Beginning Friday, Oct. 6, St. Athanasius Orthodox Christian Church will be reviving its Sacred Arts Festival that was inaugurated in 2011 when the community was worshipping in an interim building on Calle Real in Goleta.
People of all faiths are invited to attend the festival that opens Friday with a presentation by guest speaker Rev. Turbo Qualls, who lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where he is the pastor of a growing inner-city church. Qualls will share the story of his own spiritual journey.
The festival continues Saturday, Oct. 7, with two more sessions by Fr. Qualls, and concludes on Sunday with a 3 p.m. choral concert of sacred music.
Fr. Turbo spent a number of years in Orange County, California, as a tattoo artist turned Evangelical youth pastor turned Eastern Orthodox priest. His Youtube podcast “The Royal Path” has a large following of young adults and spiritual seekers.
Having studied both classical Western art, as well as Byzantine iconography, Fr. Turbo has a keen understanding of the role of beauty and wonder in worship through artistic expression.
When the Sacred Arts Festival was started, the plan was to host it every two years, but the pandemic interrupted that flow. In 2014, the church moved into a new building on its 20-plus acres of land near Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital. This will be the third festival in that building.
St. Athanasius Church has transformed over the years from its beginnings on the Embarcadero Circle of Isla Vista as an Evangelical Protestant church, to converting en masse to Orthodox Christianity in 1987.
The shift led to the purchase of some 20-plus acres on Hollister Avenue between Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital and the 217 Freeway.
In the future, the church plans to build a structure dedicated only to worship. Services currently are held in the building intended to be the fellowship hall.
Known locally for its outreach to the unsheltered for the past 30 years, the church hosts the Showers of Blessing organization on its property every Thursday morning, when showers, coffee, lunch and conversation are offered to those in need.
The pandemic was a time of transition for the church, as the congregation lost one of its beloved pastors, the late Fr. Jon-Stephen Hedges; and their senior pastor Fr. Nicholas (Kurt) Speier, who retired in December 2021.
The new pastor Fr. Symeon Halsell, who is from Southern California and was also a convert to Orthodox Christianity (in 2008), said he is excited to see the tradition of the Sacred Arts Festival revived.
Tickets for the Sacred Art Festival may be purchased at the door, but pre-registration is recommended. Register online here.