Scroll down for feature stories on our Parish Hall Building Project from 2017 to 2022. 

Highlights include:

• A Visual History, 2009-2021
• Andrew Gould's Vision for our Chapel Property (w/video and architectural renderings)
• 2017-2022 Building Project Highlights

JULY 11, 2022 - 

"It's like we are children again, walking into a fairy story." 

- Jonathan Pageau, interviewing Andrew Gould

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Dear parish family and friends of Holy Apostles, 

Many of you were not with us at Holy Apostles five years ago, when the Lord sent to our parish one of the greatest living Orthodox architects in America, Andrew Gould.  He has designed our parish hall and will also be involved with the design of the interior of our historic chapel.  Check out the below videos and learn about the architect and our future parish home.

Beauty and Meaning Today (scroll down to watch this video interview with Andrew Gould, the designer of Holy Apostles' parish hall.)

Andrew speaks of the otherworldly beauty of Orthodox churches throughout time:  "The Russians wanted their churches to look like they are not of this world.  They are part of the Kingdom of Heaven. They are part of the New Jerusalem.  They are of the Kingdom of God.  They are like the Ivory Palace."

In his intro to this fascinating conversation, Pageau says, "His work is rich in an exploration of traditional principles coupled with an attention to the particularities of context as well as a hint of fantasy. I explore his approach to creation and his worldview."

Andrew Gould spoke to us in October of 2017, about our storybook historic chapel. The chapel was given to our parish along with 2 acres of beautiful land, in 2009:  

The Architect (1 of 2)  |  The Architect (2 of 2)

For Andrew's architectural work, see here: https://www.newworldbyzantine.com/

To learn more about Andrew Gould's work, scroll down for our special section on him "below the fold."

April 17, 2022

CHRIST IS RISEN! 

We are pleased to announce that our 2022 Palm Sunday Matching Grant Fundraiser exceeded its donations goal by 41%, raising over $60,000 for our Parish Hall Building Project!

We attribute this fundraising success to broad parish support, plus large donations from new donors from outside our parish community.

An anonymous donor had offered to match every dollar donated between Clean Monday (March 7), and Palm Sunday (April 17, 2022) — up to $25,000 — giving us the potential to raise at least $50,000 during Geat Lent.

After the tabulation of several checks mailed to the parish just prior to the deadline, our final total donations reached $35,046.95, exceeding our goal by 41%, and which, when combined with the $25,000 Match, gives us a final total of $60,046.95. This is more than $10,000 greater than the combined total of our two 2021 matching grant fundraisers, and means we have now raised more than $220,000 total for the building of our New Parish Hall.

This massive fundraising success empowers us to accelerate pre-construction preparation (building permits, plans, scheduling, etc.), and to continue our search and selection process for our general contractor, moving us a giant step forward towards our next intermediate goal, the actual groundbreaking for the New Parish Hall.

It would be difficult to overstate the significance of this fundraising success. We are deeply humbled by and thankful for the sacrificial giving from our parish family, just as we are delighted and surprised by the unexpected donations from first-time supporters from outside our community. Last year we placed the Parish Hall Building Project under the protection of the Mother of God through her wonderworking Myrrh-streaming Hawaiian Iveron Icon, and so we give thanks to her and to our merciful God for each and every one of you, and for all who remember us in your prayers. 

Our prayer is that we can break ground by the spring of 2023. We invite you to watch our website, and follow us on Facebook, for updates and announcements.

Of course, donations and new pledges are welcome at all times! We are casting a wide net, and hope to continue to welcome many new supporters (and parishioners!) as we proceed with the building of our New Parish Hall and our move to the campus of our beautiful historic chapel here in Beltsville, MD.

Scroll down to learn more and donate using the buttons at right...

June 6, 2022: Prince George County approves Site Development Concept Plans, Erosion Control Plans for Parish Hall Building Project

Kimberly Morgan of LandTech (our Construction Engineer) notified us that Prince George County has "approved the Site Development Concept Plans and the Approved 'Black Stamp' Erosion and Sediment Control Plans.  Once our mechanical engineer determines the water line size we can submit the WSSC plans for review."

These two site approvals mark a major step forward for our Parish Hall Building Project. You can see the "blueprints" of the approved Concept Plans (8 detailed, oversized pages) and ESC Plans (7 detailed, oversized pages) at church. The example page posted with this story of the Site Development Concept Plans shows the red approval stamp.

Please help us build our new Parish Hall by making a generous donation today! Just use the Donate buttons at right  >>--->>

Glory to God as we continue to move towards our groundbreaking in Spring 2023!

Hover over images to pause the presentation.  Use right and left arrows to navigate forwards or back.

Clicking on an image opens the presentation in gallery view, with the ability to play the slide show, or view individual slides.

Download the presentation in PDF format...

Architect Andrew Gould delivered a beautiful watercolor of his concept for our New Parish Hall, just in time for us to display at our Capital Fundraising Launch Event June 10, 2018.

Scroll down to watch a 2-part video of Andrew Gould's talk to our parish in October 2017, where he discusses his vision for our new campus through designs integrated with the style of our historic Chapel, and for his initial architectural drawings for the Parish Hall design.

On Saturday, October 28, 2017, after the Divine Liturgy for the Departed, Orthodox architect Andrew Gould spoke to us about our historic chapel and property. He spent two days with us, studying the building and property.

We think you will enjoy his perceptive insights and his vision for our campus. His talk with the parish is presented in two YouTube videos immediately below these important links:

New World Byzantine - The company website of Andrew Gould and George Holt architecture and design. Read their 'About Us' page for their vision of reviving the traditional practice of apprenticeship in fostering a vibrant, new Orthodox culture rich in the liturgical arts.

Orthodox Arts Journal - Also founded by Andrew Gould (in 2012), OAJ is a unique platform "for the promotion of traditional Orthodox liturgical arts. The Journal covers visual arts, music, liturgical ceremony and texts, and relevant art history and theory." See also their 'About' page, and explore the articles by Andrew Gould, which often feature his various Orthodox architectural projects, and may someday feature ours!

June 6, 2022: Site Development Concept Plans Approved — Kimberly Morgan of LandTech (our Construction Engineer) notified us that Prince George County  has "approved the Site Development Concept Plans and the Approved 'Black Stamp' Erosion and Sediment Control Plans.  Once our mechanical engineer determines the water line size we can submit the WSSC plans for review." These two approvals mark a major step forward. You can see the "blueprints" of the approved Concept Plans (8 detailed pages) and ESC Plans (7 detailed pages) at church. One example page of the Site Development Concept Plans showing the red approval stamp is posted on this page. Glory to God as we continue to move towards our groundbreaking in (hopefully and God willing!) Spring 2023!

May 15, 2022: Parish Hall Building Committee Updates — Two major areas of activity were reported to the parish on Sunday, May 15, after the Divine Liturgy:

• Our Construction Engineer, Kimberly Morgan of LandTech, has been coordinating with our local Architect of Record, Spire Architects, to advance the Parish Hall building plans through the multi-stage approval process.
• We have narrowed our search for our General Contractor to three final candidates; interviews will begin soon.
• Watch for updates on both these important steps.

April 28, 2022: Palm Sunday Matching Grant Fundraiser exceeds goal, raises over $60,000 for New Parish Hall Building Fund. — Our final total donations reached $35,046.95, exceeding our goal by 41%, giving us a final total (including the match) of $60,046.95. This empowers us to continue the pre-construction preparation (building permits, plans, scheduling, etc.), especially our search and selection process for our general contractor, moving us a giant step forward towards our next goal, the actual groundbreaking for the New Parish Hall, which we hope to achieve in Spring 2023. Our thanks to all our supporters, and to the Lord and His Most Pure Mother for this tremendous success.

March 7, 2022: Palm Sunday Building Fund Match Launches, aims to raise $50,000 by April 17 — An anonymous contributor is offering a $25,000 Building Fund match, with the deadline being Palm Sunday, April 17, 2022. Every dollar donated to our building fund during Great Lent will be matched, up to $25,000. Use the Donate buttons in the right side panel or on our Donate page.

February 8, 2022: The 1-Year Anniversary of the premiere of our Parish Hall Fundraising Video — 'The Mountain of God in Beltsville, Maryland' — is the perfect time to reflect on how much progress we've made over the last 12 months, not just in fundraising (over $50,000 in 2021!), but in terms of permits, logistics, meetings with contractors, and positioning us for actual groundbreaking and construction. Watch for more updates coming soon! And take a few minutes to watch (or watch again!) this beautiful video, which so perfectly presents our vision and our hope for the historic chapel and property.

December 4, 2021: Thanks to numerous donors, and a few very generous first-time supporters, we blew past our $6,000 Matching Grant goal, raising a total of $21,029 towards our Parish Hall Building Fund! Glory be to God!

October 23, 2021: Thanks to a generous donor, we launched a new $6,000 Matching Grant Campaign, to raise $12,000 for the Parish Hall Building Fund. The first $6,000 donated to our Building Fund between now and the deadline of December 4, 2021 - the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple - will be matched dollar-for-dollar, up to $6,000. This gives us a great opportunity to raise a quick $12,000 for our building fund. Contribute, share the appeal, and pray!

October 23, 2021: Our Building Committee's report, presented to the parish after the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, October 17, 2021, has been posted above on this page in both a continuous slide-show format (with controls to pause and manually advance the slides), and in PDF format for you to download. Watch for more updates soon as we detail where we stand in our journey to build our new Parish Hall and make the move to our new campus.

September 30, 2021: We completed the "RAISE THE ROOF" fundraising campaign, which enabled us to install the new sub-roof for our historic Chapel, and therefore enabled the completion of the roof restoration, which itself was funded by grant monies secured for the restoration of our historic Chapel.

May 22, 2021: We launched a special "RAISE THE ROOF" fundraising campaign, to quickly raise funds to install a new sub-roof for our historic Chapel. 

April 25, 2021: We easily exceeded our $12,000 Palm Sunday Match Goal, climbing over $14,000, so with the $12,000 Match we succeeded in raising over $26,000 for the Parish Hall Building Fund! The next three indented entries show how this fundraiser really "took off" and exceeded everyone's excpectations:

April 17, 2021: $2000 added to the Palm Sunday match, making the total match $12,000 — An anonymous donor has come forward to offer an additional $2000 towards our Palm Sunday match, making the new amount for the match $12,000.00.  The current balance is $10,247.72, so we still need $1752.28 to make the additional amount, and gain an additional $4000 for the Building Fund.

April 12, 2021: Glory to God, our Palm Sunday match has been met before the deadline, at 103% of the goal! — The total is now at $10,247.72.  $10,000 of this amount will be matched, dollar for dollar, by our two anonymous donors, for a total of $20,247.72 to go to our Building Fund, to build our new parish hall.

March 12, 2021: Palm Sunday Building Fund Match Launches, aims to raise $20,000 by April 25 —  Two anonymous contributors have gone in together to offer a $10,000 Building Fund match, with the deadline being Palm Sunday, April 25th, 2021.

February 8, 2021: Live Premiere on YouTube and Facebook of our Parish Hall Fundraising Video titled, 'The Mountain of God in Beltsville, Maryland' — This beautifully filmed and edited video, professionally produced by Fr. John Parsells of Orthodox360, was viewed by dozens during its live launch, and by hundreds within a couple of hours of the premiere. Preceded by the recent redesign of our parish website in January, this video launches our Capital Fundraising Campaign out into the wider online world. Our prayer is that those who view this video will join us in our missionary work, by praying for us, and by generously donating towards the building of the parish hall.

October 2020: Matching Grant fundraiser surpasses goal, earns over $10,000 — Two anonymous donors in our parish combined to pledge a $5,000 Matching Grant to spur a 2-week fundraiser, with the deadline for the match on the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos, October 14. We surpassed our goal and earned the match, bringing in a total of $10,061, kicking off the next phase of our Capital Campaign and funding the production of our Parish Hall Fundraising Video.  

Summer 2020: Life under Covid Restrictions — Although many of our parish activities were limited, we were able to hold several of the divine services outdoors at the Chapel Campus. You can see some scenes of one of these beautiful Divine Liturgies in our new Parish Hall Fundraising Video.

November 2019: We have hired a civil engineering company, LandTech, to work with SPIRE Architecture. — Civil engineers are responsible for getting us through all the construction plans (environmental, water and sewer, site development, grading, etc.) and permitting process.At the end of this process, according to Landtech’s timeline by the end of the next year (2020), we should be ready to start building.

November 2019: Shipley and Horn Law Offices has agreed to help us with the permitting and legal processes as needed.  And they are willing to donate their services.  — Mr. Shipley’s grandfather was one of the builders of St. Joseph’s chapel and is buried in the cemetery.This is one of the wonderful connections we are discovering around our property.

November 2019 - Fundraising Update —  Since we officially launched the first stage of our campaign in June 2018, our Building Fund has received close to $100,000. 

February 2019: We have hired our local Architect of Record, SPIRE Architecture of Annapolis. — The Parish Hall Building Project requires a local "architect of record" to liase with civil engineers and city/county authorities in order to bring to reality the beautiful design of Orthodox architect Andrew Gould. 

On October 11, 2018, through a great miracle, we reached our initial goal: $50,000, enabling us to secure the services of noted Orthodox architectural designer, Andrew Gould! Glory to God!

June 10, 2018: We officially launch our Capital Fundraising Campaign for the New Parish Hall. — This important kick-off event featured a keynote address by noted Orthodox author and speaker Frederica Mathewes-Green, and the public unveiling of Andrew Gould's watercolor of his concept for our New Parish Hall. Scroll down to view the watercolor and learn more...

Octobery 2017: Orthodox architect Andrew Gould visits Holy Apostles, and presents his vision for our new Chapel Campus. — Scroll down for more info on this exciting event, and to watch a 2-part video of Andrew Gould sharing his vision with us after the Divine Liturgy on October 28, 2017... 

Follow these links for more in-depth history:

• 2001-2009: Our early Parish & Chapel history, from 2001 through the gift of the Historic St. Joseph Chapel and Campus
• 2009-2017: Restoration of the Chapel begins - plus launch of the New Parish Hall Building Project
• Our Architect, Andrew Gould - an in depth look at his work and vision for our New Parish Hall and Campus, with videos

Thank you for your support!