We started as a small group of families and individuals from the Snohomish-Monroe-Lake Stevens area who had been attending St. Paul Orthodox Church in Brier (near Lynnwood) and St. Andrew Orthodox Church in
Arlington. For many years our group talked and prayed about bringing
Orthodoxy “home” to the Snohomish area. In early 2003, with Father
Thomas Davis as our spiritual leader, we began having weekly meetings
and Vespers services at a home in the Cathcart area. In November, 2003,
we leased warehouse space at our current site and painstakingly
remodeled the space to turn it into a holy place of worship. Our small
community struggled through many challenges, the most difficult being
the death of our beloved founding priest, Fr. Thomas, on April 29, 2004.
After a time of grieving and seeking guidance from God and our
sponsoring clergy, we decided to continue the vision we had shared with
Fr. Thomas. In the following
year, we were blessed by Archbishop Joseph, the presiding Bishop of our
Archdiocese, to take St. Thomas the Apostle as the patron Saint of our
community. Then Fr. David Sommer and his family came to the St. Thomas
Mission in 2005 to shepherd our community as our priest. Since that
time, a number of other local families and individuals have discovered
the riches of Orthodox Christianity and have joined our parish. Most of
us are from non-Orthodox backgrounds and have become Orthodox in the
past 15 years. We continue to seek God’s guidance as we pray and search
to establish a permanent place of worship in Snohomish. |
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