About Our Parish

Holy Myrrhbearers is an Orthodox Christian Church in Harrisonburg, VA, serving the cities of the Shenandoah Valley including Harrisonburg, Staunton and Waynesboro and the counties surrounding them. 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 were born Orthodox, but many of us are converts to the Faith. Our parish venerates the Holy Myrrhbearers, who went to Christ's tomb to anoint His body with myrrh, not yet realizing that He was not dead, but Risen! They were the first to learn of Christ's glorious Resurrection. Here are some questions and answers about the Holy Myrrhbearers.

The Orthodox Church is the ancient Church founded by Jesus Christ through his apostles in the Middle East 2,000 years ago, as it continued and spread throughout the East. (The Church as it spread West through Rome took a different path.) We keep to ancient ways, 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 Virginia's beautiful Shenandoah Valley, where our priests and many of us in the parish were born and raised. Services are conducted primarily in English, with some Slavonic.