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In 1952, St. Innocent Orthodox Church was a dream. The dream envisioned an English speaking Orthodox Church in the San Fernando Valley. Today, 48 years later, we continue to celebrate this dream that became a reality.
The dream bloomed in April 1952 after the late Fr. John Bresingham put a notice in the newspaper calling for all interested Orthodox Christian who shared his dream to meet for Divine Liturgy on a Sunday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Van Nuys. Nicholas Geeza and Harry Olds joined Fr. Bresingham at that first liturgy and what was once only a dream was now a reality.
The community began to outgrow the space at St. Mark’s so space was rented at the Sons of Norway hall in Van Nuys which we also outgrew and a Luthern church in Van Nuys was purchased. Shortly after, Fr. Bresingham fell ill and in 1954 Fr. John Kedroff and Fr. Boris Geeza came to help.
In March 1955, while corresponding with Harry Olds, it was discovered that Fr. Sergei Glagolev shared this dream of an all English speaking parish. On April 26, 1955 he was appointed as the new priest. Fr. Sergei guided this parish through the building of its first permanent church on Newcastle Avenue and through the devastation they faced on October 5, 1969 when a fire destroyed the church. By February 1970 with the church only restored for limited use, plans for building the new church on Lindley Avenue moved forward. Ground broke on May 17,1970. The cornerstone was laid on April 16, 1972 and the church was consecrated on October 8, 1972 with Metropolitan Ireney and Metropolitan Vladimir in attendance.
After 20 years, Fr. Sergei headed north to San Francisco. On March 12,1975. St. Innocent parish welcomed Fr. Thaddeus Wojcik as the new priest. In August 1984, we welcomed Fr. Andrew Harrison and in July 1988, we welcomed Fr. Gregory Safchuk. We welcomed Fr. Nicolas Boldireff in November 2000. He came from Toronto, Canada.