news & events

Russian Americans of Greater Cleveland Celebrate a Festival of Food and Culture

St.Sergius of Radonezh Russian Orthodox Cathedral in Parma, Ohio (Suburb of Cleveland) held its first Russian Festival on the weekend of July 30 & 31st, 2011. The festival was sponsored in part by the Congress of Russian Americans, the Russian American Cultural Society of Cleveland, Russian Life magazine and other local businesses. Even though it was its first such festival it turned out to be a tremendous success – socially and otherwise – due in part, to the enthusiastic support by a growing Russian American community in the Greater Cleveland. Plans are under way to make it an annual event. The festival, a two-day event, featured performances of the Mogadore Balalaika Orchestra and Cleveland Russian Men's Choir, church tours, a kiosk of religious artifacts, arts and crafts and a kids corner with games for the entire family. In the Pavilion Bar & Grill, shashlik, cevapcici, chebureki, blini & piroshki were served with flavored vodka tasting and Baltika beer. In the newly renovated hall in lower level of the church was the Russian Tea Room and Taste of Russia with more traditional Russian food, such as stuffed cabbage, tefteli, borscht, piroshki, bigus, salads, coffee, tea and desserts. Volunteers and attendees of all ages helped make the event an enormous success.

St. Sergius, a parish of the Chicago and Mid-America Diocese of the Russian Church Abroad, recently celebrated its 60th anniversary. From humble beginnings in an inner city garage, St. Sergius Cathedral now stands in a park-like setting, as a magnificently frescoed church meticulously painted by renowned iconographers, Bishop Alyppy of the Chicago and Mid-America Diocese and Fr. Theodore Jurewicz who currently serves in Erie, Pennsylvania. The church school is active and the dedicated choir participates in Christmas and Paschal concerts along with other Orthodox churches in the greater Cleveland area. Plans are being considered to develop recently purchased adjacent land. Fr. Ilia Marzev, dean of the cathedral, is delighted that the parish, following the initiative and urging of two young parishioners, Vladimir Rodzianko and Grisha Chistik, undertook to organize this landmark festival.