Diocese: Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.
Deanery: Washington, DC Deanery
Address
20937 Ashburn Rd.
Suite 110
Ashburn, Virginia 20147
Mailing address:
PO Box 3707
Reston, VA 22095-1707
Website: holytrinityvirginia.org
Parish Contacts
Lay Leadership
Sterling, VA 20164
Directions
From the Washington Beltway via the Dulles Toll Road (Rte. 267)
Take the Toll Road toward the Airport. Exit at Route 28 North toward Sterling (Exit 9B). Follow Route 28 to the Waxpool Rd. exit (Route 625, on the left). Follow Waxpool Rd. for approx. 3 1/2 miles to Ashburn Rd. Make a right on Ashburn Rd. Follow Ashburn for approx. 1 mile to a left into the parking lot at 20937.
From Fairfax/Route 7
Take Route 7 west to Ashburn Village Blvd. Make a left to proceed toward Ashburn. Follow Ashburn Village Blvd. for approx. 3/4 mile to a right on Louisa Dr. Follow Louisa Dr. to a left on Ashburn Rd. Follow Ashburn Rd. for approx. 1 mile to a right into the parking lot at 20937.
From I-66
Take I-66 West to the Route 50/Fair Oaks Exit (Exit 57B). Follow Route 50 approx 6 miles to the Route 28 North Exit. Take Route 28 North approx. 7 miles to Waxpool Rd. Follow Waxpool Rd. for approx. 3 1/2 miles to Ashburn Rd. Make a right on Ashburn Rd. Follow Ashburn for approx. 1 mile to a left into the parking lot at 20937.
From Leesburg and points west
Take Route 7 to Belmont Ridge Road, make a right on Belmont Ridge, and follow to Hay Rd (third traffic light). Make a left on Hay Rd. and follow it for about a mile to a right on Ashburn Rd. Follow Ashburn Rd for about 1/4 mile to a right into the parking lot at 20937.
Schedule of Services
All services are in English.
10:00 AM Divine Liturgy.
Sunday Morning
For a complete list of upcoming services, please download the current Newsletter from the parish website.
Parish Background
It was Fr John Meyendorff of blessed memory who brought Holy Trinity to life during his 1977-78 sabbatical from St Vladimir’s Seminary to mind Harvard University’s Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Georgetown. He crowned the efforts of a small group of faithful (from area Greek and Russian parishes) striving to establish an English-language parish in the Reston-Sterling Virginia vicinity. With regular Sunday Liturgies and its first Holy Week and Pascha, a fledgling community was off to a running start.
We are striving to bring Orthodox Christians together in English and believers to Orthodoxy. We have no ethnicity to speak of, yet in important ways we are more like a parish in the Orthodox world - in the Mediterranean or Eastern Europe - than the usual ethnic parish is. Our goal is to embody the Orthodox Catholic way in Protestant America while giving ourselves to the renewal of church life our Bishops have called for: “We…must strive to revitalize the mystical, sacramental life of our churches and monasteries. To renew sacramental participation in the life of the Church we need only begin” (On Spiritual Life, 1976)
One sure and authentic way to renew and revitalize the sacramental life is to put back on the lips of people the people’s own prayer and responses. Call it Liturgical realism, it is not a new idea. For fifteen hundred years Orthodox Christians sang their way through the Liturgy. Then something happened. Someone somewhere told them to stop. The Royal Priesthood St Peter has in mind (see I Peter 2.9) began to turn into an audience. And that was a mistake. So at Holy Trinity we sing. We sing a mix of melodies from the Orthodox world - Greek, Arab, Romanian, Slav - melodies that broadcast the Church’s native genius and catholic spirit, melodies sung for generations by people like us, only in English. Children have their place in this, too; it is only natural. We strive to enjoy the fruits the Fathers ascribe to singing with one heart and one mind, with understanding. We begin to make sense of things. The Sunday Liturgy, as sacrifice of praise embraced by Christ sacrificed for us, comes closer to what it is meant to be. It is our school. This is good for the church and for us.
If you are interested, a levelheaded little book and a critically acclaimed film offer insights into the nitty-gritty of renewal and revitalization of one’s spiritual life—and into our parish. The book is the late Archbishop Paul of Finland’s “The Faith We Hold (SVS Pressm 1980); the film is “Babette’s Feast” (Best Foreign Film, 1987). The book is about walking on water; the film, about a lavish meal that costs the giver everything she has, and a wary community’s helpless response…to the sacred.
Since 1978, Fr Paul N Harrilchak has been the priest of the Holy Trinity faithful. He is the beneficiary of an education in the humanities. He studied Holy Scripture, Patristics and Christian Archeology, dogmatic and moral theology, church law and pastoral medicine at the Catholic University of America (Washington DC) and St Vladimir’s Theological Seminary (Yonkers, NY, his hometown).
Fr Paul was ordained deacon in 1966 and priest in 1978. He has penned two books for parishioners, one on the Liturgy (1984) and another on Confession (1996). He takes his light from the lamps of renewal: Frs Schmemann and Meyendorff, Fr Mateos, Fr Laurence, etc. He has consulted on matters of Liturgy with the monks of New Skete. The late Archbishop Paul of Finland has incorporated an important suggestion of his into the Finnish Liturgicon of 1985. Prof. John Erickson of St Vladimir’s Seminary has written that Fr Paul “is perfectly at home with modern liturgical scholarship…And what is more important, he shows good sense when pursuing the implications of this scholarship for Orthodox worship today.”
The Reston Catechetical School meets Sundays with teaching for the family. Juice, coffee and snacks are available after Liturgy. We mark great feasts as we can, likewise Vespers. We hold Lenten services in conjunction with St Luke’s Serbian Church in McLean. Confessions generally follow a communal, mutually evangelizing rite that respects Synodal guidelines. The mysteries of Baptism and Marriage require parish membership. There are ample opportunities to learn: Scripture study, films treating religious subjects, books of interest, etc. And courses of instruction in the Orthodox Catholic faith are set up to meet individual needs. In addition, an informative newsletter is generated every month. Call Fr Paul with your questions, and for any additional information.
In the past, through Church agencies and directly, we have come to the aid of brethren at home and abroad (i.e. Eastern Europe, Jerusalem’s Arab flock). We have collected and distributed food for the poor, put money in the hands of those in need, and offered a helping hand. With God’s grace and parishioners’ talents we will continue.
Our plans: We own two acres on Potomac View Rd, Sterling, VA, down from Northern Virginia Community College. Cost: $230,000. We have no debt. We have zoning approval and a master plan for a parish center. Now we are into site development. Next, we build.
