Icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God
Dormition of the Theotokos Serbian Orthodox Church, The Dalles, Oregon
Double-headed eagle
Drawing of a Cross

Welcome to Our Parish Web Site

Welcome to the Dormition of the Theotokos Serbian Orthodox Mission, the main place of Orthodox worship, here in the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. We are a parish of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Western America. The Serbian Orthodox Church belongs to the worldwide communion of Orthodox Churches, which profess the Apostolic faith as articulated by the Ecumenical councils of the One, undivided Church.

Although we are "Serbian Orthodox", our parish is mostly comprised of English-speaking Americans, many of whom are converts to Orthodox Christianity from other Christian backgrounds. Our services are almost entirely in English.

banner

The Church

"The definition of the Church, Her life, Her purpose, Her spirit, Her plan, Her ways, all these are given in the wondrous Person of the God-man Christ. Hence, the mission of the Church is to make every one of her faithful, organically and in person, one with the Person of Christ; to turn their sense of self into a sense of Christ, and their self-knowledge (self-awareness) into Christ-knowledge (Christ-awareness); for their life to become the life in Christ and for Christ; their personality to become personality in Christ and for Christ; that within them might live, not they themselves, but Christ in them (Gal. 2:10).

Icon of the Holy Napkin

"The Church is the personhood of the God-human Christ, a God-human organism and not a human organization. The Church is indivisible, as is the person of the God-human, as is the body of the God-human. The Church is eternity incarnated within the boundaries of time and space. She is here in this world but she is not of this world (John 18:36). She is in the world in order to raise it on high where she herself has her origin. The Church is ecumenical, catholic, God-human, ageless, and it is therefore a blasphemy—an unpardonable blasphemy against Christ and against the Holy Spirit—to turn the Church into a national institution, to narrow her down to petty, transient, time-bound aspirations and ways of doing things. Her purpose is beyond nationality, œcumenical, all-embracing: to unite all men in Christ, all without exception to nation or race or social strata. "There is neither Greek nor Jew, their is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28), because "Christ is all, and in all."

~ Synopsis of Blessed Father Justin Popovich’s article,
"The Inward Mission of our Church" ~


Icon of the Holy Theotokos

Thank you for visiting our site.
We look forward to seeing you in person!

 Athonite Cross