Convert from Tibet joins congregation of St. Michael’s

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
BLESSINGS UPON YOU - Noa Hubarau sneaks a peek as Father Nicholas Manikas reads a part of her baptismal service recently at St. Michael’s Orthodox Church in Cotuit. Looking on are godmother Pamela Hitchins and assisting priest Father Antony Gori.

I personally love convert testimonies and stories and this one is no exception.

Noa finds her ark at

Orthodox church in

Cotuit

Convert from Tibet joins

congregation of St.

Michael’s

By Pamela Hitchins

On any given Sunday at St. Michael’s Orthodox Church in Cotuit, you will find people from all over the world, immigrants or first-generation descendants of immigrants along with others whose families have been here for centuries. They worship together using a liturgical service that dates to the early centuries of the first millennium – translated into English – in a New England village church that was once a Grange Hall. That association with farming is an apt one, given the variety of the "harvest" that is regularly gathered there. Noa Hubarau, for example, immigrated to Cape Cod three years ago from Nepal. During the last year, Noa, raised a Buddhist, underwent instruction in the Orthodox Christian faith and was baptized at St. Michael’s on a recent Saturday morning.

"It was a great blessing and honor for me to introduce Noa to the Lord Jesus Christ and the Orthodox Christian faith," said Father Nicholas Manikas, pastor of St. Michael’s. "Tracing her family history back to the mystical lands of Tibet, Nepal, and India, Noa has a natural spiritual bent, and accepting Christ in her heart and mind came after much prayer and study. Her baptism was a source of great joy not only to herself and her husband but to our entire parish."

The baptism was a relatively private affair, witnessed by just four men and four women, most helping with the service in some way – priests, cantor, godmother (which the author of this article has the honor of being). But the makeup of this small group – among the eight were Orthodox Christians from three ethnic designations, and converts from the Roman Catholic, Episcopal, and Baptist churches – reflects the diversity and fellowship of the parish.
St. Michael’s is "a pan-Orthodox Christian church," Father Manikas said, "comprised of members from many different ethnic backgrounds, including Lebanese, Greek, Russian, Albanian, Ukrainian, Romanian, and many converts from other Christian denominations." And now St. Michael’s is the home of a Buddhist convert as well.

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