Posted on by

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.