Our Paradise in Beltsville
We Invite You
to share our vision,
and advance our mission
Background: Our parish was founded in 2001 with the purpose of bringing the Gospel and Divine Services of the Russian Orthodox Church to the people of America in the English language. We are part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, under the protection of Metropolitan Hilarion of Eastern America and New York.
We began our parish life in a little house in the woods, our paradise at the beginning. A year later, we moved to our present location, a 1200 square foot rented office park space.
The Chapel and Campus: Through a providential gift in June of 2009, Holy Apostles Orthodox Church became the steward of an historic chapel in Beltsville, Maryland. Situated on two acres of beautiful grounds, in the midst of a parcel of land where President Grant once walked, the chapel is on the National Historic Register. This is our future parish home, which we hope to grow into a divine oasis and spiritual haven for the salvation of many.
The Financial Side: We commissioned an in-depth study of the chapel by an historic restoration consultant, who projected the cost of restoration and renovation of the chapel to be approximately $1,000,000. (This does not include the interior beautification of the chapel.) Since the study, we have made significant progress, securing five grants from the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission Historic Preservation Program, totaling about $250,000 towards the chapel restoration.
In addition, our parishioners have put much hard work into the chapel since 2009. Before it was gifted to us, it had fallen into a state of disrepair, having been boarded up for about 50 years. Gift has been added to gift, and God’s providence has continued to bless our efforts. Now to we are ready to take the next step.
To enable the move to the historic chapel, our plan calls for building a new parish hall on the chapel campus, where we will hold the divine services while we continue to work on the restoration of the chapel. By building the parish hall and vacating our office park space, we will be able to apply that monthly rent amount to our building fund. In addition to the chapel restoration, the cost of building the parish hall is estimated to be approximately $1,000,000.
The Architect: We have secured the architectural design services of Andrew Gould, one of the leading Orthodox Christian architects in America. We have raised the $50,000 necessary to pay his design fees and those of a local architect of record. Having reached this initial goal, we have launched our Capital Campaign to build the parish hall.
Through God’s grace, the history of America is being grafted onto the tree of Orthodoxy in Beltsville, Maryland. It is our heartfelt prayer to be able to build on this foundation that the Lord has laid for us, and to one day see the dedication of the newly restored historic chapel, as Holy Apostles Orthodox Church. We invite you to join us in fulfilling this vision, our paradise in Beltsville.
View these videos to see the early steps of faith we took in restoring the historic St. Joseph Chapel and preparing to move to our new campus, our gift from God!
Here is a special album of photos from our Cross Procession:
http://marinacavanaugh.com/Photography/HolyApostlesCrossProcession
Read the classic message: 'St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Zealous Builder of Churches'
"In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven."
The blessing for the foundation of Holy Apostles Orthodox Church was given by Bishop Gabriel of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, on April 28th, 2001, on the eve of the Sunday of the Myrrh-Bearing Women, [but there was an earlier blessing from Bishop Hilarion] in the spring of 1995, for us to openly pray for and work towards the eventual establishment of the new mission parish... Read the rich and edifying early history here...
Our first house church, followed by our move to Twin Chimneys Office Park, leading up to the gift of the Historic Chapel. Learn more here...
Since 2009 we have been restoring our beautiful chapel, gifted to our parish that year by the Christian Brothers.
To date, we have received and administered grants of approximately $400,000 so far, and continue to apply for the grants as they become available. Learn more here...
In October 2017, after spending two days with us and our beautiful chapel campus, noted Orthodox architectural designer Andrew Gould shared with us his vision for an attractive parish hall echoing the "Queen Anne" style of our historic chapel.
For the launch of our Capital Building Fund in mid-2018 Andrew provided us with a lovely watercolor of his design, and since that time we have been fundraising and moving towards building the parish hall, raising and administering approximately $300,000 in pre-construction costs. Once we complete the parish hall, we can begin holding the divine services in it, while we continue to work on the restoration and beautification of the chapel. Learn more here...
Our Dual-Timeline Display shows the progress of BOTH the Restoration & Renovation of our Historic Chapel, AND the Building Project for our New Parish Hall, projecting each out to completion.
Get up to speed quickly with this helpful overview, and see more detailed updates here...
Renowned Orthodox architectural designer Andrew Gould designed our parish hall and will also be involved with the design of the interior of our historic chapel.
Check out this special feature page with videos and more about the architect and our future parish home.
