No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his
master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that
I heard from My Father I have made known to you. -John 15:15
It begins in the most unlikely of ways, usually with a believer going to a fellow believer, a simple meeting with the humble yet shining light of Christ. There is no big announcement or marketing campaign, just friendship, a love of the truth that has changed hearts, and the quiet bravery to invite another to step inside. Thus begins the story of any given mission parish…with a single spark.
One person invites a friend to come and see. Two become five. Five become ten. Ten become twenty‑five. Twenty‑five become fifty. And in time, Christ has transformed the bonds of the growing number of fifty, one hundred fifty, to an infinite number of souls around the chalice, making them friends of one another.
That is the true mystery of missions: relationships which are the deep work of becoming intimately and sacramentally related. It is true that it is through careful planning and strategic campaigns that any ministry expands and develops but missions are built as the Gospel itself multiplies, one relationship at a time as Christian community blooms forth like the most beautiful garden.
As a community grows people have the opportunity to learn how to lean on each other’s strengths and carry each other’s burdens as well as rejoice with each other’s joys, sharing a love that arises from personal knowledge and shared struggle, the ties of a community born. They become a family long before they become a parish. And when they finally stand in a worship space, they stand as witnesses to the truth that the Gospel spreads most powerfully through human connection.
Recently, in my role as Director of Philanthropic Initiatives and Programs, I had the privilege of speaking with Fr. Ambrose Powell, priest of the St. Olga of Alaska Orthodox Christian Mission; a warm and welcoming Orthodox community in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Our conversation centered on the heart of their ministry: relationships built in Christ, and how this sacred foundation permeates every aspect of their life together. Their patron, Saint Olga of Alaska, embodies this spirit of accessibility and hospitality, remembered for her steadfast care for those in need even during her earthly life.
Fr. Ambrose reflected on the mission’s humble and grace‑filled beginnings, recalling how the community first gathered in the living room of their subdeacon, Subdeacon Mark, and his wife, Laura. There they prayed Readers’ Vespers, shared dinner, and lingered over book discussions that knit together the earliest members of St. Olga Mission. By 2025, Fr. Ambrose was coming regularly to serve Great Vespers in that same living room, where as many as twenty people crowded in, filling the neighborhood with parked cars.
With their steadfastness, in January of this year, the mission “moved out” of the Montague home to continue offering Orthodox education, worship, and hospitality in a public venue. They began renting a downtown church on Saturdays, teaching catechesis, serving Great Vespers, and sharing fellowship meals. Attendance quickly grew—thirty, then forty, and by July well over forty, as the community prayed fervently for a permanent home.
With deep gratitude, Fr. Ambrose shared how God provided exactly what the mission needed: a worship space where, on August 2, 2026, they celebrated their very first Divine Liturgy—a moment of profound joy and fulfillment for the community, with more than fifty faithful gathered in prayer (pictured below). Glory to God for all things.
As St. Olga of Alaska Orthodox Christian Mission look for a permanent church home, they fervently pray this petition:
Again, we pray to thee, O Lord our God,
for thy servants and this holy mission in St. Johnsbury:
that thou wouldst remember thy manifold mercy,
and that thou wouldst bless and guide us
to find a place pleasing to thee and suitable for the celebration of
the Sunday Divine Liturgy—
a place wherein we may worship thee and partake of thy holy Mysteries.
Through the prayers of the Righteous Olga of Kwethluk,
hear us and have mercy.
Mission parishes remind us that Orthodoxy grows the way Christ Himself gathered His disciples: one relationship at a time. Andrew brought Peter. Philip brought Nathanael. Friends brought friends, and the Church was born. It is the recognition of the beautiful simplicity of how the Good News is shared one connection at a time.
Today, in Orthodox deserts, the same pattern continues. A single believer shines the light of Christ, and another is drawn to it. A small group forms. A mission takes shape. And slowly, beautifully, the faith multiplies.
May every mission parish continue to grow in this way, through friendship, through love, and through the quiet, radiant witness of Christ of those who say to the world: come and see.
