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Three Hierarchs
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Fulfilling Christ's "Great Commission"
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"And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.'" - St. Mark 16:15 Orthodox Witness is a new missions and evangelism team at Three Hierarchs Greek Orthodox Church in Champaign, Illinois. As a group, our ultimate purpose is to fulfill Christ's "great commission": that of bringing the Gospel of Truth to the world. Orthodox Witness breaks down into three sub-groups. These groups include:
Philanthropy Champaign-Urbana is an area renowned for its social awareness -- there is no shortage, it seems, of services for the poor, hungry and suffering people in our communities. And yet, despite these myriad services, many of which are run by both Christians and non-Christians alike, there is little to no Orthodox involvement -- a sad commentary on the state of local Orthodox missionary work in America. Together, we can change this. To date, the Orthodox in America have donated financially both to the church and to those in need. This sort of philanthropy is commendable. But as Christians we are called to do more. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, Christ challenged His followers to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, take in and welcome strangers, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned. According to Him, His disciple's very salvation depended on how they treated those around them (St. Matthew 25). These words, while perhaps forgotten by many in the 21st century, are still as crucial as ever. Poverty, disease, hunger and soul-sickness exist in our own backyard. We cannot continue to live protected lives from within the safe walls of our church. As icons of Christ, we must go forth into our community and lovingly serve those in need. We will begin our work mostly through non-orthodox service groups such as Empty Tomb Inc. and the TIMES homeless Shelter. We have already committed to work the 3rd and 5th Saturdays of the month, from 9 a.m. to noon, at Empty Tomb. There, we do home maintenance, a ministry which, according to the Empty Tomb web site, was designed to "help low-income people who own their homes to make renovations; labor is done free in Jesus' name." Our long-term goals include creating new services sponsored by local Orthodox Christians with the purpose of serving those in need in Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding communities. Missions A missionary is someone sent by the church into a foreign place to spread the Gospel and to do good works. The Missions Team of Orthodox Witness will focus on supporting the Orthodox Church and its missionary programs outside of our parish community both locally, nationally and abroad. We will work together to support foreign Orthodox missions around the world by sending money, food, clothing, icons, books, pharmaceuticals and other much-needed items. We also hope to arrange for local Orthodox Christians to make annual mission trips to places like Project Mexico to care for orphans and build homes for the poor. Locally, we will assist in the work of growing mission churches like Saint Nicholas Antiochian church in Urbana and St. Barbara's Greek Orthodox Chapel in Danville. Evangelism To evangelize is to announce the Good News of God's love for humanity through Jesus Christ. This is done on the personal level and on the organizational level. Our purpose is to equip Orthodox people to evangelize and to assist the presbyter in leading the parish as a whole to evangelize. On the individual level, members of the Evangelism Team will be responsible for distributing Orthodox tracts, icon cards, icons and books, and tapes. On the parish level, we will be responsible for having informational materials about our parish available for visitors to our worship services. Along with this, we will stock our bookstore with informational and educational materials, provide easy to follow worship materials, advertise our events to the general public, host open houses, invite guest lecturers to speak, and maintain the Three Hierarchs web site. How YOU can get involved Here are some ways you can get involved with Orthodox Witness: 1. Join the Orthodox Witness Team and help us plan and organize projects and events. The team will meet once a month, so the time commitment is small, but the calling is great. 2. Volunteer your time to help us serve. These days it seems that everyone's schedule is packed with activities. Volunteering requires the sacrifice of a few hours each month, and while many want to volunteer, they find it hard to sacrifice any time at all. But it's not hard to sacrifice the time needed if you plan in advance. There are ways of making this happen. It requires some sacrifice, but it's worth it. 3. Donate to our cause. Sometimes we'll need monetary donations, other times we'll need donations of old clothing or canned goods. Please help us join together in love so that we can fulfill Christ's greatest commandment: to love God with all our minds and with all our hearts and with all our souls, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. For more information, contact Heather and Steven Zydek (Philanthropy); David Eynon (Missions); or Photios Kutil (Evangelism). ____________________________________________________________________ Three Hierarchs * Fr. George Pyle * 2010 Three Hierarchs Ct., Champaign, Illinois * (217) 352-3452 |