
2. NEWS ABOUT THE PASTOR'S & PARISH'S ACTIVITIESUNDER CONSTRUCTION #11. Relics of St. Innocent of Irkutsk Find a Home at St. Innocent Church #10. 200th Anniversary of the Glorification of St. Innocent of Irkutsk Celebrated at St. Innocent Church, Redford, MI, 11/26/05 #9. Archpriest Roman Star Helps Coordinate a Nativity-Fast Concert Program in Metro-Detroit, Michigan, 12/3/05 #8. St. Andrew Church, E. Lansing, MI Celebrates its Patronal Feast Day, 11/29-30/05 #7. Archpriest Roman Star Attends the Celebration of the 25th Anniversary in Honor of the Consecration of His Eminence Archbishop Nathaniel, 11/13/05 #6. Assistant Dean of Central States Deanery Conducts Official Visit to Michigan Parish, 11/5-6/05 #5. Central States Deanery Holds Its Semi-Annual Meeting in Redford, MI, 10/25-26/05 #4. Archpriest Roman Star Participates in the 75th Anniversary Celebration of St. Thomas Albanian Orthodox Church (OCA), 10/15-16/05 #3. St. Innocent Church, Redford MI, Receives Completed Icon of the Mother of God, "Joy of All Who Sorrow," 7/28/05 #2. Archpriest Roman Star Hosts a Group on a History Tour of Metro-Detroit Parishes, 9/12/05 #1. Archpriest Roman Star Represents the Central States Deanery at the Official Visitation of Sitka Icon of the Mother of God in Metro-Detroit Area, 10/5/05
3. ABOUT ST. INNOCENT RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
In addition to Firebird Videos and hospitality, other aspects of the ministry of the St. Innocent Religious Community include:
4. LOCATIONS
Fax: (313) 538-8126 Web Site: www.firebirdvideos.com/stinnocentchurch.htm
ST. INNOCENT RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY
Phone & Fax: (313) 535-9080 E-Mail: sisterioanna@firebirdvideos.com 5. DIVINE SERVICES
Friday Evening: 6:00 PM AKATHIST to the Icon of the Mother of God Queen of All, or the Mother of God Joy of All Who Sorrow, or the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Cup, & Anointing with Holy Oil (re: Healing Ministry and these Icons, see #5. below) Saturday Evening: 6:00 PM VESPERS or VIGIL (Vespers & Matins) (followed by Confessions)
6. HEALING MINISTRY
The icon of the Mother of God "Queen of All," was received in
November 2003, and the St. Innocent Healing Ministry was immediately inaugurated
by serving the Akathist to this icon every Friday at 6:00 PM, followed by
anointing with holy oil. The second icon, the Mother of God "of the
Inexhaustible Cup," was received in December, and the Akathist
7. ABOUT THE PRIEST
In October 2004 Father Roman was officially made the Assistant Dean of the Central States Deanery. Due to the advancing age and deteriorating health of the Dean, in effect Fr. Roman is the Acting Dean, in charge (in conjunction with the Dean) of supervising all the parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Michigan (5 parishes), Illinois (1), Ohio (1), Alabama (1), plus a chapel in western Pennsylvania. Father Roman's theological studies were at St. Vladimir's Seminary in Crestwood, New York. He also holds a degree in sociology, magna cum laude (with highest honors), from Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, New Jersey.
In addition to his dedicated pastoral care of his flock and others who come to him, celebrating the Divine Services, and fulfilling his duties as Assistant Dean of the Central States Deanery, Father Roman is also very committed to Orthodox unity, Orthodox education, Orthodox missionary work, charitable works, and Orthodox monasticism.
8. ACTIVITIES AND PROGRAMS
In addition to the regular weekly Sunday School for young children, St. Innocent Church also conducts Family Education Class for adults and teens as needed, and conducts special Reader's Instruction for those interested in serving Christ's Holy Church as a Reader. Other parish activities are interrelated with the work and commitments of the pastor, Father Roman, as mentioned in the previous section. Parish activities also involve parishioners participating in activities outside the parish, but on behalf of the parish, including participating in: COCC Inter-Orthodox Choir activities; the Annual COCC Inter-Orthodox Lenten Vespers series; Services, activities and educational programs at, and in conjunction with, sister Orthodox churches and monasteries; activities and programs of the Orthodox Christian Women of Michigan (OCW), which was founded by a St. Innocent parishioner, and whose founding meetings were held at St. Innocent in February 1993. In addition, choir singers had been responsible for singing Divine Liturgy at nursing homes; parishioners visited residents weekly in nursing/assisted living homes and organized holiday parties on Christmas, Western Easter and Pascha and the Fourth of July; a group of parishioners had gone weekly to a nursing home to host bingo or other activities for the residents, as part of the parish's ministry to the elderly in nursing homes; visiting and doing shopping for home-bound parishioners; and the parish children periodically visit the elderly in a nursing home. The parish also has periodic drives for food and clothing for the needy. Under Fr. Roman's leadership, in the Spring of 2005 the St. Innocent Youth Group started what will be an always continuing project of collecting empty refundable bottles and cans and sending the refunded money to the St. Innocent Orthodox Orphanage for Boys in Mexico. In about 10 months the children have sent over $200 to the Orphanage as of March 2006. The children also periodically visit the residents in a nursing home. Through the work of ST. INNOCENT & FIREBIRD Videos, Audios & Books, this small parish, dedicated to St. Innocent of Irkutsk, reaches out and touches people all over the country and the world, contributing to educating people about the Orthodox Faith, and ministering to people's spiritual needs, by creating and distributing videos of Divine Services and audio recordings of prayers, plus some books.
9. ICONS AT ST. INNOCENT'SOne of the truly special things about St. Innocent's Church is that it is a small jewel: although the architectural plan is simple, and it is plain on the outside, the interior is magnificent! Seventy-five life-size, full-length icons of (primarily) recently canonized/glorified saints cover every wall of the temple (nave, sanctuary, narthex/vestibule and vestry/sacristy), and contribute enormously to creating a very spiritual environment for prayer and worship. Because the saints literally surround the worshipper, they graphically convey the reality that in Divine Worship, we are very literally elevated to the heavenly realm, where we "represent the cherubim" who constantly sing the Lord's praises around His throne. During Divine Services at St. Innocent, (regardless of how many people are present), the church is always full with the presence of these saints, and the earthly voices of those who pray, worship, sing and chant rise to the Lord's throne, magnified and beautified by the voices of all these saints who join in singing and worshipping the Lord. The magnificent series of icons of 75 saints (plus 15 other icons) is entirely the project of St. Innocent's priest, Father Roman Star. After doing considerable research, he personally chose which saints would be portrayed on each wall. The iconographic program is unique --- there is nothing like it anywhere else: it includes 12 American saints, plus women and men saints of many different countries, including 7 African saints, (reflecting the multi-ethnic character of the parish and of Orthodoxy in America), most of whom have been recently glorified/canonized, and some older national patron saints. Fr. Roman especially researches the lives of very recently canonized saints, to help people realize that everyone is called to be holy, and that many saints have lived in our own times, some of whom have reposed only a few decades ago. (Click on any saint whose name has a hyperlink to go to a page about the life of that saint. These saints' lives are Firebird's own productions and are also contained in the section called "Saints Lives.") It was Fr. Roman who directed that the ST. INNOCENT/ FIREBIRD book, Recently Canonized Orthodox Saints: Their Lives and Icons, be written and published, with each saint's life and photos of the icons. The present 3rd edition of Volume 1 contains the lives of 37 of these saints, plus St. Innocent of Irkutsk. A Volume 2 is in the process of being written, which will include an additional 32+ lives. [Ten of these saints' lives are found in the Saints' Lives section on this web site, with their icons in color, plus many additional color photos and icons. As of March-April-May 2006, we are adding many more saints lives to this web site. When the saints names are mentioned below, if the name has a hyperlink, click on it to read the saint's life and see the icon of the saint found on the walls of St. Innocent Church.]
On the east wall behind the altar there is a large deisis, with Christ in Majesty in the center (see the photo in the above section, "Activities & Programs"), flanked on the left (from the center in the above photo), by the Mother of God, the Archangel St. Gabriel, St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Cosmas Aitolos; and on the right (from the center in the above photo), by St. John the Forerunner (Baptist), the Archangel St. Michael, St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Nectarios of Aegina.
On the left (north) wall of the sanctuary, behind the Proskomedia table, is an icon of Christ being mourned by His Mother, flanked by the writers of the four Divine Liturgies: Saints John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, James of Jerusalem and Gregory, Pope of Rome (from left to right).
In the sacristy/vestry are icons of Saints Alexander Khotovitsky, John Kochurov, Metropolitan Seraphim of St. Petersburg, Savvas the New and Justin of Chelije.(ICONS TO BE ADDED SOON)
On the adjacent wall are four more contemporary saints (from left to right in the photo to the right): St. Mitrophan of Beijing; St. Anthimus of Chios; St. Antipas the Hesychast; and Hieromartyr George of Serbia. At that time the ceiling of the nave was also partially painted with angels in clouds. In October 2004 the nave ceiling
was completed, adding four more angels, plus a
magnificent Christ Pantocrator in the center (icon
to the left--- to be added soon), over the
central icon tetrapod. Also painted at this time was a wonderful large icon on the wall of the narthex/vestibule (icon to the right), opposite the doors into the temple, of three contemporary women saints who manifested their love for God by helping people in the middle of large cities: St. Mother Maria Skobtsova of Paris; Blessed Eldress St. Matrona the Blind of Moscow; and Eldress Mother Gavrilia of Athens.
At the same time two groups of three saints were added in the narthex/vestibule. As one enters the door from the street, to the left, at the bottom of the stairs is a full size icon of three African saints (icon to the right; to be added soon): St. Mary of Egypt, St. Athanasius, and St. Maurice of the Theban Legion (martyred in Gaul). At the top of the stairs, to the right of the doors into the temple, and in front of the candle stand, is a group of three twentieth century "fools for Christ" (icon to the left; to be added soon): Blessed Maria of Divyeyevo, St. John Maximovitch, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, and Blessed Praskovia of Divyeyevo. In April-May 2006 our iconographer, Fr. Theodore Jurewicz, is completing the iconographic work in the main entrance-narthex. He has added an additional three African saints, opposite the three done last October, and which flank the main entrance. This new group of three saints portray King Elesbaan of Ethiopia; the Ethiopian eunuch, chief treasurer of Queen Candace of Ethiopia, who was converted by the Deacon St. Phillip, as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 7; and the Martyr Sophia of Egypt. At this same time on either side of the stairs going up from the street level to the church are six scenes of the life of our patron saint, St. Innocent of Irkutsk. These scenes are: (1) his tonsuring as a monk; (2) his consecration as a bishop; (3) his teaching the local people in the school and seminary that he established in Irkutsk; (4) his burial; (5) his wonder-working relics being removed by the communists and placed in a museum; and (6) his precious relics being returned to Irkutsk on September 2, 1990 and placed in the Bishop's Cathedral at the Znamensky Women's Monastery. (We plan to add photos soon.)
In July 2005 we were elated to receive a third
In addition to the large icons of the 72 saints (plus 15 other icons) that cover all the walls and ceiling, Fr. Roman also arranged to have the same iconographer (Fr. Theodore Jurewicz of Erie, PA) paint smaller panel icons on wood of St. Innocent of Irkutsk (at the top of this page, and in the top border on every page), St. Herman of Alaska and St. Alexis of Wilkes Barre, with small, round reliquaries with particles of the saint's relics fastened at the bottom of the icons. [Click on the hyperlinks to see these icons.] Photos of these are also included in the Saints' Lives and Icons book. In addition to these three icons with relics, we now have (or will have soon) nine additional panel icons with relics, plus two without relics. American saints: St. Innocent of Alaska, Enlightener of North America and Metropolitan of Moscow [see the icon in the above section #3], St. Raphael of Brooklyn, Patriarch St. Tikhon; Russian saints: New-Martyr Elizabeth (Romanova); St. Seraphim of Sarov; 3 newly-canonized spiritual daughters of St. Seraphim: Abbess Alexandra, Schemanun Martha and Nun Yelena, all of Diveyevo Monastery, (of which St. Seraphim was the spiritual father), New-martyr Hilarion, Bishop of Verey, and St. Innocent of Irkutsk (patron of the parish); Ukrainian saints: Chronicler Nestor and Canonarch Gerontius of the Kiev Caves; Ancient saints: Shortly we will have two other hand-painted panel icons without relics: Great Healer Panteleimon and St. Moses the Black. All of these icons are located on the window ledges in the nave, with hanging lampadas above them, readily available for veneration at each Divine Service.
10. WHO IS ST. INNOCENT?
There are two St. Innocents, as shown in the icon to the left. The first one is St. Innocent of Irkutsk (ear-kootsk). Most American Orthodox are not acquainted with this St. Innocent, and when they hear his name, they think it is the same person as the second St. Innocent, St. Innocent of Alaska, Metropolitan of Moscow and Apostle to America. St. Innocent of Alaska was born about 200 miles from Irkutsk in 1797, and he studied
for 11 years at the very school that the previous Bishop Innocent of Our St. Innocent Church is dedicated in honor of St. Innocent of Irkutsk. St. Innocent of Alaska wasn't glorified as a saint until 1977, ten years after the founding of the parish in 1967.
11. PASTORS OF ST. INNOCENT CHURCH
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St. Innocent of Irkutsk Orthodox Church is a small, English-speaking, multi-ethnic
expanding it more), following the Russian liturgical and musical
tradition. All the Divine Services are in English
On November 15th, 2003, the St. Innocent
In the Fall of 2003 Fr.
Roman commissioned two 
Inexhaustible Cup," Healer of alcoholism, drug-addiction and other addictions and
mental problems, (icon to the right). 
Father Roman has been the pastor of
St. Innocent Church since May of 1984. Between August 2002 and October 2003, he had also
been given the responsibility of being the pastor of St. Andrew's Church in East Lansing,
and between June and December 2003, he also was the pastor of St. Elias Church in Battle
Creek.
He and his wife, Matushka Rose Marie, live in the
priest's house (on the right in the photo) that is attached to the church
(on
the left in the photo). They have two adult children, Elizabeth Star and Gregory Star, and two
grandchildren, Caitlin and Zachary Minnick.
The primary focus of the activities/ programs at St.
Innocent Church is Divine Worship. Since to know God is to worship Him, the liturgical
life of worship and prayer — celebrating the liturgical cycle as fully as is possible
— is the central activity at St. Innocent. The parish seeks to grow, and desires new
members who yearn to worship God in the fullness of the Orthodox Tradition, including
attending the full cycle of Divine Services. Also desired are new members and
non-Orthodox inquirers, who are eager to learn about the Orthodox Faith and participate in
educational programs. Classes or private instruction are available to all who are
interested, including special instruction for children in families who may wish to become
Orthodox. 
On the right (south) wall of the sanctuary are Saints Sava of
Serbia, Sofrony of Vraca, Joseph of Damascus, and Gorazd of Czechoslovakia (from left to
right).
On
the rear (west) wall of the nave are icons of 5 female saints (right): Saints Grand
Duchess Elizabeth Romanova, Zlata/Chryse of Bulgaria, the child Irene of Lesvos, Angelina
of Serbia and Juliana Lazareva (from left to right); and 5 male saints (left): Saints
Alexis Toth of Wilkes Barre, Yakov (Jacob) Netsvetov of Alaska, the child Gabriel of
Poland, John the Romanian and Maxym Sandovich of Galicia (from left to right).
On the north and south walls
of the nave, in between the windows are icons of:
In October 2003 eight additional saints were
added on two other walls in the confessional area of the vestry-sacristy, including
In
October 2005 seven additional icons were added. St. Vasily, a Polish priest and
martyr is another 20th century saint who labored in America in the early
twentieth century, at the time when Patriarch St. Tikhon was Bishop of America.
His icon (to the left), is the twelfth American saint whose icon is at St. Innocent,
and is on the inside of the door to the vestry/sacristy. 
St. Innocent of Irkutsk (icon to the right), originally from European Russia, was the first bishop of Irkutsk, the largest city in
eastern Siberia, and was a missionary to the Native people of the region. He fell asleep
in the Lord in 1731, and was universally glorified as a saint in 1804. His relics remain
incorrupt
Irkutsk had established in Irkutsk. As a young man, this second
St. Innocent was a married priest named Fr. John Veniaminov (ven-ya-meen-off).
He moved from Irkutsk to Alaska with his family, and labored there as a missionary priest
to the Native Alaskan people for 16 years. When his wife died, he became a monk and was
given the monastic name of "Innocent," in honor of the saint of his
