With the blessing of Bishop Peter of Cleveland, Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago & Detroit, St. Vladimir Russian Orthodox Church of Ann Arbor, MI broke ground for the construction of their new church expansion on Sunday, October 16, 2005. Following the Divine Liturgy a procession was held as the parish choir sang selections from the divine service to the Holy Equal to the Apostles Great Prince Vladimir. The procession stopped at the area east of the present church building upon which the expansion will be built. Following the moleben “Before Any Good Work” and the blessing of the land with Holy Water, the parish Rector (Priest Gregory Joyce) and two of the founding members of the parish (Olga Feyodorovna Radulovic and Natalia Vasilievna Dale) removed the first shovel of ground. Following this the Building Team (Eugene Poplavsky & Mercurius Meyer) and the Parish Council took their turns at shoveling away the dirt where the expansion will be located. Then it was the turn of the many parishioners present who had gathered from throughout the Detroit metropolitan area and northern Ohio – each who so desired was given the opportunity to take part in this historic event in the life of St. Vladimir’s parish. St. Vladimir’s parish was founded in 1981 by a small group of faithful Orthodox Christians. A parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad from its inception, the parish has always had a multi-ethnic makeup and this is the case until this day. Services are held at the parish in Church Slavonic and English. The ground breaking marked the first significant event of the 25th anniversary year of St. Vladimir’s parish. Pictures of the ground breaking, an artist’s rendering of the completed expansion project, and more information about the project can be found here can be found here