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God is Moving at St. Brendan’s in Arizona!

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Thank you for your help!

St. Brendan’s in Bullhead Arizona is doing very well, thanks be to God and to the devotion of her members. Since my arrival, we’ve added several Orthodox members, six catechumens and several inquirers.

As I’ve mentioned before, St Brendan’s went through its first Great Lent and Holy Week and Pascha with a priest this year. The result was a maturation and growing appreciation for our prayer life. Also as I’ve mentioned before, we hosted His Grace Auxiliary Bishop JAMES last year.

We entered into the community swap meet, meeting people and sharing about holy Orthodoxy. We intend to do that outreach again this Fall. We also opened our own bank account, chose our treasurer and vice president. We look forward to a tonsured Reader and another trained chanter taking the helm of our singers and helping our singing better glorify God.

Our Pascha picnic, after Paschal Vespers, was a huge success, and our relationships continue to grow closer. We also celebrated our Patronal Feastday on the Sunday before May 29th. Our ladies gathered on their own to beautify St Brendan’s worship space, scrubbing on their hands and knees the old tile floor and re-arranging our sanctuary and book store area.

We are planning the baptisms of the new family soon. We keep looking for land (we were given six acres but it is unusable; one parishioner attempted to buy land but that has fallen through; we looked at a church for sale that would be perfect, but they are asking way too much). We are about to start our evangelism/sharing YOUR faith program of role-playing courses.

As far as I am concerned, I am so grateful to God to be able to serve St Brendan’s, and grateful to Archbishop KYRILL for taking me in, and for Fr John Peck for vouching for me!  I miss my family (Donna and our 14 children & children-in-law, sister and her family, sister-in-law, 13 grandchildren, and more, all in Lima OH!), and my family misses me a lot. I go back when I can, and when tragic needs arise (my brother’s death, my son Micah’s death, and my friend Philip’s death). The only new message from His Eminence Archbishop KYRILL is that he is happy with my service and blesses me to continue serving St Brendan’s.

Again, thank you for your help!

-Archpriest Mark Hodges

For more information about Fr. Mark Hodges and his mission at St. Brendan’s in Bullhead Arizona, please visit his mission page. To support missions like Fr. Mark’s, to the Glory of God and the transformation of America, please donate to Share the Faith.

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Orthodox Mission Success at St. Andrews in Eustis, Florida!

Since we last shared our parish life with you, we have been blessed with some delightful changes. We have painted our front doors red and also survived Hurricane Ian with no real damage (one tree down in the garden).

We have had 11 chrismations, a baptism, and a multitude of catechism classes, including a new class starting soon with 8 inquirers. Future baptisms and chrismations are planned for the near future. Folks who are curious have corresponded regularly through Facebook posts and other social media posts and it seems most Sundays we have 2 or more visitors. Word is getting out!

Fr. Cassian has had some recent health issues that unfortunately lead to a hospital visit Good Friday through Easter. We thank God for our parishioners, including Subdeacon Joseph Hodge, who rallied to make the weekend a holy and beautiful Paschal celebration. Fr. Cassian was able to return to serve again a week later.

As the parish has begun to grow, so have contributions. We are still unable to meet our budget but we have been able to pay Fr Cassian a small and growing stipend in addition to what is contributed by Share the Faith Ministry. God bless you all for helping us as we look forward to continued growth.

– Kh Phyllis Dunlop

Pictures from St. Andrews below. Would you like to help needy Orthodox parishes like St. Andrews? Many Orthodox priests work long hours for little or no compensation. To support Share the Faith and Orthodox missions in general or missions in a specific Orthodox jurisdiction, click here. To donate specifically to help Fr. Cassian and St. Andrews, scroll down to donate.

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Orthodox Missionary Success in Culpepper Virginia

Fr. Adam Sexton is a father of 11 and the rector for St. Andrew’s parish in Ashland, VA. Not being content to only run one parish, Fr. Adam also has a mission parish in Culpepper. He drives over 1 1/2 hours each way to spread the message of Christ. Since last year, our Share the Faith Donor’s have been assisting Fr. Adam with the considerable expenses of being a mission priest.

We are pleased to report that, by the Grace of God and after much hard work in Culpepper, this past Saturday of Lazarus (April 8th, 2023) Fr. Adam welcomed 6 new Orthodox Christians into the Kingdom!  Fr. Adam performed 4 Baptisms and 2 Chrismations at the mission. The pictures below are testimony to the kindness of Our Lord towards the efforts of his faithful servant.

Share the Faith is using the donations of faithful Orthodox Christians to support the work of Fr. Adam. Please consider a donation of any amount, no matter how small (monthly is particularly helpful) to assist either this parish or our other missionary work. Even small donations greatly assist in the evangelization and transformation of our nation. To find out more about Fr. Adam and his missionary efforts, please click here. 

To give a general donation to support Orthodox Missions through Share the Faith:

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Life is Short, Even for the Powerful

Dear Friend, Glory to our Jesus Christ! 

Here is yet another reason to learn, LIVE and Share The Faith:

‘No matter how long it lives, the Greatest Lion will eventually die miserably. That’s the world.

At their peak, they rule, chase other animals, catch, devour, gulp, and leave their crumbs for hyenas. But age comes fast.

The old Lion can’t hunt, can’t kill or defend itself. It roams and roars until it runs out of luck. It will be cornered by the hyenas, nibbled at and eaten alive by them. They won’t even let it die before it is dismembered.

Life is short. Power is ephemeral. Physical beauty is short-lived, I have seen it in lions. I have seen it in old people. Everyone who lives long enough will become weak and very vulnerable at some point.

Therefore, let us be humble. Help the sick, the weak, the vulnerable, and most importantly, never forget that we will leave the stage one day.’

⁃ Copied and shared by Moses Myers of the Jamaican Orthodox Mission

Are you concerned with helping people prepare for eternity per our Lord? A good start is providing them with the presence (Mt 25:31-46, Luke 10:25-37) of a caring Orthodox mission priest by supporting Share The Faith Ministries.

To learn more of how you can Help Us Transfigure America, here are three very helpful links to learn from and share with others:

We are all a work in progress. But we can each take small steps to prepare for eternity. Caring that our fellow man is able to enjoy our Savior’s Heaven on Earth, the Holy Liturgy, and learn the way of His Saints is  one of the most important. Glory to our Jesus Christ!

– Fr Evangelos (Angelo) Pepps, Director, ShareTheFaith Ministries

fre@sharethefaith.net

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Humility is Essential for True Faith

Posted by Fr. Evangelos, Share the Faith Director

Glory to our Jesus Christ!

To Share the Faith we must Live The Faith. Living The Faith presupposes that we know, or at least are continually learning, The Faith. We can learn about The Faith from this recent FB post from famous CCM recording artist of old, Ron Ephrem Moore, who served a year on our STF Board. Ron shares the following good counsel from the contemporary Man of God, Holy Paisios (+1994) of Mt Athos, showing how we should act when forgiving those of us who have not lived up to how we should be:

St Paisios once said, “A Christian must not be fanatic but have love for and be sensitive towards ALL. Those who inconsiderately toss out comments, even if they are true ones, can cause harm. I once met a theologian who was extremely pious, but had the habit of speaking to the people around him in a very blunt manner; his method penetrated so deeply that it shook them very severely. He told me once: “During a gathering, I said such and such to a lady.” But the way that he said it, crushed her. “Look”, I said to him, “you may be tossing golden crowns studded with diamonds to other people, but the way you throw them can smash heads and not only the sensitive ones, but the sound ones also.”

Let’s not stone our fellow-man in a so-called “Christian manner.” A true Christian:
• never behaves like a teacher;
• will LISTEN, and,
• whenever his opinion is requested, he responds humbly. In other words, he replies like a student!!!

A person who begins to do something with a good intention and eventually reaches an extreme point, lacks true discernment. His actions exemplify a latent type of egotism that is hidden beneath this behavior. He is unaware of it, because he does not KNOW Himself that well, which is why he goes to…extremes.

To which I can only add that I once spent spent 17 mins alone on Athos (April, ‘88) with Holy Paisios and was inspired by his humility. Holy Paisios and all the Fathers teach that repenting leads to knowing oneself. Knowing oneself leads to being truly humble. Being truly humble leads to one being able to effectively reach a soul for Christ and His Church. And such is the way of a true believer.

Get Your heart clean. Live The faith. Pray. Be of few words but much example. For just as it is in LIFE, in missions, “Example is everything”.

Glory to our Jesus Christ!

To learn more about Share The Faith visit ShareTheFaith.net. To assist married clergy, who in cases, struggle to provide basic necessities for their families but would like to offer more full-time missionary work here in America, consider donating today