On Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th of October, the parish of St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Tobaccoville, NC celebrated its patronal feast. His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen), arrived to officiate the divine services.

On Saturday evening, His Eminence was present for the All-Night Vigil, officiated the Litia and Polyeleos. Serving Vigil was parish rector Archpriest Mark Tyson, joined by Archdeacon Sergius (Wilson; cleric of Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV) and Hierodeacon Alexei (Smith; diocesan cleric). Several members of the Brotherhood of Holy Cross Monastery were also in attendance: Rassophore Monks Aaron (Martín) and Silouan (Fernandez) served in the altar, while Monk Philaret (Farley) sang in the choir.

The following morning, Metropolitan Jonah was met with the traditional bread and salt by parish warden Paul Mercer, after which he greeted by Fr. Mark and Priest Peter Markevich (rector of Holy Trinity Church in Mebane, NC).

Prior to the start of Liturgy, Marcian Sakarya and Thomas Millary were tonsured readers.

In his sermon, Metropolitan Jonah preached on the life of the Apostle Thomas, giving especial emphasis to the wonderful story of the Apostle’s building of a magnificent palace in the heavens for the Indian king, Gundafor. The king desired an earthly mansion but received a Heavenly one through St. Thomas’ "trickery," as the apostle used all the king’s construction resources of gold and silver as alms for the poor.

His Eminence mentioned recent statistics, which point to the exponential growth of Orthodoxy in the West, and encouraged parishioners to completely surrender themselves to Christ in order to play a significant role in the growth of His Church in our native land.

As Liturgy drew to a close, Metropolitan Jonah, with the blessing of Metropolitan Nicholas, presented David (Derek) Welch a diocesan gramota for outstanding service to the parish in the realm of restoration, construction and beautification of the building and grounds of St. Thomas Parish.

After the service, the clergy and people went to the Tobaccoville Community Center, which had been beautifully decorated by the parish sisterhood, for a delicious banquet.

The parish of St. Thomas the Apostle expressed their warmest thanks to Metropolitan Nicholas for blessing this visitation, and also to Metropolitan Jonah for his agreement to attend and make this patronal feast the most memorable in the history of the community.