OUR VISION
Our vision as Sts. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church is to grow as a familiy into Christ.
OUR MISSION
Our mission as a Greek Orthodox Church is to serve God and Neighbor, strengthen the familiy and reach out to the community.
BE PART OF OUR COMMUNITY AND JOIN US FOR A SERVICE!
At the end of 2003, our stewardship membership consisted of 35 dedicated families. By Pascha of 2005, that stewardship total had grown to over 50 families. In October 2006, we had grown to 65 families. December 2007, 80 families committed to help continue our growth. In March 2008 our parish consists of 85 committed families. As of June 1, 2008 we have 100 pledged stewarship families.
PARISH COUNCIL MESSAGE
June 26, 2008
Dear Brothers and Sisters in +Christ,
It is with great JOY, and no small amount of relief, that I am pleased to announce to the Stewards of Sts. RNI that as of 10:00 AM EDT 26 June 2008, we now have a new mortgage in place which renews our previous mortgage and provides sufficient funds to complete construction of the Chapel Expansion!
We, as a Church Family, did it! We truly are the "little church that can". This ensures our future and enables our growth.
Accomplishing this feat in today's tough economic times and during the summer vacation season is a major feat. Every member of your Parish Council has been intimately involved in the process of supplying our bankers with the information needed to dot every "i" and cross every "t". Many members of the PC are on travel now, but everyone of them has been accessible to me at every decision point. Today, Fr. Jim Berends, Mihali Zervos and Tasso Kefalas were with me at the closing to celebrate the moment (for a few seconds) and then get down to the work of implementing this new financial instrument. Fr. Jim and all of the PC, and our treasurers in particular, have my greatest thanks and admiration for the support and efforts that they put forth in this project.
I would also like to take a moment to acknowledge the enthusiastic support of our banker, Mr. Scott Cooper, and his assistant, Ms. Shelia Henderson, at the Cumming Branch of Regions Bank. They literally worked night and day to personally walk this loan through the many wickets now involved in mortgage banking. Why did they do this? For the money? There are easier ways to make a buck. They did it because they believe in the "little church that can", and we thank them for that support.
Within the next few weeks, I will personally be contacting every person pledging to PROJECT JOY (Pink Form - new mortgage) to thank you and confirm that we have received and understood your commitment correctly. We will also be kicking off our campaigns for support from our families, Orthodox benefactors and philanthropic foundations targeted particularly at improving our community center facilities before winter sets in (I am tired of luncheons on the carport with plastic walls for shelter) and retiring our mortgage early.
In the meantime, we now have approximately 60 of our 101 Stewards pledged to PROJECT JOY. We need your support to raise that participation to 100% and provide the remaining $1500.00 / month required to meet our $5,900.00 / month principal and interest mortgage payment.
I am on travel again (as usual), so please pass the good word to all of our Stewards whose email addresses I don't have, our friends at the Cathedral and Holy Transfiguration and through out the Atlanta community.
It is truly a JOY to be Orthodox in North Georgia today!
God Bless, dcc
Dave Chapman
Parish Council President
