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Share the Faith Announces 2023 Grants Available for Orthodox Priests

Greetings in Christ!

Share the Faith Director Fr. Evangelos Pepps, on behalf of the Board of Directors, is pleased to announce that applications are open for canonical Orthodox clergy in need of financial help for their ministries. Share the Faith is a pan Orthodox ministry dedicated to providing assistance to priests who are:

  • Serving mission parishes with limited financial means
  • Serving smaller parishes with growth opportunities, but which are unable to fully support a full-time priest
  • Serving parishes at risk of closing due to economic and demographic shifts, but with potential to evangelize their local areas
  • Serving part-time mission parishes, Orthodox outreaches, and other ministries. Frequently at their own expense.
  • Priests forced to work full time in secular jobs, for any combination of the above or other circumstances, whose ministries could benefit from more availability
  • Working with parishes that could use assistance in learning effective evangelization techniques

The above are examples. The Share the Faith board would be willing to consider other situations as well for support.

Over the course of 2022, Share the Faith supported three priests from the Antiochian, OCA, and ROCOR jurisdictions. You can see our supported missions here. The results have been nothing short of amazing, thanks be to God and the generosity of our donors. Dozens of new catechumens have been baptized and chrismated. One supported parish has doubled attendance at Divine Liturgy. With God, truly all things are possible.

For 2023, Share the Faith would like to increase the number of supported priests to at least 20. Do you know of a priest whose ministry would qualify for Share the Faith support? If so, please direct him to our online application page or please download and send him a copy of our informational flyer.

If you would like to support Share the Faith, become a donor to support the transformation of America!

To send a donation via check, please click here for our mailing address

We need everyone’s help if we are to live up to the Great Commission of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Fr. Evangelos Pepps with the Board of Share the Faith

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What Can We Learn from Evangelicals About Missions?

In a wide-ranging interview, Fr. Timothy Cremeens shared with us his perspective on missions as a former Evangelical. Fr. Timothy grew up in the Jesus Movement, eventually becoming a worship pastor for an Assemblies of God church. Researching the worship of the Early Church lead Fr. Timothy to the Church Fathers. He found them “troubling” as the Church they described was not the same as his Evangelical denomination. Eventually he found Orthodoxy, though the road to conversion was made more difficult than necessary by an ethnic focus in too many parishes he visited.

In the interview below, Fr. Timothy covers such topics as:

  • What can we learn from the success of Evangelical missions in the United States?
  • What are our true priorities in American Orthodoxy, and what should they be?
  • Why is Orthodoxy attractive to Evangelicals?
  • What is it like to really run an Orthodox mission, and why is founding one so hard?
  • Who is the Orthodox Faith really for?
  • What is the nature of salvation, and why does only the Orthodox Church understand it fully?
  • Why does Fr. Timothy support Share the Faith with a monthly contribution, and why should you?

Below is the full interview. Following it, are embeds of segments of the interview covering specific topics. Please like, share, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. Of course we encourage you to watch the entire interview, but the individual segments are great for sharing with anyone with a specific question. Thank you to Fr. Timothy for his time in this interview, and for his monthly support of Share the Faith.

“Sheep are made by other sheep, not by the shepherd.” Orthodoxy in America needs to recover the ancient Christian concept of lay evangelism. So says Fr. Timothy Cremeens, a doctor of Church History and an Orthodox priest serving Holy Cross / Ss. Constantine & Helen Orthodox Church in Huntsville Alabama. His parish is 50% adult convert and using 95% English in services. He has a background in the Assemblies of God as a pastor, before finding Holy Orthodoxy. Fr. Timothy is a monthly donor to Share the Faith and has been a mission priest living “hand to mouth”, as he tells it. Fr. Timothy believes the same as we do at Share the Faith – no mission priest should qualify for welfare while laboring to grow the Kingdom of Christ. This is an honest interview about the lessons the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church needs to relearn to evangelize in America. It is also an honest look at what Evangelicals need to face – the Orthodox Church is the original Church with the fullness of the faith and true worship.

 

Fr. Timothy is an Orthodox priest, but began his faith journey in the Assemblies of God as a worship leader. Orthodoxy can learn much from the success of Evangelical missions in the United States. The Evangelicals prioritize missions. They financially support missions. Each Evangelical is expected to be an Evangelist. It is not a calling for just priests or special individuals. In fact, as Fr. Timothy makes clear, “sheep give birth to other sheep. The shepherd does not make the sheep.” While there are many more Evangelicals in America, on a per capita basis they still do a much better job of funding missions that the Orthodox. It is a question of our priorities, not just our size. Orthodox Christians have much to learn before we can fully respond to Christ’s Great Commission in our nation.

Fr. Timothy, an Orthodox priest of 30 years, can be embarrassed by the priorities in which Orthodox Christians spend millions of dollars. If you have access to a person’s calendar and checkbook, then you can know their priorities. Where are time and treasure spent? Unfortunately, on that basis, many Orthodox Christians would be judged and found wanting. Many unchurched Americans need to hear the authentic Gospel from us. We need to focus on what really matters.

It is a terrible thing when Orthodox Mission priests can qualify for welfare because neither their local community nor their jurisdiction can, or will, care for them and their family. They and their families living hand-to-mouth is a shameful indictment of Orthodox Christians in America. It is equally shameful that missions are not founded because of lack of money. Fr. Timothy Cremeens was a mission priest, and is a successful Orthodox pastor in Huntsville with a growing, thriving community. He supports Share the Faith monthly, because he cares about Orthodox missions in the United States.

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End of 2022 Update and Appeal for Orthodox Missions

Share the Faith is the only pan-Orthodox, non-profit fund supporting mission and needy parishes in the United States. As an Orthodox ministry, we have been endorsed by:

  • His Eminence Paul, Archbishop of Chicago and the Midwest (OCA) of blessed memory
  • His Eminence Archbishop Nathaniel of the Romanian Episcopate (OCA)
  • Bishop Longin of the Serbian Diocese of New Gracanica-Midwestern America

You might not be aware that most Orthodox mission priests, and those attached to smaller parishes, often have to work one or more jobs just to make ends meet. This puts great stress on their families, and reduces the amount of time they can devote to the missionary activities. At the same time, mission / smaller parishes are often attended by Orthodox Christians who have little training or experience in growing a parish. The priests need financial support, and the parish board needs training in how to support the priest in evangelizing. Share the Faith provides both – stipends for deserving priests and training for the Faithful on how to bring others into the Kingdom of Christ.

In 2022, Share the Faith has been blessed, through the generous contributions of faithful Orthodox Christians, to support three amazing mission priests as they labor for the Kingdom – Fr. Adam Sexton, Fr. Cassian Dunlop, and Fr. Mark Hodges. Thanks to our support, Fr. Adam has been able to expand his parish’s outreach efforts, continue to expand his official Orthodox mission, and add a new Orthodox outreach in a completely new area of Virginia. Please read this update from Fr. Adam to see how God is moving in Virginia!

Fr. Cassian has been blessed to increase average attendance at liturgy by over 50%. The newcomers include several new families with young children. Fr. Cassian has had to expand the number of catechism classes he offers to keep up with demand. As Fr. Cassian said to us recently, “Sometimes I turn around from the altar to bless the congregation, and wonder who all those people are, and where they keep coming from!” We know the answer to that. The new people are being led to Orthodoxy by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Mark Hodges is blessed to have the only Orthodox parish for hours in any direction out in Bullhead, Arizona. We were fortunate enough to do a long interview with Fr. Mark about effective evangelism to Protestants, his community, and the success he is having in a fast-growing, important area. Please view that interview here on our YouTube channel. While you are there, please be sure and subscribe while inviting your Orthodox friends and family to do so! We also recently got a wonderful update from Fr. Mark about the growth of his parish. Please click here to read it.

The mission field, however, is much greater than these three priests can cover. Share the Faith has many ambitious goals for the upcoming Year of Grace 2023:

  • Expand to helping 20 mission parishes by the end of 2023.
  • Expand our Evangelism Education offerings for both supported and non-supported parishes alike. No one is born knowing how to evangelize, or how to effectively welcome guests to our parishes. While Orthodoxy will never be “seeker sensitive”, as we primarily gather to worship God rather than please men, there is so much more we can do to bring souls to Christ. In 2023, we will be making many more resources and in-person coaching available.
  • Expand our own podcast channel with a focus on Orthodox Evangelism. More Orthodox podcasts exist today than ever before. Many are high quality and are highly effective. They also tend to cover a wide variety of topics. Share the Faith is focused on spreading Orthodoxy to the non-Orthodox in the United States. Our podcasts will be expanding this year, and oriented towards that very specific goal.
  • We are currently running an outreach program to expand awareness of Share the Faith among Orthodox Christians. It is our goal, by the Grace of God, that every Orthodox Christian in America will have heard of Share the Faith by the end of 2023.

To do all this for the Orthodox Faith, we need God’s help and yours. In this time of giving, could you make a donation of any size to Share the Faith to help us meet our goals for Christ and His Kingdom? Could you forward this email to your Orthodox friends and family who might also consider assisting Orthodox missions? Could you post this email, and/or Share the Faith’s informational flyer to your social media? Could you bring the flyer to your parish priest, and ask if he could put a copy in the Narthex, email it to the parish, and/or put it in the weekly bulletin?

Your help this Christmas Season will make all the difference. May the blessings of the Incarnate Christ be upon you, your families, and your parish!

In His and Your Service,

On behalf of our entire Board of Directors, wishing you a most Blessed Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

Fr. Evangelos, Director Share the Faith Ministries and Glen Chancy, Vice-Chairman

To send a donation via check, please click here for our mailing address

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The Hard Work of Building an Orthodox Mission Parish Continues in Arizona

Fr. Mark Hodges is the first full time priest at St. Brendan the Voyager in Bullhead City AZ. This mission parish is the only Orthodox presence in a growing tri-state area for hours in any direction. The mission survived for 5 years off reader services and the support of a dedicated, largely formerly Evangelical core group. Their faith and dedication in sustaining a mission were rewarded with the assignment of Fr. Mark Hodges to pastor them.

Missions are hard. As you read through this update from Fr. Mark, imagine the personal sacrifice needed to build an Orthodox parish from scratch. To serve Christ in this mission, Fr. Mark has to spend long months away from his large family. To save money, he is living in two rooms provided by one of his families. The faithful have to work hard as well. Many necessary items at the parish are handmade such as the iconostasis and the cross for the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross pictured below. Things those of us in established parishes simply take for granted can be challenging for a new mission.

Share the Faith, through the support of our donors, has been blessed to support Fr. Mark and St. Brendan’s since August 2022. It is through your generous donations that Fr. Mark is able to continue to grow the Kingdom of Christ to the Glory of God the Father! For more information about Fr. Mark and his mission in Arizona, please visit his Share the Faith page.

Missions are difficult in Orthodoxy. Without you, many missions are simply impossible to get off the ground. Please donate today.

To send us a donation via check, please click here for our mailing address.


Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

St Brendan’s has begun celebrating the major feast days for the first time. Honoring the birth of the Mother of God was very well attended, and dedicated members brought a large, homemade Cross to our feast of the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross and beautified it with lovely flowers –see the pics of our feast day! (pics 1 & 2)

I’m not sure if I mentioned that His Grace Bishop JAMES visited St Brendan’s and was very well received, with 24 attending, and the faithful provided a lovely meal for all. His Grace stayed with us at length, and repeatedly said he was very pleased. My superior who drove His Grace, Fr John Peck, told me later that His Grace kept talking positively about the people of St Brendan’s! (pics 3, 4 & 5)

Nearly the whole membership worked, helped, or contributed to our community swapmeet at the Mohave Community College, to raise funds for episcopal items needed for bishops’ visits to Arizona. We made new friends, shared about Orthodoxy, and, along with our own offering, raised over $500 for the fund. (pic 6)

We have filed with the state and are in the process of opening our own, independent bank account, appointing a treasurer, and opening a separate bookstore account, as well as other basic things a new mission must do. We are also actively looking for land, with our without a building, to take a giant step forward from our little storefront. We were given six acres of unusable & inaccessible land in the desert, and we are finishing the transfer in the hopes of either using the land someday as a camping retreat, or sell it to go toward usable property.

We have especially been encouraged by many new, interested people who have come to St Brendan’s. I am working with each of them in their various situations via-a-vis catechism. Please pray for these new catechumens:

  • Christian Morgan (a young man coming back soon from Israel)
  • The Light family (Royce & Justine, Boone, Elise, Boaz)
  • Janette Collins-Abbott (Chelsi’s mother)
  • William Barth (an eager young man)
  • Carlos Rubio (and girlfriend Alma, friends of St Brendan’s for quite a while)

Please pray for our established members:

  • The Kelly family (CJ, Chelsi, Pierce, Phineas, Prudence — CJ, an excellent chanter, is the initiator of St Brendan’s, a convert from and former Asst. Pastor of Calvary Chapel)
  • The Wolcosky family (Albert & Judy and son Jordan away from home — Albert is my altar server, and a former Deacon)
  • The West family (Jim, Deborah, Jesse — who is our singing leader)
  • Karen Peters — who along with her husband Joe is graciously letting me stay in two rooms of their house
  • Daniel & Michelle Shelton (our neophytes, baptized in the Colorado River the day I arrived!) — you can see their baptism here.
  • The Hamlett family (Craig & Mystie — whose daughters Rubie & Krystie are a delight)
  • James Pappos — our elder statesman

Please pray for our new members, Orthodox who have come since I arrived:

  • Gary Kirchner — from Las Vegas, a wonderful man who is a great organizer –he was instrumental in making our swapmeet happen!
  • Donna Fletcher — from South Carolina, a former Antiochian Evangelical Orthodox Mission member who moved to Bullhead City specifically for St Brendan’s, and who fit right in from her first visit.
  • Mitchel & Adrienne Smiley — a terrific couple who have an amazing testimony and a lot to share.
  • Hannah Harrison — in the process of moving to our area.

Also, please pray for our singing — we are just beginning to learn the hymns of the Church services (haven’t even started on the Tones yet).

On a personal note, it’s been a very busy time. My older brother David died in August of painful cancer, and I thank God that I was able to be with him both after he was diagnosed and then constantly with him in his last two weeks as he fell asleep in the Lord. I was honored to bury him in Lima, Ohio, where he moved about 10 years ago to be with our parents and my family. It’s also been a challenging time for my whole Lima, Ohio, family while I’m away, including my wife Donna, our eight adult children and their seven spouses, our thirteen grandchildren (plus four miscarried grandchildren), my frail mother who moved to Lima with my dad before he died, my sister-in-law who moved in to our house, my younger sister Edith (who has kidney failure) and her husband who also moved to Lima, and my niece and her husband who moved to Lima, and who just had a baby boy at Thanksgiving. (pic 7) Your prayers are very appreciated.

If I may be so bold, I ask those reading this to pray for my mother, Lois. She is now bedridden completely, and has lost the will to live. She is 90, and her organs are strong but her bones are very frail. (The attached picture of her was taken a long time ago.) (pic 8) My amazing wife Donna is taking 24/7 care of mom, as well as taking care of my sister-in-law, who has had to have several major surgeries. Also, please say a prayer for my adopted autistic son Micah, who is incommunicative and whose increasing violence has made him a danger to himself and others. He is living in a group home, supervised 24/7, but reports of violent incidents last month were not good at all. (pic 9)

Finally, I’m ending on a positive note: As you can see in the picture of our little storefront (pic 10), Fr. John Peck (the missionary founder of St Brendan’s) designed a logo for us, of an Orthodox Cross with the bottom of an anchor. (How appropriate for St Brendan the Navigator/Voyager!). Well, my beloved six year old granddaughter Phoebe in Ohio, completely on her own, saw the pic and drew the logo herself, and gave it to me as a gift. I was very touched. I framed it (and put it up next to the church calendar near our Table of Preparation!). (pic 11)

Many heartfelt thanks for Share the Faith and all those who are praying and supporting St Brendan’s! (You can watch a video of St Brendan’s by Share the Faith here.

Fr. Mark Hodges

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Share the Faith Helps Fund Orthodox Mission Success in Virginia

The Board of Directors of Share the Faith, the Orthodox Mission Fund for the United States, is pleased to announce financial support for three new mission parishes.

Fr. Adam Sexton is one of the hardest working priests in the United States. He is a father of 11, a loving husband, a rector of an established parish (Ashland, VA), a mission priest for one established mission (Culpeper, VA), and is currently working towards founding another mission with an Orthodox outreach (Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula, VA). Share the Faith donors have been privileged to help support Fr. Adam since the beginning of 2022. Funds from Share the Faith have allowed him to expand his ministry by reducing the hours spent working a secular job to make ends meet.  Share the Faith wants to continue to support Fr. Adam, while expanding to support at least 20 additional missions in 2023. Both Fr. Adam and other mission priests need your help this coming year! Please read the updates below from Fr. Adam about the ongoing success of his ministry, and please prayerfully consider donating to support pan-Orthodox Christian missions in the United States!

To learn more about Fr. Adam, please visit his support page here. For more information about Share the Faith, please visit our mission page and view our informational flyer. Read on for the great news of the work God is doing in Northern Virginia!

To support Orthodox Mission priests in the United States like Fr. Adam through Share the Faith, click the donate button below:


Update from Fr. Adam Sexton below on His Three Orthodox Parishes / Projects.

St. Andrews (Primary Parish):

St. Andrews Orthodox Church in Ashland, Virginia has enjoyed a robust and sustained increase in volume and Church life over the last 2 years. There are so many new faces weekly and catechumens are being made left and right. It’s becoming extremely crowded for Divine Services and that’s just fine with us. We have had a number of baptisms and weddings and thankfully very few funerals. Stewardship and giving are way up and parish activities and volunteerism are proceeding at a rate that is refreshingly vigorous. We have begun a targeted college outreach to our local college (literally at the end of our street) where we’ve previously not done any outreach. On our own we are cautiously thriving. With Christ doing faithfully what Christ always does, we are living well in the Kingdom!

Ss. Peter & Paul (Mission Parish):

Ss. Peter & Paul Orthodox Mission in Culpeper, Virginia has just completed its first year in existence. We began with about 5 solid souls (far too few to be sensible but we were determined to exist and to grow by God’s grace). Now we are at about 10 regular attendees at our bi-monthly gatherings. In October we had our first Annual Meeting. Chaired by Archpriest David Arnold, the Dean of the Appalachian Deanery of the Diocese of the South of the OCA, we discussed the glorious success this last year has brought to our small and growing mission as well as our prayerful vision for the next most blessed year as the Northernmost outpost of the Diocese of the South. We have one catechumen who was enrolled at our first patronal altar feast on June 29, the feast of Ss. Peter & Paul. Glory to God for all things!

Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula Orthodox Christian Mission Outreach:

Northern Neck/Middle Peninsula Orthodox Christians has begun to gather on a bi monthly basis on Monday evenings at the Middlesex Co Public Library in Deltaville, VA. We have been warmly welcomed and have had a very good beginning. To begin, we celebrated a “Molieben to the Holy Spirit at the Beginning of Any Good Work”. We were thankful to be joined by Fr. Deacon John Gresham of West Point (from the Antiochian archdiocese) whom we hope to have back with us soon and often.

Our regular gatherings include prayer, catechism, and fellowship for all ages. In October, three children from this mission outreach were baptized into Christ at the “mothership” (St. Andrews in Ashland). We trust in Christ to lead us and we are approaching this slowly and with purpose. All things are possible when we simply show up! Christ will accomplish the rest.