Diocese: Diocese of the West
Deanery: Missionary District
Address
801 W Summit Ave
Pueblo, Colorado 81004
Email:
Website: orthodoxpueblo.org
Parish Contacts
Directions
From I-25
Take exit 97b, Abriendo Ave. You will be heading west. Turn left (south) at the first stop light onto Washington. After about 5 blocks Washington ends. The street curves to the right, and you are now on Summit. The Church is on the right hand side as soon as you turn the corner.
Schedule of Services
5:30 PM Great Vespers.
Saturday Evening
9:10 AM Hours and Divine Liturgy followed by Coffee Fellowship.
Sunday Morning
5:30 PM Great Vespers.
Eves of Great Feasts
8:30 AM Hours and Divine Liturgy.
Mornings of Great Feasts
5:15 PM Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts followed by Lenten potluck.
Wednesday Evenings in Great Lent
Confessions are heard after Great Vespers or by appointment.
Confessions
Please visit the parish website to view our bulletin and complete schedule of services.
Parish Background
Uniates from modern day Slovakia organized the Greek Catholic Church of St. Michael in 1900-1901. After the death of their initial priest, and encouraged by ongoing discrimination from the local Roman Catholic hierarch, the Pueblo Uniates petitioned Bishop TIKHON of San Francisco (Saint Tikhon) to receive them into Orthodox Church in 1903. Saint Michael’s received its first, full-time pastor, Rev. Vladimir Kalneff, in 1905. That year also witnessed a visit from Bishop TIKHON, who was jubilantly received by Pueblo’s Russians, Serbs, Greeks and Bulgarians. It was at that time that the Pueblo Greeks received a blessing from Bishop TIKHON to construct their own church, dedicated to St. John the Baptist, which is located two blocks from St. Michael’s.
A massive flood of the Arkansas River destroyed the original St. Michael’s Church in 1921. Many of the parishioners who lived nearby salvaged only their children and moved empty-handed to higher ground on the south side of town. The priest at that time, Rev. Theodore Grishan, contacted the Colorado Fuel & Iron Corporation, employer of most of his parishioners, seeking help. The CF&I generously sold the parish a new building site on higher ground for one dollar, and had architectural plans drawn up for a new temple. The Rockefeller Foundation gave a grant for the construction of the new church, which was completed in 1925. Bishop THEOPHILUS of Chicago consecrated the new temple on September 15, 1929. As a result of the growing Serbian demographic, it was then re-named “Serbian-Russian St. Archangel Michael Orthodox Church.”
After 27 years as pastor of the parish, Rev. Theodore Grishan reposed in 1946. His successor, Rev. Peter Pripisnoff, served St. Michael’s for a further 20 years. Reverend John Chupeck became pastor in 1966 and it was under his tenure that English was introduced into divine services. By Pascha of 1967, the entire Divine Liturgy was being sung in the vernacular. After much deliberation, the Revised Julian calendar was adopted in 1968.
Today, Saint Michael’s is a small but growing community of people from all walks of life who are united in a common struggle to maintain the Apostolic faith in a secular and sectarian society. There are third generation Slavic Americans as well as American converts and recent immigrants. An average Sunday finds some 40-50 worshippers praying in our beautiful temple. Please join us. You would be most welcome.
