November 11, 2026, the summer boom of new catechumens and inquirers has slowed down, some of those inquirers and some catechumens have come and gone, and what we’re left with is a resilient and eager core of about 30 regulars to our parish. About 7-8 of our core members are baptized, the rest are catechumens and inquirers who are getting close to asking to be made catechumens. While it is quite difficult to be the teacher of a parish where practically everyone is learning the bare bones basics of the faith, it is also inspiring to see them latch onto the spiritual life and slowly begin to fast, to pray, to read spiritual books, and grow in the faith. For reference, our catechumenate is at least one year long, sometimes longer, and most of our catechumens are around 3-6 months into their catechumenate. If all goes well, we could have around 20 new baptized members around this time next year!
As for our renovations, I think we can consider the first phase of renovations complete: every room is nicely furnished and has a purpose. Attached are some pictures of our cry room/bookstore, our trapeza with some of our parishioners, and our overflow trapeza. Renovating and furnishing them was the final step in our renovation project. I wanted to do much more, especially with the church area, but we are at a good stopping point to start saving strictly with the hopes to buy this property from our landlords, or another suitable one, in the future. While the owners of this property are very sentimentally attached to this location, we hope that our diligent care for this property, along with much prayer and the passage of time, will soften that sentiment and move them to make us an offer. They know we want to buy it, so we have left it at that and continue to pray for this purpose.
I’ve also attached a picture of a recent pilgrimage I made with a few of the men in our parish to St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox Church in Arizona, which our parish has a strong connection to due to our veneration to the great Elder Ephraim.
We are eternally grateful for the financial assistance rendered to us through Share the Faith and its donors. In return for their generosity, I encourage any of your donors to reach out to me for commemorations of their Orthodox baptized loved ones at the Proskomedi at fr.theodore@cullmanorthodox.org.
God help you and your ministry! Pray for us, please.
In Christ,
Fr. Theodore
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