St. Vladimir’s Seminary Missions Day to focus on of Orthodoxy in Guatemala

Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala

Saint Vladimir’s Seminary invites the public to its second annual Missions Day on Wednesday, November 7, 2012 at 7:30 p.m., for a presentation on the “explosion” of Orthodox Christianity in Guatemala, where in recent years 338 Orthodox churches, with 200,000 faithful and catechumens, have become part of the Orthodox Metropolis of Mexico.

Archimandrite Dr. Andres Girón de Leon and Archpriest John Chakos will be the guest lecturers, sharing first hand their missionary activities among the indigenous people of Guatemala, within their presentation, “Mission to Guatemala: Receiving the Mayan People into the Orthodox Church.” The presentations will be in the Metropolitan Philip Auditorium of the John G. Rangos Family Building on the seminary campus.

Father Andres, a native Guatemalan who grew up in a family of privilege, has crammed several lifetimes into one: former Roman Catholic priest, trained counselor, Senator in the Guatemalan Congress and advocate for the rural poor, UN Ambassador, and now Orthodox priest among disaffected Mayan people who were searching for a spiritual home outside the Roman Catholic Church.

Father John is a “retired” Greek Orthodox priest from Pittsburgh, serving in Guatemala under the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) for six months out of the year, with his wife, Presbytera Alexandra. Father John serves the vast spiritual needs of the new Orthodox faithful, while Presbytera Alexandra sets up shop as a seamstress and teaches the Mayan women sewing skills that will bring them fresh purpose and needed income.

The presentations are open to the public.

Read the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s March 30, 2012 story about Father John and Presbytera Alexandra

Read about the explosion of Orthodox Christianity in Guatemala, through the eyes of Seminarian Jesse Brandow