Icons of Faith

Of Christianity’s three major divisions--Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Orthodoxy--the latter is the least well-known and least practiced in the United States.

But Oxnard supports two Orthodox churches: Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Church in El Rio and St. Herman Orthodox Church in America on Wooley Road.

Each church attracts about 30 worshipers from throughout the county at Sunday services, both of which are at 10 a.m.

Depending mainly on geography and the ethnic makeup of parishioners, the church may also be known as the Russian Orthodox or Greek Orthodox Church.

“The distinctions are principally ethnic,” said Father Paul Waisanen of St. Herman Orthodox Church in America.

Father Peter Shashkoff of Holy Trinity Eastern Orthodox Church agrees.

“The Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Church, whether it’s Russian, Slovakian or Greek,” he said. “The language may be different. Local tradition may be different. We may bake a different style of Easter bread, but the essence is Orthodoxy.”

Indeed, the ethnic makeup of parishioners varies in the two Oxnard churches.

“At St. Herman, we’re a mix of Russian, Greek, Arabic, Lebanese and American converts,” Waisanen said. “Our makeup is more varied than Holy Trinity’s because we use only English in our service.”

Shashkoff would agree. Holy Trinity’s founders were all born in Russia, he said, and its older parishioners today almost all fled the Soviet Union just before World War II. At Holy Trinity, both Russian and English are used in the liturgy.

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Orthodoxy, both priests say, means full participation in the life of one’s church--to literally live the faith.

“We have the same ideas--to pray in the house of the Lord,” Shashkoff said. “It’s not ethnic, it’s not social; it’s to become a better Christian.”

Holy Trinity was built in 1966 by its parishioners. They are also the ones paying iconographer Victor Kazanin to paint the richly textured frescoes and icons of saints on every surface of the church’s interior--its wall, its ceiling and its dome.

In the afternoon, sunlight streaming through the stained-glass windows onto the reds and gold leaf of the paintings makes the sanctuary seem to glow.

“People come from all over the state to see Victor’s handiwork,” Shashkoff said. “I call him the Michelangelo of contemporary times. You cannot duplicate what he does--he is known as a master.”

Kazanin, a Moscow emigrant who lives with his wife, Lana, and their two children in a bungalow on the church’s grounds, shyly waves away such praise.

“This religious artist--it is a strange profession,” he said in accented English. “Not many people want to do this art.”

With but a couple of months’ work left on the tiny Holy Trinity church, Kazanin hopes his family can remain nearby.

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“We like this El Rio and we like California very much,” he said.

Kazanin, an independent contractor, would like to find another Orthodox Church in Southern California that needs his artistry.

When the Kazanins landed in the United States several years ago, it was to work in Washington, D.C., on the John the Baptist Orthodox Cathedral and St. Nicholas Orthodox Cathedral. It was there that an Oxnard parishioner saw his work and invited him to Ventura County.

In a few weeks, Kazanin will head back to Washington to put final touches on the St. Nicholas cathedral.

And his work still adorns many walls and ceilings of Moscow Orthodox churches, done before his family emigrated.

“But the church there was--How do you say?--somewhat underground then.”

He calls his style a synthesis of Byzantine and Moscow styles.

“There are very many rules and traditions in this painting,” he said. “Grammatical rules, and also the faces in the frescoes or icons do not show emotion. Neither happiness or sadness. It is all symbolic.”