Parish History

St. Luke Parish was founded on January 12, 1991. On that day, His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN visited for the first time to ordain Fr. David Mustian in the Orthodox Church, and chrismate the initial 17 families. Prior to this, Fr. David and these founding members had a pastoral relationship that dates back to 1983, when Fr. David came to Boulder, CO to be the priest at an Episcopal Church.

During the time between 1983 and 1991, there was a steady challenge to traditional Christian faith in the Episcopal Church. A solution was needed, and it was wonderfully provided in the Orthodox Church.

The passage into Holy Orthodoxy was facilitated by a number of key factors and persons. Fr. David had been well educated as a seminarian at Yale Divinity School, where he developed an appreciation for the early Church Fathers, forms of Orthodox worship, and iconography. As an Episcopal priest he learned of the former Campus Crusade people who became Orthodox. He made contact with Fr. Peter Gillquist and from this relationship the bridge to the Antiochian Archdiocese was established. After a period of "getting to know" each other, Fr. Peter presented the situation of Fr. David and the founders of St. Luke Parish to His Eminence, Metropolitan PHILIP. Thanks be to God, they were accepted. The new Orthodox Mission began. Fr. David was asked to take a correspondence course of study on Orthodoxy, which he has completed.

The early years of St. Luke Parish, 1991 to 1995, were not easy. They met in a rental space at the old Lafayette, Colorado, city hall annex. Lafayette is a suburb of Boulder, approximately 30 miles northwest from Denver. They chose to be Eastern Rite. Fr. David and the people had much to learn about Orthodoxy, especially its liturgical practices and music. There has always been a value placed on appropriate congregational participation and singing at St. Luke's.

St. Luke Parish was small in size but filled with some very committed, talented, and faithful people from the beginning to the present. They always had a Sunday School, various Christian Education classes, ministry teams, and fellowship groups. The parish even had it's own artist who became the iconographer for St. Luke's. St. Luke's also reached out to help start or support the founding of two missions during its early years: St. James Mission in Wellington, Colorado, and Holy Resurrection Mission in Gillette, Wyoming. Also, Fr. Mark Haas was originally a subdeacon at St. Luke's. He was ordained a priest, and sent out to serve in the Archdiocese. He is now pastor of Holy Trinity Mission in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Numeric growth was slow, but steady from 1991 to 1995. They reached the point where they had to move, having outgrown their rental space. They found 4 acres of land near the old location, purchased it, and began the process of building the first phase of their temple and parish hall. There were many hurdles in all of this, but they maintained unity in the midst of the building project.

On October 20, 1996, His Grace, Bishop BASIL, came to consecrate the new temple of St. Luke Parish. This was a joyous occasion of great thanksgiving. However, Fr. David and the people realized they would have to proceed with Phase 2 of the building project sooner than expected. They had been told that a church building would facilitate growth. This proved true, as the average Sunday attendance increased from 85 in 1996 to 120 currently. St. Luke Church remains a parish of mostly converts from different places, along with a good mix of some cradle born Orthodox from various ethnic backgrounds.

In 1998 construction began to double the size of the temple and parish hall, along with the addition of Sunday School rooms. The pictures on this web site show the result of this addition.

Future plans at St. Luke Parish center around growing spiritually, as a people committed to the Orthodox Faith and Worship. They also have a vision for increased outreach. As the new building is filled, the process of trying to start more Orthodox Churches in the area will begin again. St. Luke Parish thanks Almighty God, the Holy Trinity, for all of the blessings they have received, and prays "many years" for the Hierarchs in its God protected Archdiocese.