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Our Vision

Our Vision:

With the love of Christ, we will proclaim the Gospel and offer God’s peace, liberty, and hope to the poor, the brokenhearted, and those in need.

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Our Mission:

To energize the Colorado Rocky Mountain Orthodox community to understand and serve our brothers and sisters in need, consistent with Christ’s call to love in deed and truth
(I John 3:18).

 

Our Objectives:

  • Form and deepen relationships among our parish outreach leaders.

  • Expand pan-Orthodox outreach efforts in Colorado.

  • Encourage and learn from one another about the work our parishioners are doing, including partnerships with other Christian ministries.

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Our Goals:

  1. Form and deepen relationships:

    • Meet regularly to share and encourage one another in serving others.


      We will meet regularly to plan, coordinate, and execute projects and events identified in this workplan. As a part of these meetings, team members will share the outreach efforts being undertaken within their specific parishes.
       

    • Host an annual pan-Orthodox Front Range outreach retreat.

      We will host a pan-Orthodox retreat in the fall of 2022. The objectives of the retreat will be to: 1) learn from the experience of the retreat master how we, as a community, can better serve our brothers and sisters in need; 2) energize / motivate the Colorado Rocky Mountain Orthodox community to become a part of our effort; and 3) discuss and explain the mission, goals, and objectives of the Good Samaritan Project. 

      God-willing the retreat will take place in November of 2022. This scheduling will provide an excellent means to kick off the Good Samaritan Project work in a timely manner.

      Fr. Alexi Altschul, founder of both Reconciliation Services in Kansas City, MO and Holy Archangel Michael & All Angels Skete, Weatherby, MO.​

      We plan to host annual retreats in the October or November. Details of the next retreat will be developed after the conclusion of this year’s retreat. Each retreat will focus on a different aspect of serving others. 

      We anticipate that our annual retreats will generally be hosted at St. Catherine Greek Orthodox Church due to its size and central location.
       

  2. Expand pan-Orthodox outreach efforts:

    • Host periodic joint events (1 - 2 per year) for the Front Range Orthodox community to participate in local outreach together.

      We will host our first pan-Orthodox outreach event during the 2023 Lenten Season to promote almsgiving in our parishes. We believe our first joint event, consistent with our mission, should be designed to get as many Orthodox as possible together at one time. Our hope is to build relationships within our parishes and with other parishioners as we do outreach work. Other approaches (e.g., Serve on Saturday) will be considered as we do follow-up events, or if we are unable to identify a suitable event that could accommodate a large number of participants.

      Details of the event are currently being discussed. We anticipate working with an existing area ministry that would be able to accommodate many people in the outreach event. An example is Joshua Station, where we could repaint homes (all in close proximity) that are being used for Denver area families in need.

      In conjunction with the actual outreach event, we will ask our parishes to financially support the ministry that we help. Fundraising will accompany publicizing the event and will provide our parishioners with an opportunity to volunteer and/or donate financially to our outreach project.
       

    • Engage our Youth:

      Project Mexico:
      We will work with our priests and the Project Mexico staff to coordinate a “Colorado Week” for the 2023 Summer Project Mexico home-building season. Our goal is to encourage Colorado youth go to Project Mexico the same week and build homes together. We hope to have at least 60 Colorado youth participate. Our effort will focus on coordinating a common week; all logistical planning will be done by the parishes, as in the past.


      School Community Work Requirements:
      In 2023, we will explore how our parishes might provide community work opportunities for our youth that would meet middle- and high-school community work requirements. We will work with interested parishes in identifying community work opportunities for our youth and in communicating our findings with other Colorado parishes.

       

    • Transform in Christ the poor, the brokenhearted, and those in need:

      Several people from different parishes have expressed a strong desire to establish a home for homeless women or women who have been trafficked. An exploratory committee will be established by year-end 2022 to determine the feasibility of such a work and report back to the Colorado Clergy Brotherhood with recommendations on how to move forward by the end of 2023.
       

  3. Encourage and learn from one another:

    • Host workshops on how to serve those in need.

      Book Study:

      We will host a book study with Fr. Paul Abernathy in January 2023, consisting of 4-5 sessions. The study will cover Fr. Paul’s recent book: . Each session will be approximately 50-60 minutes, with Fr. Paul discussing the contents of the book for approximately 40 minutes. The remaining time will be open for questions. Details regarding the study are being finalized with Fr. Paul.
       

    • Provide information to parishioners about serving those in need.

      Point Person Responsibilities:
      Each parish representative on the Good Samaritan Project will be a “point person” in their parish to share information with their parishioners about the projects and events being hosted by the Good Samaritan Project.


      Website:
      Information about both serving our neighbors and the Good Samaritan Project’s effort is on our website (https://www.goodsamaritancolo.org/).

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Updated August 1, 2022.

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