Holy Apostles preps for construction of New Parish Hall — Let's Build the Church!
$27,000 Groundbreaking Matching Grant will run from June 3 through July 16, aims to raise over $54,000 to begin construction.
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Parish Hall Floor Plan - Click to enlarge |
Holy Apostles Orthodox Church has announced a $27K Groundbreaking Match. The new fundraiser opens on Pentecost, and closes on the Feast of the 12 Apostles, aiming to raise over $54,000 towards the official groundbreaking and beginning of construction of Holy Apostles' new Parish Hall, to be located on the beautiful, wooded campus of our historic chapel, which has been under renovation since 2009.
Once completed, the New Parish Hall will enable Holy Apostles to move from our current rented space at Twin Chimneys Office Park, and celebrate the divine services in the dining room space of the new hall, while we complete the renovation of the historic St. Joseph Chapel gifted to our parish in 2009 by the Christian Brothers.
Scroll down to learn about the history of this amazing gift to our parish, of the extensive renovation and restoration work already done on the Historic Chapel, and the fundraising, planning and preparatory work which has brought us to the groundbreaking for the construction of our New Parish Hall.
Use the Donate buttons below or at right, and watch this space for updates on this major fundraiser.
Our Palm Sunday fundraiser received $19,140 in donations.
Together with the $15,000 match, this Spring we have deposited a little over $34,000 dollars to our building fund! It is incredible how several years in a row now we have consistently exceeded our matching grant goals.
Thank you for your generous contributions and Glory to God!
Our architects and engineers have been meeting with our Building Committee for almost six years, since Andrew Gould designed our new parish hall in 2017. We have simultaneously been restoring our beautiful chapel, which was gifted to our parish in 2009, by the Christian Brothers. The restoration has been on the exterior of the chapel, and is almost completed. We have received and administered grants of approximately $350,000 so far, and continue to apply for the grants as they become available, and our parishioners have come to the property to do the in-kind work required for the grants.
After interviewing 12 to 13 architects over the years from 2009 to 2017, we invited Andrew Gould to see our beautiful chapel and property, and he was inspired to design our parish hall, along with setting down plans for the interior restoration, renovation, and beautification of our chapel.
Once we have built the parish hall, we can finally move out of the office park and we will worship in the dining room of the parish hall, until we have completed the chapel so that we can worship there.
We have recently taken a big step in the process of preparing for the ground-breaking - signing a contract with a general contractor, for about $10,000, to begin initial work. It may seem like a small step, but it has taken a lot of work, putting our trust in God and taking step after step towards the goal of building the Lord's church, establishing His vineyard in Beltsville, Maryland.
If you haven't yet seen our parish video, scroll down below this announcement to view and share.
At the end of the video, Metropolitan Hilarion of blessed memory offers this blessing:
“May the Lord bless everyone who will contribute to the building of the new parish hall, and the growth of Christ’s vineyard, in Beltsville, Maryland.” ~ Metropolitan Hilarion+, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Thank you for your support!
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The Mountain of God in Beltsville, Maryland
Watch the video, then scroll down to learn more, and to see how you can help our vision be fulfilled. Use the Donate buttons at right to contribute your gift.
Thank you for your prayers and support!
This video represents the hopes and prayers of the people of Holy Apostles, to establish our parish in its new home in Beltsville, Maryland, from which the parish can continue to thrive and grow, in its soul-saving mission. In order to do this, we need to build our new parish hall, designed by Andrew Gould. Then we can move to the property, and continue the restoration and renovation of the beautiful historic chapel, given to the parish in 2009.
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.
“May the Lord bless everyone who will contribute to the building of the new parish hall,
and the growth of Christ’s vineyard, in Beltsville, Maryland.”
~ Metropolitan Hilarion,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Watch the video, then scroll down to learn more about the project. Visit our sub-pages detailing the history of the Chapel and New Parish Hall, check out our special page on Andrew Gould, view architectural renderings, and donate via the buttons at right.
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St John holding the Cathedral 'Joy of All Who Sorrow' |
"In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven."
From St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Zealous Builder of Churches
by Nun Nectaria (Lees):
St. John loved God’s house so intensely that wherever he served, he would remain in the church long after the service. The Lesna nuns recalled that when St. John was visiting, they often did not sit down to evening trapeza until midnight, waiting for their archpastor to emerge from the church. Everywhere he went he either oversaw the building of churches or supported the same with his attention and prayers.
He wrote about the godly work of building churches:
Some people are saying: “The time is not come to build the Lord’s house.” Among them are many who are buying houses for themselves, who live in their own houses in full satisfaction of their material needs, or who are selling their homes to move into better and better dwellings, increasing their assets. It is understandable when such words are heard from unbelievers…But how can they be repeated by believers who themselves go to church?
A church is a place that is consecrated, holy, in which there always dwells the grace of God. At the consecration of Solomon’s temple, the glory of the Lord in the appearance of a cloud filled the house of God. So it was in the Old Testament temple. How much more powerfully does the grace of God act in the temples of the New Testament where there is offered the true cleansing from sin, where we partake of the true Body and Blood of Christ, where during the Divine Liturgy, the Holy Spirit continually descends upon the gifts being consecrated and upon the people present? One can pray anywhere, and God hears prayers from everywhere. But it’s much easier to pray in a church where everything is conducive to prayer. From there our prayers ascend to God, and the mercies of God are sent down upon us.
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Become a Church Builder! |
The construction of a church is a sacrifice to God; to allocate a parcel of land for church services is to sacrifice unto God a part of your own property, but most of all it is a gift of your love, your zeal. Churches are not needed by God Whose throne is heaven and Whose footstool is the earth; it is we who need them. It is we who benefit from donating toward the building of churches, although the Lord accepts not so much the substances of our alms as much as He does our zeal—the quality of our effort. Christ approved the widow’s mite, saying that she had given more than anyone else, for the rich cast in a great deal from their abundance, but she gave all she had, all her livelihood. Those alms we give in the name of God are received by God Himself. Spiritually, our alms are laid up in the treasuries of heaven, God’s treasuries, from which no one can steal them away. If someone steals any church possession, he steals from God Himself.
At each Liturgy, those who contributed to the building of the church are commemorated. In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven. Decades will pass, our bodies will decay, perhaps our very bones will turn to dust, but our souls will live eternally. Happy will he be who prepared for his soul a dwelling in the heavenly mansions. Even if the churches that are built should fall to ruin, the names of those who contributed to their construction will be written in God’s eternal books, and the prayers which arose from within these churches will be sealed.
This section shows recent news and updates from 2022 forward in reverse chronological order (most recent at top), including building updates and fundraising, where we have experienced dramatic growth year over year.
Help us by using the DONATE NOW buttons at right or above. Thank you for your prayerful and generous support!
June 3, 2023: $25,000 Groudbreaking Match begins, aims to raise over $50.000 by mid-July to begin construction of our New Parish Hall.
April 9, 2023: Palm Sunday Building Fund Match EXCEEDS GOAL, hits $19,140, raises over $34,000 for our Building Fund!— Thank you for your generous contributions and Glory to God!
March 13, 2023: Building Fund Match Launches, aims to raise $30,000 by April 9 — We have 2 contributors who are offering a $15,000 Matching Grant this year, for the building of our parish hall. The grant closes on Palm Sunday. We hope we will make the match and go beyond it, with God's help.
March 10, 2023: General Contractor selected — We have recently taken a big step in the process of preparing for the ground-breaking: signing a contract with a general contractor, for about $10,000, to begin initial work. It may seem like a small step, but it has taken a lot of work, putting our trust in God and taking step after step towards the goal of building the Lord's church, establishing His vineyard in Beltsville, Maryland.
July 11, 2022: New Feature video interview with our architect, Andrew Gould — Conducted by Jonathan Pageau (The Symbolic World podcast and YouTube channel), this 44 minute video presents a visual survey of some of Andrew's architectural design work, and discusses his vision for "how to integrate the past with the present regarding Orthodox creative endeavors." We felt this was also the opportune time to provide a feature page for Andrew Gould on our parish website, as he has been a key figure in our story since 2017 with his visit to the parish and subsequent design of our New Parish Hall. Proceed to Our Architect, Andrew Gould...
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.
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Watch this space for important news and updates as we press forward towards construction of the new Parish Hall!
Scroll down to learn more about our historic Chapel and campus, architect Andrew Gould's vision for the new Parish Hall, and much more.
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
- 2017-2022: New Parish Hall Project, Phase 1 - Design and Building Project News Archives
- 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!
Mariya’s Letter to Converts
Originally posted October 14, 2018
Our treasurer, Mariya Petrenko, has written a most beautiful and profound letter, addressed to an Orthodox convert, from a cradle Orthodox Christian. With Mariya's permission, we are sharing it with you, here.
We wish to extend our sincere thanks to Frederica Mathewes-Green for helping us launch our Capital Fundraising Campaign on June 10, 2018. Frederica delivered an inspiring talk, 'Towards an Orthodox America', which perfectly resonated with our vision for our English-language Orthodox mission here in Beltsville, Maryland.
Frederica Mathewes-Green is a wide-ranging author and speaker, whose work has appeared in numerous top-tier publications. She has been a regular commentator for National Public Radio (NPR), and has published 10 books to date, including her most recent title, Welcome to the Orthodox Church (Paraclete Press, 2015). She has published over 700 essays, and given over 500 talks...
To learn more, visit Frederica's website at Frederica.com.
Help us build our new Parish Hall,
and move to our historic Chapel Campus!
(Want to contribute to our General Fund?
Please scroll down ~ Thank you!)
From 'St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Zealous Builder of Churches'
Everywhere he went he either oversaw the building of churches or supported the same with his attention and prayers... He wrote about the godly work of building churches:
"In building churches here on earth, we create for ourselves eternal habitations in heaven."
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Become a Church Builder! |
Since 2009 we have been restoring our beautiful chapel, gifted to our parish that year by the Christian Brothers. We have received and administered grants of approximately $350,000 so far, and continue to apply for the grants as they become available.
