Welcome to the website of Saint Barnabas Antiochian Orthodox Church. We are an Orthodox Christian parish community from all walks of life, age groups and imperfections located in Costa Mesa, California, half-way between Los Angeles and San Diego, California. Whether you are a guest, an inquirer, or a visitor from another parish, we are pleased you are here! The purpose of our web site is to introduce you to our parish community, and to provide you with a brief overview of the Orthodox Church and faith. Our priests, Father Wayne Wilson and Father Michael Reagan are also personally available to answer any questions you may have about Orthodox Christianity, or about your spiritual experience, or personal faith journey.
Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church is a local parish within the Self Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Our roots are in the ancient patriarchal See of Antioch where “the disciples were first called Christians” – Acts 11:26. We have two priests and three deacons. We currently have close to two hundred members, many from Evangelical Protestant backgrounds. If this is your background, if you are from another faith tradition, or struggling to find a stable spiritual faith, you will undoubtedly feel very comfortable experiencing the beauty, reverence and awesome mystery of an Eastern Orthodox liturgical service with our community. The journey of our community, along with 2,000 others into the canonical Orthodox Church in 1987, has been documented in the well-known book, “Becoming Orthodox”. You can order this book from Amazon.com, or from our parish bookstore.
Although some of what you experience in an Eastern Orthodox Service may be new to you, you can be assured everything we do and believe as Orthodox Christians – even if it is different from what you have experienced - has deep roots in the oral and written tradition of the early and apostolic Church. St. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2: 15: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.” Being Orthodox is precisely this: “to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Having said that, our faith is not a static, or a historical faith only – it is a deep, living, vibrant faith that has greatly enriched the Christian experience and spiritual formation of growing numbers worldwide.
Normally our service schedule except for feast days, is Vespers (Evening prayer service) on Wednesday night, beginning at 7:00 PM. Great Vespers at 6:00 P.M Saturday night, followed by the anointing of the sick and the hearing of confessions. On Sunday mornings: Matins, the early morning prayer service, begins at 9 A.M.; and Divine Liturgy begins at 10 A.M. We have coffee hour after the services in our Fellowship area.
If you have never attended an Orthodox Christian service before, we have service booklets that allow you to follow the service in text form; or, you can simply experience the primary act or work of the Church, which is the offering of corporate worship through Christ to the Father. You are welcome to join us for any of our services, but please be aware that the priests can only serve the Holy Eucharist to Orthodox Christians who have been chrismated, have made recent confessions and are in good standing. Please join us, however, in receiving the Fellowship Bread that is served at the Veneration of the Cross at the end of the Divine Liturgy. If you have any questions about the reasons for this restriction, please feel free to ask one of the priests.
Obviously, this is only a brief introduction to our parish. Although we are an ancient faith, we are also very aware of the needs of our contemporary brethren and spiritual seekers. Many are hungry for authentic spiritual experience and formation within a sacred tradition, with roots in the apostolic church, the church fathers and the Bible. If this is the longing of your heart, we think you will find it at Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church. Please come and join us! Fr. Michael and I look forward to meeting you after one of our services.
The beard is now gray and the hair is thinner than when he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the streets, beaches and house churches of Huntington Beach, California. That was during the heady days of the Jesus Movement in the nineteen sixties. Father Wayne Wilson, the founding pastor of Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa, California, a suburban city halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, now wears a black cassock and a long pectoral cross, rather than the tees and jeans he wore as a street evangelist and Campus Crusade For Christ student leader. Otherwise little has changed. He is still a man as passionate as ever about preaching the “good news” of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
Jesus Christ founded His Church through the Apostles. By the grace received from God at Pentecost, the Apostles established the Church throughout the ancient world. St. Paul founded the Church of Antioch; St. Peter and St. James, the Church of Jerusalem; St. Andrew the Church of Constantinople; St. Mark, the Church of Alexandria; St. Peter and St. Paul, the Church of Rome. For one thousand years the Church was one (East and West), unbroken and undivided! After the Great Schism of 1054 A.D., when the Latin or western church tragically separated from eastern Christendom (at Constantinople), the eastern non-Oriental churches became known as the “Eastern Orthodox Church”, to distinguish them from what subsequently became known as the “Roman Catholic Church”.
Yes! Most of our congregation was not born into the Orthodox Church and faith. We began like many of you - with a desire to find out what the real "early Church" was, and what it believed and practiced. Many of us came from Evangelical, Reformed, Anglican, Charismatic and non-denominational Christian backgrounds. Others have come from eastern religions or through new age interests. You will find a wide diversity of faith traditions, races, age groups and ethnic groups represented at our parish.
So don’t be afraid to ask questions about what we do and why (at the appropriate time, of course!)! Our small bookstore also has books and pamphlets that can help answer a variety of questions. Subjects include Christian church history, theology, catechism, Orthodox spirituality, inspiration, prayer, the lives of the Saints, and stories about others who have journeyed to the Orthodox Faith.
We have to pray a lot, and with pain in our hearts, so that God will intervene. Our times are very hard to understand. A lot of ash, rubbish, and indifference has accumulated, and a strong wind will be needed to blow it all away. It
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The beard is now gray and the hair is thinner than when he preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ on the streets, beaches and house churches of Huntington Beach, California. That was during the heady days of the Jesus Movement in the nineteen sixties. Father Wayne Wilson, the founding pastor of Saint Barnabas Orthodox Church in Costa Mesa, California, a suburban city halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, now wears a black cassock and a long pectoral cross, rather than the tees and jeans he wore as a street evangelist and Campus Crusade For Christ student leader. Otherwise little has changed. He is still a man as passionate as ever about preaching the “good news” of Jesus Christ, crucified and risen.
