St. Olga’s Orthodox Church is now hosting services every other week in downtown Hillsdale, offering students and city residents the chance to experience Eastern Christianity close to the College.
Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in Albion, Michigan, began St. Olga’s as an outreach effort to the Hillsdale community in June 2025. It currently rents St. Peter’s Episcopal Church at 3 N. Broad St. Until now, the church has only been holding vespers every Thursday and liturgies on Saturdays. Now that retired priest Rev. Michael Butler will officiate services part time, St. Olga’s will offer services every other Sunday.
Friar Joshua Frigerio said the idea for St. Olga’s started about three years ago when Holy Ascension became too crowded.
“In the Orthodox world, when the church becomes too full or too large, instead of building megachurches, we make many smaller churches,” Frigero said. “And the largest population density of my parish was Hillsdale, so a church in Hillsdale made the most logical sense.”
Frigerio was not present at the first Sunday liturgy on Oct 18 as he was preaching at Holy Ascension, but he said that he heard that the first service went well. He said he hopes to keep working with St. Olga’s until it is able to operate as an independent parish.
“The idea is to just get a regular service, get some more money, get a regular priest to come, and to let St. Olga’s live a normal parish life,” Frigerio said.
Junior Owen Ferguson, choir director for St Olga’s, said he was optimistic about the new mission.
“We are doing a great job on the musical end of things, better than most missions and even other full parishes,” Ferguson said. “Hopefully we can be a light to the Hillsdale community. The reason St. Olga was picked is because she’s a recent American saint. She devoted her life to caring for the downtrodden. Hopefully, we can carry that same mission forward into the wider Hillsdale community.”
Sophomore Aslynn Hawkins said St. Olga’s will foster relationships between students, faculty, and town residents in the Hillsdale area.
“I am excited that St. Olga’s is bringing the Hillsdale community closer together, offering a smaller community where it’s easier to know everyone and have fellowship after service because Holy Ascension is so packed. It will be great to be able to meet everyone and not have church be like a sardine can.”
Holy Ascension is a 40-minute drive from Hillsdale, which sophomore Sophia Spanos said prevents students from enjoying a day of rest.
“It was really incredible to be home before 3 p.m. because of St. Olga’s,” Spanos said. “Even though it’s such a drive, I am going to miss the full community that we have at Holy Ascension.”
Hawkins and Spanos mentioned that, though the Orthodox Church holds a closed communion, they are welcoming of all visiting students.
“We’re very welcoming. You can come, just try to be as respectful as possible,” Spanos said. “If you don’t want to venerate the icons or wear a headscarf or anything like that, you’re just welcome to come and see and worship and stay after for the meal because I feel like that’s where most of the community happens.”
