Raising money for our new church...

[Bethany]

Hi All!

I'm sorry to post this here, but we really need some help...

Our church (Protection of the Holy Virgin Mary ROCOR Church in Schenectady, NY) is trying to raise money to build our new church. We need to raise about $700,000 more to be able to start the construction of the church. We currently are in an apartment buliding (which we own) and we have the part of the first floor. However, with our growing parish (and growing choir!) we need more room. To raise money, we are holding a raffle. I will place most of the information here, and if anyone is interested in buying a ticket, please email me at bethany@youth.orthodoxinternet.com and I will provide you with the address, etc. Your help is GREATLY appreciated and needed!! Thank you so much, and please keep us in your prayers.

In Christ,
Bethany

WIN $5,000 Dollars

The Holy Virgin Mary Building Fund is sponsoring a 50/50 Raffle to help finance the building of a new Church in Colonie, New York.

One Grand Prize -- $5,000.00
One Second Prize -- $2,000.00
Three Third Prizes -- $1,000.00

This means you have FIVE chances to win!!
Only 200 tickets will be sold, at a price of $100.00 per ticket.

Drawing will be held on Pascha (April, 27, 2003) following the Divine Paschal Liturgy. Ticket holders need not be present to win.

Please consider buying a ticket to help support our efforts in the holy task of building a new church to the glory of the Mother of God.

[Bethany]

P.S. - If you want to see pictures of our current church, you can go to http://www.holyvirginmaryrocor.org/index.html This site is very outdated, however, and you can see that we have had trouble raising money for the new church - we were supposed to begin construction in 1999! Thank you for your prayers.

[Mor Ephrem]

Dear Bethany,

I currently attend school at the University at Albany (SUNY), and Nik's recommended that I visit your parish, but I am not entirely familiar with the area, and so I don't know where it is. I also don't know what language(s) services are in. I was wondering if you could tell us more about your parish, and how welcoming you are to the occasional visitor, just in case I decide to stop by one of these days.

[Justin Kissel]

We need to raise about $700,000 more

I hope you mean $70,000? I'm very confused :mrgreen:

Justin

[Bethany]

No, I mean $700,000. It will cost a bit over $1 million to build our church. We're trying to raise money in every possible way. Any little bit will help.

[Justin Kissel]

Oh, ok.. I guess I'm still stuck back in mindset in Evangelical Protestant-land, where Churches are a box with a cross on top. Any box will do, as long as there is a rail for the altar call :mrgreen: Well I will pray that things develop quickly for y'all!

[Methodius]

On a list I am on some interesting responses have come from this. I thought I'd share for discussion's sake...

I am very saddened to see to gambling and appeals to human greed
being utilized to raise funds for an Orthodox temple. Gambling is
forbidden by the Holy Canons and for good reason. Christ taught His
disciples to give without expecting anything in return. If a
Christian participates in a lottery or a drawing or any other such
fundraising activity which holds out the offer a "return" for one's
gift to God, they are violating the Canons and acting directly
contrary to Christ's commandment. Such a temple will not be built on
the Gospel, but on human passions. I have many friends at the Albany
parish, and this just breaks my heart. Several months ago I got some
lottery tickets in the mail from another one of our parishes. Is no
one else concerned about this trend?

Fr. Peter Jackson
...
Father Peter,

You are not the only one concerned. I was quite surprised to see this. Personally, I am not offended by parish drawings which give away small gifts as part of fund-raising activities. Perhaps even those activities would be considered as gambling according to the strictest interpretation of the canons, but when the gift is of rather insignificant value, it could also be seen as simply an enjoyable game. However, at some point one clearly enters into the arena of gambling per se. Certainly where lotteries are involved we are into that arena, and this appears to be a simple lottery, where the prizes are purely monetary and of significant value, so I don't see how it is justified.

Deacon Anthony Bridges
Our Lady, Joy of All Who Sorrow (ROCA)
Cumming, GA