Our Parish

All Saints of North America is an Orthodox Church in Middlebrook, Virginia, serving the Staunton, Waynesboro, and Harrisonburg areas. (We also have parishioners who come from Charlottesville, Roanoke, Salem, and Richmond!) We are a parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, but we come from many different ethnic and national backgrounds. Some of us are "cradle Orthodox," and many of us are converts to the Faith. We are a traditional Orthodox Christian body, following the Old Calendar (Julian) and other traditional practices such as head coverings for women, modest dress, confession before taking Communion, standing for the services, and the chanting of the Liturgy without instruments.. We are located in the heart of Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley, where both of our priests and many of us in the parish were born and raised. All services are conducted in English.

Our Priests

Archpriest John Moses

Our Rector, Father John Moses, was born and raised here in Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley. He had been a Methodist minister and with his wife struggled to serve God in that Church for nearly 20 years. They encountered the Orthodox Faith while he was on a leave of absence doing graduate study in England. By the grace of God, and warm and sacrificial support from Orthodox clergy he met in the years after his return to the US, he converted to the Orthodox Faith, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1996.

As this parish has grown over the years, Father John's responsibilities have grown as well. He now is the Rector also of Christ the Savior Russian Orthodox Church in Wayne, WV. He also has been asked to work to assist his grace, Bishop GEORGE, who is in residence at the Hermitage of the Holy Cross, also near Wayne, WV. Father John has been elected to the Diocesan Council, to the Diocesan Administration as the assistant secretary and Southern liaison, and to the Southern Council that will work to assist Bishop George in his work in the South. On March 3, 2010, the Eastern American and New York Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia announced that for his dedicated service to God's Church, Priest John Moses has been elevated to the rank of archpriest.

Father John's blog is available on this site. We invite you to peruse what he calls, "Ramblings of a Redneck Priest."

Priest Gabriel Weller

Father Gabriel Weller is our Assistant Priest, ordained by Bishop GEORGE, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan HILARION, to offer additional support to the All Saints of North America parish as Father John's responsibilities branch out into West Virginia. Like Father John, Father Gabriel was born and raised here in the Shenandoah Valley. He had been a church leader in the Methodist Church since his twenties, later spent some time in the United Church of Christ, serving in many capacties including Deacon, Elder, Church President, and filled the pulpit when the pastor was out of town. He returned to the Methodist Church and served as Certified Lay Speaker, Choir Member and Youth Leader. He attended Seminary at Eastern Mennonite University, but before completing his studies became frustrated with a growing perception of liberalism and other issues in the Protestant Churches he had known. He had been friends with Father John, then met, courted and eventually married his sister, and he encountered Orthodox Christianity through them. He has served in the Altar continuously since his baptism, and was the Warden of the Parish for two years. He was ordained to the Diaconate by Bishop Gabriel in 2007, and he was ordained to the Priesthood in 2009.

A Bit of History

Our first very small congregation met in a Lutheran Church for about three months, until Matushka Alexandra Moses found a property in Middlebrook, listed as a house "with a large storage building" attached. The home had been built in the 1850s and was in need of much repair. The “storage building” turned out to be a church, built in 1884, also fallen into disrepair, overgrown with vines, broken windows, no electrical service, no plumbing, no heat, brickwork needing repair, and a leaking roof. With much "fear and trembling" Father and Matushka negotiated a loan to purchase the property and restoration work began on the church and the house. The image below, compared with that above, will give an indication of the extent of needed renovation.

By the grace of God, and much prayer, support, and hard work from fellow Orthodox clergy, family members, and parishioners, the church and rectory were repaired, and an altar and iconostas were constructed.  Several years later an adjacent house was purchased for a parish hall, where we now have our trapeza after liturgy, as well as a few rooms for those who travel some distance to come to services and need to stay overnight. We celebrated our 10th Anniversary in 2006 with joy and gratitude to God, to the founders and benefactors of this holy temple, and to all those whose sacrificial efforts have helped establish this parish and help it grow.

Our Church

We are part of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is the Church that Jesus founded in the Middle East more than 2,000 years ago, as it remained in the East, and stayed faithful to what it was given by Jesus and His apostles. Our parish is dedicated to All of the Saints of North America. You can find out more about all of these on our pages devoted to Orthodox Christianity.

All Saints of North America Russian Orthodox Church is a parish of the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), also known as the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

... the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia preserves the best of "old Holy Russia." At the same time, it also represents the historic and Apostolic Church of Christ in its Slavic expression.*

*The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia - A History and Chronology, Fr. Alexey Young, now Hieromonk Ambrose, St. Willibrord's Press, San Bernardino, California, 1993, from the introduction.