St. Herman Church (Kalispell, Montana)

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St. Herman Church in Kalispell, Montana is a mission church of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America. It was originally a "satellite" of Holy Trinity Church in Butte. On Pentecost 2014, the parish was blessed by Bishop Maxim.

History

Kalispell, Montana is a small city in Northwestern Montana with a population of about 21,000 people, located near Glacier National Park. In the mid-2000s, the priest of St. John the Baptist Church in Post Falls, Idaho (in the Antiochian diocese) looked at this area for planting a new church, but due in large part to the location of existing parishioners in Creston, British Columbia, the new church ended up being established Bonners Ferry, Idaho instead. Kalispell remained an hour away from Annunciation Church in Missoula and two hours away (and one time zone) from Bonners Ferry.

However, a group of Orthodox started to develop in Kalispell, in large part through the efforts of Fr. Russell Radoicich from Holy Trinity Church in Butte, Montana. The Kalispell group became a satellite of Holy Trinity, and was elevated to parish level in 2014, with the blessing of Bishop Maxim. On July 19, 2015, Fr. Daniel Kirk, a 7th-generation-Montanan was ordained to the priesthood at St. Herman church, becoming one of the only priests to ever be ordained in the state of Montana. Fr. Kirk is also the first priest assigned to this parish.

Sources