On Sunday, May 31, the great feast of Pentecost, His Grace, Bishop Jerome, celebrated the festal Divine Liturgy in Nativity of the Mother of God Church at the New Kursk Root Hermitage in Mahopac, NY. His Grace was co-served by parish clerics: Abbot Cornelius (Apukhtin) and Deacon George Temidis.

After Liturgy, Bishop Jerome delivered a sermon on the Gospel reading, why "The last day, that great day of the feast" should be so designated, when the Old Testament synagogue, like the New Testament Church, always celebrated the first rather than the last day of any feast as the Great Day. Everything is determined by its outcome: a successful journey, a successful enterprise, or any other undertaking, may start off well but fail to bring the desired results – despite an inauspicious beginning, the end may be joyous. So it is with our life here.

Great Vespers was then served with the appointed Kneeling Prayers. After the service, a festal luncheon was served in the parish hall.

The following morning, on the Monday of the Holy Spirit, Archpriest Alexander Donchenko and parishioners of St. Nicholas Church in Poughkeepsie, NY joined the faithful in Mahopac for Liturgy and the luncheon that followed.