A parish of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
About
St. Michael Orthodox Church has been witnessing to the truth of Orthodox Christianity in Louisville since the early 1930’s, but our Faith has been preached unchanged for 2,000 years. Orthodox Christianity is the historic and apostolic Christian Faith founded by Jesus Christ.
Our parish is home to a multitude of cultures from around the globe: Albanian, Bulgarian, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Greek, Indian, Lebanese, Palestinian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Syrian, Ukrainian, American, and more. We are a community with a mosaic of cultures celebrating “one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:5-6
The heartbeat of our God-centered community is the cycle of worship services. At St. Michael Church we have the opportunity to worship daily in St. George Chapel. Many have called Orthodox worship a ‘sensory’ experience, so we invite you to come and hear our beautiful a cappella choir, smell our incense, touch our iconography, and most importantly make a life-changing connection with our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ.
"One must love God first, and only then can one love one's closest of kin and neighbors."
Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica
Sunday Morning
On Sunday morning we usually have 300-400 people in Church, adults and children. The beauty of Orthodox worship must be experienced to be understood. Matins is a service of morning prayer which begins at 8:45am. The main service, however is the Divine Liturgy which begins at 10am. The Divine Liturgy expresses the entire Christian faith in a continuous song of praise and prayer addressed to God. It is focused on God, not on us. There is nothing just for amusement or entertainment. Since much of the service is the same every week, worshippers know it and can participate personally, either by singing along or just by prayerful attention. Worshippers are surrounded by icons (pictures of Christ and the saints), which remind us that we are participating while on earth in the worship of all the angels and saints in heaven. The entire service (except for the sermon) is sung, in English, to Russian and Byzantine melodies and chants. No organ or other instruments are used. The words are all from Scripture or ancient Christian texts — no rhyming metrical hymns are used.
Weekdays in St. George
You are welcome to join us for Matins at 7am Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at St. George Chapel. In addition, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday evenings at 6pm we meet for the service of Vespers. Times of services are subject to change, especially during Great Lent. Please see the calendar for this week’s specific schedule.
The cycle of services in the Orthodox Church begins in the evening at the setting of the sun with the service of Vespers. The rich depth of the service is described by Fr. Thomas Hopko, “The service of Vespers takes us through creation, sin, and salvation in Christ. It leads us to the meditation of God’s word and the glorification of his love for men. It instructs us and allows us to praise God for the particular events or persons whose memory is celebrated and made present to us in the Church. It prepares us for the sleep of the night and the dawn of the new day to come. On the eves of the Divine Liturgy, it begins our movement into the most perfect communion with God in the sacramental mysteries.”
As the cycle continues, our Church awakens to the service of Matins at 7am in St. George Chapel. We gather together continuing our day that began the night before with Vespers. “The Matins service of the Church unites the elements of morning psalmody and prayer with meditation on the Biblical canticles, the Gospel reading, and the particular theme of the day in the given verses and hymns,” says Fr. Hopko. “The themes of God’s revelation and light are also always central to the morning service of the Church.”
On major feasts of the Church, and always on the Lord’s Day, we gather together to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in St. Michael Church. This beautiful, ancient liturgy is the culmination of the service cycle.