December 2020

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

       We are the only Orthodox Church in St. Lawrence county. St. Lawrence county is the largest county in our state. What an opportunity! What an opportunity to build the Orthodox Church in America. We are not here to cater to a certain demographic or cultural group. We are here to bring Orthodoxy to everyone. Mix the Slavic roots of the OCA with the Greek traditions that are here in this particular parish with whatever other cultural traditions are found in orthodoxy and you get St. Olympia’s Orthodox Church.

       New for 2021: we are moving into an actual church building! We are still waiting on a few stamps of approval, but we expect to be in our new home early in 2021. Covid will come to an end. People will be able to gather as a community once again. Orthodox Christians will be able to worship and spread the Good News as we are meant to do so. Even under the current covidrestrictions, the new building will allow us to have more space for our worship. It will allow us to properly advertise and reach out to the community. There is a mint condition working bell from the Civil War Era in the tower and there is a functioning food pantry in the basement servicing those in need. We want you to be a part of all of this!

          This call for Stewardship of 2021 is not one of asking for money to simply pay bills. It is an invitation for you to be a vital part of the mission to bring Orthodoxy to the north country. We all need this church here. The people of this region need this church here. We have the full support of our Archbishop and our diocese. They have taken on projectslike this is the past (see Operation Pearl River and Operation Buffalo ). We will be ready for “Operation Potsdam” later this upcoming year.

         Of course, there will be bills to pay and maintenance to upkeep. But it will all be for the Glory of God and the spreading of the Good News. How many people can we bring to the Orthodox Church this year? How many souls can we steer towards Christ? How many of us need to reinvigorate our own spiritual lives? If you have slowly slipped away over these past several months, this is the chance to turn things around.

           Please consider coming on board and being a part in our mission to spread the Gospel to the north country.

In Christ,

Fr. Paul Fedoroff

PS Anyone know someone looking to buy a pipe organ? Maybe some pews?