Our Signature Ministry

_{Our church’s signature ministry is our welcoming of a diversity of members, a result of our Parish Council’s deliberate decision to open our local church to all who are interested in Eastern Orthodoxy, in addition to those with a Greek or Hellenic background. Our church now has many people coming from different ethnic and religious backgrounds: Arabic, Slavic, European, Greek, and Anglo.  Also, some members come from Antiochian, Romanian, Russian, and Coptic backgrounds in addition to the original founding Greek ethnic base membership of the church. Others were catechumens from Catholic, Protestant, or secular backgrounds.  Therefore, our signature ministry is our evangelization or outreach to anyone is who is interested in Christian Orthodoxy i.e. finding a “Church which guards and teaches the true belief about God and which glorifies Him with right worship, that is, as nothing less than the Church of Christ on Earth.”*}

_{Both Parish Council members and parishioners serve as Sunday and feast day greeters, to welcome and take care of visitors, making introductions, guiding people and collecting contact information. We make a point to include other languages in our Liturgy. We send out weekly email and telephone blasts to keep everyone connected. And we have developed Welcome packets that we are always seeking to improve. We pray that our annual Greek Festival also communicates this sense of diversity to visitors. Our aim is to include as many people as possible in our sacraments and ministries, thus creating a true Orthodox family environment.}

 

     _{* The Orthodox Church, Bishop Timothy (Kallistos Ware), p. 8}