St Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church

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Welcome to the website of Saint Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church.
We are a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad under the spiritual direction of its First Hierarch, Metropolitan Hilarion. Our pastors are Fathers John Townsend, Steven Ritter, and Alexander Lisnichuk. The Church is located in Roswell, Georgia, and our parishioners come from all parts of the metropolitan Atlanta area and beyond. We welcome visitors from all over the world.
St. Mary's is part of the worldwide Orthodox Church which was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ and spread throughout the world by His Apostles and their successors. We strive above all to unite ourselves to Christ. For this reason we are committed to the Truth that He Himself embodied. We will strive to follow the holy tradition that Christ has given us for our salvation, and we welcome all who wish to take up the Cross of our Lord and join their efforts with ours in following Him.
We also welcome all who are seeking the Church that teaches the unchanging truth proclaimed throughout all the centuries from the time that our Savior taught to the present day, the Church that is connected to Jesus Christ through an unbroken succession of those who proclaimed and tried to live the life that He gave us. Whether or not you are ready at this time to make your commitment with us, you are most welcome to "come and see."

Who was St. Mary of Egypt?
St. Mary lived in Alexandria, Egypt in the Sixth Century (app. 527-565 A.D.). By nature, St. Mary was a woman who loved the flesh and was infamous for her sinful way of life. In the company of people she had led into sin, she traveled to the Holy City of Jerusalem.
Through curiosity, or by the saving hand of God, she attended the celebration of the feast of the Holy Cross at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. At the church, she renounced her sinful life and went to a monastery on the banks of the Jordan River. There, she received communion and entered into the Palestinian desert to live the remainder of her life as a hermit and ascetic for Christ. Living in an age that seems to reject all common morality, we at St. Mary's find great strength in our patron. more...

As I stand here in the midst of this gathering, I picture in my mind another company, greater than this, filling the spacious halls of a more magnificent structure in the capital city of the Russian Empire Matushka Moskva (dear mother Moscow). My imagination reaches still farther out, and I behold another throng of busy citizens, together with young Seminarians and prayerfully inclined Christians, away off in Siberia, in the city of Irkoutsk. Methinks I hear them speak the very name of him whom they have come to honor, Innocentius. My whole being thrills with a veneration at the sound of that name. My heart is filled with gladness when I think of the pure joy and reasonable pride of the country folk in rural Anginskoe of the Province of Irkoutsk the native home of the Most Reverend Metropolitan Innocent...

Controversy on the Solovetsky Islands (click below and close new browser window if it opens, or click "more" and view on NPR website for large screen)