Just 3 years from now, Annunciation will turn 100 years young. We were founded back in 1921. At a banquet, in fact, held on May 17, 1921. This was formalized at a meeting two days later. Following these paragraphs, under “How the Cathedral Got its Start,” is a translation of the minutes of that meeting, signed by its founder, Meletios Metaxakis. Metaxakis had been Archbishop of Athens. After accomplishing some extraordinary work in America, he was elected Ecumenical Patriarch. For, after establishing the Cathedral and the then Diocese of San Francisco, he went on to establish the Dioceses of Chicago and Boston, before going to New York to found the Archdiocese, all in the same year! A busy man, to say the least, when overseas travel was by steamer, and inland travel was by train or bus, and when the farthest one could call overseas was from Key West to Havana. (The first transatlantic telephone call didn’t take place until 1926!) The world has changed enormously these last 100 years, certainly in the area of technological advancement. There’s a lot to celebrate. And to look ahead to the future.
We would like to invite you to start thinking about just how we might celebrate this milestone anniversary of our community. Sure, we can plan a dinner and a write a commemorative book, produce a video and the like. Here and there, we’ve even talked about consecrating the new Cathedral. However, the cathedral has to be finished first. At this point, we don’t know for sure when we this will occur. But, we will go on to celebrate in any case. To mark the occasion of 100 years of vibrant and wonderful history, of course, but also to chart the course for the second hundred years, and beyond! And we would like the whole parish to be involved in the planning. Therefore, we invite you to pause for a second and consider how you might be a part of all of this. Do you have the time? Do you have ideas? Are you motivated? Are you willing to come together and share with us? If so, we invite you to join us. Begin by contacting Father Stephen, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Tell him your willingness to be a part of the celebration. At some point over the next couple of months, we will get a meeting going involving as many people as would like to be involved. People from all areas of our community life. From the young to the forever young. Meanwhile, our sister community of the Ascension Cathedral, in Oakland, recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. Below is a link to the celebrations by that community. This should give us some food for thought, as we plan to organize our own 100th anniversary celebration. Enjoy: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3n77mvxmtoaplx8/Oakland_100_Video.mp4?dl=0