OUR LADY OF KAZAN HOSTS RUSSIAN HOLIDAY BOUTIQUE

Sea Cliff's modest, rustic and stunningly beautiful Church of Our Lady of Kazan held its annual Russian Holiday Boutique this past Saturday afternoon.  Traditional Eastern European pastries and other tasty foods including baklava, pirogis and Christmas cookies were served, as well as gallons of borscht.  Additionally many  traditional and interesting Russian gift items, jewelry and crafts including Matryoshka Dolls were for sale. 

The church structure, which was converted from a garage during the 1940s, is home to one of two  of Sea Cliff's Russian Orthodox congregations and is located on Willow Shore Avenue just off of Littleworth Lane. Over the year's through extensions and renovations, the building has taken on its beautifully natural form, both in its interior and exterior, blending into the wooded surroundings, with its signature onion-shaped dome the only indicator to the casual passerby that the building is a Russian Orthodox church. 

Alex Terentiev, who has been a member of the congregation since the late 1940s was available on Saturday to offer tours of the church and to answer questions concerning the congregation's history and Russian Orthodox theology, as well as to discuss philosophical questions concerning science, faith, and the unknown and unknowable.  

Sunday services at Our Lady of Kazan are held at 10 am.  The doors are open to all.