A group of about 20 or so followers of Durango’s Holy Prophet Elijah Orthodox Mission braved Sunday’s snowstorm to take part in a blessing of the Animas River along the banks at Santa Rita Park.
“This is a sign of our love for one another,” said Father Benjamin Huggins.
Huggins said it is tradition within the Orthodox Church to “take everything God gives us and offer it back to Him,” and it has become an annual tradition for the group to do so with waters of the Animas River.
“The nature of love is self-giving,” Huggins said. “But of course, He out gives us every time.”
The Holy Prophet Elijah Orthodox Mission was founded in 2013, with Huggins and his family specifically moving to Durango to lead the area’s only Orthodox Church.
The Orthodox Church is very similar to other Christian sects. According to the Antiochian Orthodox Church Archdiocese, there’s about 225 million people who identify with the Orthodox Church, making it one of the largest Christian denominations, however, there are only about 6 million followers in the U.S. and Canada.
Huggins said the blessing of the Animas River coincides with the first baptism of Jesus Christ. The first ceremony in Durango was held in January 2014, and is held every year during the first week or so of January.
“We enter back into the grace of that experience,” he said.
About 20 to 30 people are members of the Holy Prophet Elijah Orthodox Mission, with some traveling up to two hours for Sunday’s Mass. Carlmentia Lindndr, who lives in Dulce, New Mexico, said the drive is closer than traveling to the next nearest church in Albuquerque, about three hours away from her home.
“It is important we are here to bless the waters to show the whole world is blessed,” Lindndr said of Sunday’s event.
As per tradition, Huggins said every Orthodox Church in Colorado will travel to Monarch Pass on Jan. 16 in an effort to bless the snowpack on both sides of the Continental Divide.
“We do this with the intentions that the water feed farmland on the west and east of the country … and provides drinking water, and life,” Huggins said. “This has been going on about 20 years, and we’ll be there, as long as Wolf Creek Pass is open.”
jromeo@durangoherald.com
