Abilene is filled with houses of worship but most Abilenians are familiar with the inside of only a handful. A periodic feature in Spirit of Abilene will give you an “Insider’s View” of some of those places you may have driven by many times but never entered.

By LORETTA FULTON
NAME: St. Luke Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church
LOCATION: 501 Sunset Drive
WEBSITE: https://www.stlukeorthodox.net/
LEAD PASTOR: Rev. Philip LeMasters
ABOUT: A few Abilenians began studying Orthodoxy in the late 1990s. Rev. Peter Jacobsen was sent to serve the fledgling community from 1998 to 2000, followed by Rev. John Winfrey, who served from 2000 to 2003. Services originally were held in the chapel at McMurry University until the present location was purchased in 2003. Rev. Philip LeMasters, a religion professor at McMurry, and his family embraced Orthodoxy in 2000. He was ordained as a deacon in 2004 and as a priest in 2006.

Loretta Fulton is editor of Spirit of Abilene