In a ceremony presided over by three church hierarchs and attended by an overflow crowd of several hundred members and guests, St. George Cathedral of the Orthodox Church in America was consecrated Sunday.

Metropolitan Herman, the Washington leader of the church, led the service along with Archbishop Kyrill, head of the Bulgarian Diocese of the OCA and former pastor of St. George, and Archbishop Nathaniel of the Romanian Diocese of the OCA.

The Rev. Matthew-Peter Butrie, pastor since July, 2000, also was a concelebrant.

St. George, founded in East Toledo in 1936 as a Bulgarian Orthodox Church, moved from its Oswald Street location to the new cathedral in Rossford last year.

The domed building, easily visible from I-75, cost $1.2 million to build and seats about 180 people.

Sunday s consecration ceremony lasted about four hours, with rituals that included a solemn procession around the church with the metropolitan carrying relics of three saints.

The procession was supposed to be outside but because of rain it was held inside the cathedral.

An all-wooden altar table was assembled and anointed during the ceremony, and the cathedral s walls and an altar screen that separates the altar from the nave were blessed with holy oil.

Metropolitan Herman, the 71-year-old American born cleric who has been primate of the OCA since July, 2002, led the procession inside the Rossford cathedral with the relics of St. Tikhon of Moscow, St. Elizabeth, and St. Panteleimon.

As part of the consecration, Metropolitan Herman knocked on the church doors with his staff and proclaimed: “Open, open the gates and let them remain open forever, and let the King of Glory enter.”

The holy relics were placed inside the altar table, which was made entirely of wood with no metal nails or staples because metal nails were used to crucify Jesus Christ, Father Matthew said.

The Orthodox Church in America traces its origins to the arrival in Alaska of eight Russian missionaries in 1794.

The church has grown to more than 700 parishes, missions, and monasteries with an estimated 1 million members in North America.

The OCA achieved autocephaly, or complete independence, from the Russian Orthodox Church in 1970.

Metropolitan Herman said in an interview at St. George Cathedral last weekend that he is working to unify the various Eastern Orthodox churches in the United States, but that it is a long and difficult process.

“We have to be patient,” the metropolitan said.

“It doesn t happen as quickly as we like. The other churches have not yet received autocephaly, so therefore they are not really free to act in that direction,” he said.

Archbishop Nathaniel said that while the OCA and the Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, and Antiochian Orthodox churches are administratively separate, they share Eucharistic unity, which means their members can receive Holy Communion at any of the churches.

Archbishop Kyrill, who served as pastor of St. George from 1950 to 1963, said that being in Rossford for the consecration “is like coming home.”

“Of course I know most of these people. I baptized their children, performed their weddings,” he said.

St. George s consecration weekend featured several social events, including a vecherinka, or dance, with Balkan and Mediterranean music and a celebration banquet.

- DAVID YONKE

First Published November 1, 2003, 10:56 a.m.