The XV Annual Lenten Retreat at Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco, California, was held on Sunday March 22, 2026. This year’s retreat was titled: “Hieromonk Seraphim Rose of Platina: His Life, Teachings & Legacy”. Over 100 people were in attendance, many of whom attended the English-language Divine Liturgy in the morning. They came to hear from Bishop James of Sonora and Archpriest Martin Person, Rector of the St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church in Sunnyvale, California. Both clerics knew Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) personally during the last few years of his earthly life, which ended in 1982. 

The first talk, titled “Biography of a Man Transformed in Christ,” was given by Fr. Martin. He provided a detailed overview of Fr. Seraphim’s life, adding throughout stories of his personal experiences with Hieromonk Seraphim. Father Martin was a student at UC Santa Cruz when Hieromonk Seraphim was invited to the university to give two talks. For Bishop James and other friends of theirs, encountering Father Seraphim struck something deep in their hearts, changing the entire course of their lives. Many of these young men became bishops, priests, and monks. Fr. Martin expressed deep regret that he did not attend those talks, noting that he was not yet interested in such a thing at the time. However, his friends who did attend later inspired him to travel to Platina to visit the American-born hieromonk. When visiting Platina, the young Martin took long walks with Fr. Seraphim, who provided clarity regarding eastern religions and the syncretistic, philosophical worldview Fr. Martin was then drawn to. Through Father Seraphim’s clear and direct words, and the Holy Spirit’s presence in him, Father Martin’s heart began to be formed in the ways of Christ, Who Himself is Truth. 

At its two most recent meetings—held on December 30, 2025, and February 17, 2026—the Diocesan Council of the Western American Diocese, under the chairmanship of His Eminence Archbishop KYRILL, heard reports concerning decisions of the Hierarchy of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and adopted a number of resolutions:

At its winter session of 2025, the Synod of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia resolved to transfer His Grace Bishop THEODOSY of Seattle from the Western American Diocese to the Eastern American Diocese, with the title of Bishop of Manhattan. Members of the Diocesan Council expressed their gratitude to His Grace for his zealous service to the Western American Diocese over the course of 25 years. Bishop Theodosius of Manhattan will remain in our diocese through the impending consecration (see below).

Editor's Note: It is reported that the Church of the Holy Sepluchre in Jerusalem has been closed to Divine Services since February 28, 2026, "because of the continuing war." The article below reports on how His Holiness Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III and the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepluchre celebrated the Sunday of the Cross.

Archimandrite Peter (secular name: Peter A. Karakozoff) was born on September 24, 1976, in the city of Sacramento, California. His parents—Alexander F. Karakozoff (1919–1986) and Irina M. Karakozoff (maiden name Malkevich, 1933–2019)—came from émigré families that had settled in the West as early as the 1920s, preserving in their new homeland the language, faith, and way of life of their native land. Russia. His father worked as a hydraulic engineer in government service, and his mother owned an orthodontic laboratory in Sacramento. An only child, Peter was baptized in November 1976 at the Church of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women in Bryte, CA.

The Orthodox faith permeated the entire way of life of the Karakozoff family from Peter’s earliest childhood. At the age of four, the future monk began serving in the altar of the very church where he had been baptized, and he carried out this obedience with love until the age of eighteen. On May 15, 1991, His Grace Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald) tonsured him as a reader. After finishing high school, he served as a psalmist in his home parish, and in 1998 became choir director at the neighboring Holy Ascension Russian Orthodox Church of Sacramento (ROCOR).

Fr. Peter received his secular education at American River College and then at the University of California, Davis, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in History in 2000. Since the fall of 2022, he has been enrolled in a Master of Divinity program at the Antiochian House of Studies under the guidance of Archpriest Patrick O’Grady, a well-known expert in liturgical theology...

From February 5–8, participants from several states within the Western American Diocese gathered at Christ the Savior Orthodox Church in Youngtown, Arizona, for the first Southwest Choral Symposium—several intensive days designed to strengthen the musical life of small parishes and help singers at every level grow in confidence and skill. What began as a group with widely varied backgrounds became, by the end of the weekend, a confident choir offering beautiful, prayerful singing at the divine services. The symposium programming was developed by the Synodal School of Liturgical Music (SSLM), the fourth such event organized under the auspices of SSLM in the United States since 2022, focused specifically on the needs of ROCOR’s English-language parishes. Over the course of the event, people shared experiences, learned from one another, and formed long-lasting connections that enriched the work taking place in the rehearsal room.