On December 2, 2012, children of all ages, adolescents, parents and grandparents, all with Romanian roots, met together at the Greek Orthodox Church in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, where Fr. Nicolae Clempus, as administrator of the Romanian Orthodox Mission in Columbia, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the sweet and lovely Romanian language.
Thus, beginning on December 2, 2023, with the blessing of Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, with the help of Fr. Michael Platanis, presiding priest of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox
Church of Columbia, SC, and with the approval of its Parish Council, the youngest mission of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of the United States, the Romanian Orthodox Mission of Columbia, South Carolina, pastored and administered by Fr. Nicolae Clempus and a provisional council, can rejoice in a new location for services—the old Greek Orthodox church.
A heightened spiritual feeling was sensed through the Orthodox spirit of the new service space, along with the songs of praise dedicated to St. Andrew the Apostle, communion with Christ, and the communal and personal prayers lifted to the heavens during the Divine Liturgy. The Romanian faithful who came to church dressed in traditional costumes and the children who proudly wore the dress of their grandparents and spoke in the sweet language of their ancestors, caused the first Divine Liturgy in this temple of worship to be a special one.
Fr. Nicolae’s sermon about origins and responsibility, with direct reference to the 2nd century archaeological vestiges in the territory of Dobrogea (the city of Halmyris), constituted a real history lesson and a greater awareness of how St. Andrew, the First-Called of the Apostles, came to the territory of our country and preached the Holy Gospel there. Romanian Christianity dating from Apostolic times gives us a responsibility! Since we are indebted to St. Andrew for our ancestral Orthodox faith, Fr. Nicolae challenged us to pass on to our children the living flame of faith through humility and apostolic responsibility.
The patriotic cultural program prepared by the children and adults of the Mission on the occasion of the National Day of Romania, under the attentive coordination of Professor Mihaela Livingston, with the support and involvement of the parents, stirred great emotions in the heart of those present. Both the poems recited by the little ones, the literary fragments read in Romanian by the adolescents, and the singing of patriotic hymns by adults and children, resulted in the National Day of Romania being uniquely highlighted.
As hospitality characterizes the Romanian people regardless of geography, and as Romanians enjoy being in the company of other Romanians around the table, the Lenten dishes, attentively prepared by the industrious and skillful hands of the Mission’s ladies, bore fruit in an Agape Meal after the Liturgy that was an opportunity for unity and brotherly joy. Small and large, young people and elderly, a little group of Romanians was blessed to feel the joy of spending time feeling Romanian, far away from land of their parents!
A Real Blessing from God, a thrilling moment of exalted emotional experience, this event dedicated principally to ancient Romania became an opportunity for the cultural and social cohesion of the Romanian community of this Mission, showing through the significant number of the faithful and their direct involvement, the desire and the need to have a Romanian church in the region of Columbia, South Carolina!
May the Lord and His Mother help us!
Many Years and Eternity, Mama Romania!
Written by
Mihaela Livingston
