Missions and Evangelism at Saint George

• What missions do we support?
• How do we evangelize?
• How are we supported?
• How can you participate?

SAMP Program

We support a mission priest in the developing world. Each year, we are assigned a priest from the Support a Mission Priest (SAMP) program of the Orthodox Christian Missions Center (OCMC). Currently, we are supporting Fr. Demetrios Okubasu in the Orthodox Church in Kenya. These mission priests live on about $600 a year and sometimes serve several parishes, having to travel for miles (sometimes on foot).

Bicycle Fund

With a generous donation from the estate of Deane Bennett, we have established the Deane Sterndale Bennett Memorial Bicycle Fund. We are planning to purchase bicycles for the mission priests in Africa and other developing countries so that they can better serve their congregations.

Albanian Mission Family

We support a mission family in Albania. The Albanian church is now starting to flourish after years of the strictest Communist oppression.

Missions in Ireland

We support the mission program in Ireland. Through the work of Fr. Irenaeus and others, this program is establishing Orthodox missions and parishes all around Ireland in order both to bring the Orthodox faith to the Irish people and to minister to the immigrant Orthodox peoples who have moved to Ireland in recent years in search of employment. The Irish mission program also seeks to re-establish monasticism in Ireland. MORE INFO:

How do we evangelize?

Evangelism is accomplished through our cooperation with the Holy Spirit in many ways.

Parish Newsletter and Other Publicity We publish the parish newsletter, “The Message.” In this quarterly newsletter, we try to keep parishioners informed of upcoming events, of special activities in the life of our parish, and of news related to missions and evangelism in the Orthodox world around us.. We also sponsor the annual liturgical calendar and place ads in publications such as the Mid-County Memo to make people aware of our service schedule and other parish events.

Sponsoring Speakers From time to time, we sponsor Orthodox speakers to come to Portland. The benefits are twofold: (1) we who are already Orthodox are inspired and strengthened in our faith and (2) those who are not Orthodox have an opportunity to learn about our faith. In the past, we have brought such speakers as Fr. Peter Gilquist and Fr. Irenaeus du Plessis. Other speaking events are planned for the future.

Living the Orthodox Faith The best form of evangelism, however, comes from all of us as we live our lives according to the teachings of the Orthodox church and as we share our faith with others. We invite others to “come and see.” We also live our faith through acts of charity towards our brothers and sisters in Christ and towards the community as a whole. From time to time, we donate a portion of our funds from the newsletter to the Outreach Fund of the parish. This fund is used for helping those in our community in need.

Ministry Using the Internet

Sermons

The Missions and Evangelism Committee of the Parish is responsible for the content and upkeep of this, and other Orthodox websites. Each week as new sermons are added to our Sermons pages hundreds of people throughout the world listen to the sermons preached here at St. George. We sometimes receive emails from far off countries thanking us for the effort. Some of these sermons are rebroadcast on Ancient Faith Radio, reaching an even larger audience.

Other Orthodox Websites

The Missions and Evangelism Committee also sponsors other Orthodox websites to further the Orthodox faith in far-off lands. At the present time we are unable to take on any more clients, but we invite anyone with the technical skills and time to donate to these sorts of projects to join with us in these efforts. If we had a larger staff, we could offer our assistance to more parishes and mission work.

Here is a list of the Websites currently being supported by the committee:

Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

Saint Ignatius Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, Belfast, N.I.

The Orthodox Churches of Cumbria, U.K.

The Friends of Antiochian Orthodox Ireland

Orthodox Pilgrimages to Ireland

The Early Christian Sites of Ireland Database

Saint Phillip Antiochian Orthodox Mission, Ballydehob, Ireland

(This is a database of the early Christian sites in Ireland covering all 32 counties, 506 sites, and 3221 photographs. It speaks of a time when Ireland was called "Holy Ireland" and was home to hundreds of monastic sites, churches, hermitages, and other holy places. This was during the time before the Great Schism when the Church in Ireland was Orthodox. There is evidence for monastic sites in Ireland being founded by monks from as far away as Egypt and Syria during this early period. It is hoped that this database will inspire people to begin studying the roots of Christianity and eventually be led to the Ancient Faith.)

How are we supported?

Messages in the Newsletter We are supported through the generous donations of the businesses whose messages appear in the parish newsletter.

Donations We are also supported by donations made to our committee by individuals who wish to support the missions and evangelism work of the parish.

Fundraising Events We are also supported by occasional fundraising events and by offerings taken at some of our speaking events.. Remember, the more support we receive, the more we can reach out to our brothers and sisters both in our city and around the world who are hungry to receive the Orthodox faith.

How can you participate?

There are many ways to get involved in missions and evangelism.

Join the Committee You can join the Missions & Evangelism Committee and actively participate in our work. If you are interested, please contact Don West. at doncwest@aol.com or (503) 239-5351.

Make Donations You (or your business) can make donations to our work by placing messages in the newsletter or by just giving donations. If you are interested in donating, please contact Nadia Kahl. at (503) 492-6201.

Live Your Orthodox Faith You can participate in evangelism by inviting family, friends and neighbors to church or by discussing your faith with those you know.

Prayer MOST IMPORTANTLY, you can pray for missions around the world and for evangelism in our community. This is something everyone should do.