Our Parish
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 supporting 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.
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Journey to Orthodoxy
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 faced by Fr. David and the founders of St. Luke Parish to His Eminence, Metropolitan PHILIP. Thanks be to God, they were accepted.
Early Years
The early years of St. Luke Parish, 1991 to 1995, were not easy. Members met in a rental space at the old Lafayette, Colorado, city hall annex. Lafayette is a suburb of Boulder, approximately 30 miles northwest of Denver. The Parish chose to be Eastern Rite. Fr. David and his flock had much to learn about Orthodoxy, especially its liturgical practices and music. There has always been great 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, and this blessing continues to the present time. We always provided Sunday School for all ages, Christian Education, Bible Studies, Ministry Teams and Fellowship Groups for our members. In fact, our Parish even had its own artist, Flora Baker, who began her 20 year journey as an iconographer at age 68. Flora's outstanding work still adorns our Parish Hall and Founder's Walk. St. Luke helped start and supported the founding of two missions during its early years: St. James Church in Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Holy Resurrection Church in Gillette, Wyoming. Fr. Mark Haas, a founder and originally ordained as a subdeacon at St. Luke, was ordained a priest and sent out to serve in the Archdiocese.
Our Second Lafayette Location
Numeric growth was slow, but steady from 1991 to 1995. The Parish on Stonehenge Drive soon outgrew its old rental space and began looking for land to build on in Lafayette. 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. In spite of many challenges faced by the Parish in building a new facility, they maintained unity throughout the project
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In honor of the great blessing of our 10th anniversary as an Orthodox Church, His Grace Bishop BASIL visited to celebrate this joyful occasion with us. This was a joyous occasion of great thanksgiving. Fr. David and the Parish, however, soon realized they would have to proceed with Phase 2 of the building project earlier than expected, due to being blessed with growth. In 1998, construction began to double the size of the temple and parish hall, along with the addition of Sunday School rooms. The Parish had been told that a church building would facilitate growth. This proved true, as the average Sunday attendance increased from 85 in 1996 to 116 in 2000.
In February 2001, His Grace Bishop BASIL came to visit our Parish during our tenth anniversary as an Orthodox Church. In June, 2002, Father David was graciously elevated to the dignity of Archpriest, with a joyful liturgy and celebration in his honor, after serving as an Orthodox priest for 10 years. All of this was followed by our Parish being chosen to host the 2003 Parish Life Conference for the entire Southwest Region, (which later became the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America).
By 2004, our Parish had achieved such wonderful growth that we were faced with three options: 1) expand again in current location, 2) to reduce attendance by starting a new mission with some members joining it, 3) find a larger parcel of land in a new location that could provide for long term growth, but would mean moving locations. All the options were seriously considered, and by the majority of parish members' vote, parish council, and blessing of Bishop BASIL the third option was chosen.
To accommodate our wonderful growth and best serve our dear parishioners, Father Mark Hass returned to St. Luke so that two Divine Liturgies could be offered on Sunday. After a short time, Father Mark was called to serve at St. James Church in Ft. Collins, and the felt need for a new location again pressed upon our Parish. The new goal was to find land and build a new temple and hall, planning to double in size, from which point the Parish would be strong enough as a base to sponsor new local mission churches, and increase its outreach. Just as the Parish had mobilized its volunteers of committed and talented people to accomplish past goals by the grace of God, the Parish believed the new goal could be reached. This was a step of great faith.
The Move to Erie
At the visitation by Bishop BASIL in the Fall of 2007, he surprised most of the members and clergy by not only blessing the goal to move, but saying it should begin soon. He said if God blessed it, then it could be done in two years with extremely focused giving. Our Parish rose to this challenge with great faith and for the Glory of God!
After much prayer and guidance by the Holy Spirit, the Parish completed the purchase of 9 acres of land in Erie, Colorado in March of 2008. Our plan was to hold on to our land and begin fundraising toward a goal of building a new temple withing five years. God, however, had other plans, and "little miracles" began to happen quickly after our land purchase. During Holy Week, our Parish received a totally unsolicited offer from First Christian Church in Boulder to purchase our Stonehenge facility in Lafayette. This was a miracle in itself since we were mandated by Bishop BASIL to sell our facility to a church or other entity serving the community, not a simple task. we received the proceeds of the sale in October 2008 and were graciously allowed to stay in the Lafayette location rent free until Nov 1, 2009 during which time the new temple could be built in Erie. What a major financial blessing this was!
As with any building project, there were many challenges, but the good Lord supplied the sufficient grace to deal with them and move through them. The Church found a skilled and experienced Greek Orthodox architect to design the new temple. The Town of Erie was wonderfully supportive of the building project, something that is not often found today as churches work with civil jurisdictions. Parishioners gave sacrificially, selling stocks and giving out of their savings, in addition to faithful tithing. At critical points, new members came and donations were made. The Parish reached a major goal of moving into the newly completed parish hall, set up for worship in Nov. 2009. Then, the beautiful new temple was occupied for the first Divine Liturgy on Pentecost, 2010, with the wind blowing fiercely as we made our first procession around the temple.
In this process of building a physical temple, God also worked in the hearts of many people to build more pure “living temples.” It was an awesome experience, including the struggles and trials. Our faith was stretched, and our faith grew as we learned the true meaning of the Scripture: "With God, all things are possible".
In 2012 the Parish was blessed with an average attendance over 200. We were exceedingly thankful to God for all that had been accomplished. We believed that it would take a future generation to fully beautify and complete our new temple and expand the support complex. A strong foundation had been laid in the new location. There was enough land to allow us to more than double in size and build a large parish hall in the future, as well as more classrooms and new buildings for ministry.
On Sept. 28, 2013 His Grace Bishop BASIL consecrated our new temple in Erie. A joyous luncheon followed. More than 300 people attended. We waited for this consecration to have our iconostasis installed, along with additional iconography. The Holy Table, we continue to use, was consecrated previously in the Lafayette temple.
The First Ten Years in Erie
St. Luke Church remains a parish of converts from different places, along with a mix of life long Orthodox from various ethnic backgrounds.
In 2014, Fr. Stephan Close came to us as a retired Air Force Chaplain to serve. He has been a great pastoral help to us in moving forward with our mission.
Our future plans at St. Luke Parish remain aligned with our long standing values: to focus on the spiritual growth of our members and to remain committed to the Orthodox Faith and true worship. We also have a vision for increased outreach to our surrounding community. As our new temple is filled by God's grace, the process of starting a new mission and supporting the establishment of more local Orthodox Churches continues.
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In 2019, we began planning and fundraising for the expansion of our parish hall and additional classrooms. We were blessed with average Sunday attendance of 236 souls, with almost 400 members. Unfortunately for the world, 2020 presented us with the Covid Pandemic, and restrictions were placed upon on worship services and activities. During this time of difficult restrictions, we continued to hold liturgy and live stream it to our members; we were very thankful to fully reopen and resume worship and activities. We completed the expansion of our parish hall and addition of four classrooms in February 2022. We are truly grateful for all of the blessings that we have received in doing our Lord's work, by His Grace: a beautiful temple with iconography depicting Christ's story; administrative offices; a lovely parish hall; and classrooms for Christian Education and activities. Of course, with these blessings come responsibilities to maintain them as a beacon of Orthodoxy to our brothers, sisters and our community. It is our sincere prayer that we will be as faithful in our response to these many blessings and mercies bestowed upon us by Our Lord in the future as we have been in receiving them. "We have learned a lot over the years and all the glory belongs to God," says Fr. David.
Fr. David retired as pastor August 31, 2023 after more than 30 years of service to our Parish. On September 1, 2023, Fr. Raphael Daly became our new pastor and we look forward to the future of our good Parish under his leadership and care.
St. Luke Parish thanks Almighty God and the Holy Trinity for the abundance of blessings of the blessings received, and prays "many years" for the Hierarchs in its God protected Archdiocese. We thank God for all the faithful parishioners who have responded to God's grace and love during our blessed journey.
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. . . but with God, all things are possible.
MATTHEW 19:26
