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. These are:
- St. Tikhon Orthodox Church in Ruther Glen, VA with Fr John Cook serving. This is a Western Rite, ROCOR parish.
- St. Anna Orthodox Christian Church in Columbia, TN with Fr Andrew Short serving. This is an Eastern Rite parish of Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.
- All Saints Orthodox Mission in Lodi, CA with Fr Elijah Drake serving. This is a Western Rite, ROCOR parish.
These three new parishes join the three Share the Faith has been supporting already. Fr Evangelos had this to say about the joyous occasion, “By the blessings of God, and through the generous support of our faithful donors, Share the Faith is now able to offer financial assistance to three additional parishes. As a truly pan-Orthodox organization, we will be supporting ROCOR, OCA, and Antiochian parishes. The mission fields in America are truly white for the harvest. This puts us closer to our goal of supporting 20 parishes by the end of 2023!”
Mission pages will be launched shortly for the new parishes to provide additional information and options to support them. Congratulations to the new parishes, and may God bless them and all Orthodox Christians!
About Share the Faith
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 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 the past year, 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. Fr Cassian’s parish has more than doubled attendance at Divine Liturgy with 17 new Orthodox received in just the past year. Fr Mark has reported several new Orthodox members, six catechumens and several inquirers.
Share the Faith needs God’s help and yours. 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 article, and/or Share the Faith’s informational flyer (PDF), 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? We are all called to spread the Orthodox Faith unto all corners of the world. That includes the United States!
For more information about Share the Faith, please go here.
