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We have a big problem (but it’s a good problem)! Saints Joachim & Anna Antiochian Orthodox Mission is a small but quickly growing mission located in beautiful Goldendale, WA. We have rapidly outgrown our small, but delightfully cozy temple. We have inquirers and catechumens, we have babies on the way, and more and more people are moving here to become part of this unique Orthodox situation. We need your help!

In early March 2016, we purchased some land in town. We own an eight-acre field right off the busy Hwy 97. We currently have a driveway, a parking lot, and a cemetery. We have been in the planning stage of a new temple for the last 3 years, but now we are in desperate need to move onto the next phase before we explode out of our current location. 😊

We have been blessed by 2 anonymous donors who are willing to match any donations received in the 200 days between our feast day on September 9 and the feast of the Annunciation 2024 (March 25, 2024), up to $200,000! This means any money you donate today will be doubled! 

Here is our story:

The mission was started with a Divine Liturgy, celebrated by Fr. Joseph Copeland on March 17, 2013, with a few families meeting in a dining room. In June 2015, at the request of Fr. Joseph and the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH, Dn. John Phelps moved here with his wife and children to help establish the mission. By that time, we were using the local funeral home for weekend services, setting the altar up on Saturday evening and taking it down after Liturgy on Sunday. That fall, God showed us a storefront (the old Sears catalog store) on Main Street that was for rent. We were then able to set up a permanent altar and use the sanctuary space for coffee hour after Liturgy. Fr. Joseph Copeland or Fr. Timothy McCoy would drive from Yakima to serve Liturgy twice a month, and we would have Typica services on the other Sundays. Feasts were celebrated with the Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner.

On March 19, 2017, on the Sunday of the Cross, His Eminence, Metropolitan JOSEPH ordained Dn. John to the Holy Priesthood and assigned him as pastor. During all this time, the mission was slowly growing.

Fr. John is now our full-time priest after "retiring" from IT in November 2022. He is dedicated to our mission—holding regular weekday services as well as weekend and feast day services. He teaches youth group once a week and is currently teaching a weekly catechism class.

In early March 2020, we purchased a building from the Odd Fellows Lodge two blocks away from the Main Street location and we were all set to fix it up and move in. Then COVID hit. It ended up taking 2 years to complete the necessary repairs that were required by the city and state. During those 2 years, many families now had online jobs and were able to move to Goldendale. We have a wonderful Greek Orthodox monastery 15 minutes away, and all the families in the mission love to help the monastery, attend services there, and spend time with the nuns.

Our first service at our current location was Holy Saturday's Harrowing of Hades in 2022. We were all so happy to be in the new building!  The only issue we had was that we had already outgrown it before we had even moved in!!!  A year and a half later our parish continues to grow, and we now have over 150 people, with roughly half of that number under the age of 20. Glory to God!  We continue to rent the Main Street location, in order to facilitate coffee hour after Liturgy (the basement of our current temple is too small).

Please help us begin a new building that will accommodate our rapidly growing congregation and become one of our "founders and benefactors" to be prayed for at every liturgy!  

If you would like to contribute, you may do so via GiveSendGo, Tithe.ly, or by cash or check made out to Sts. Joachim and Anna with "building fund" in the memo and mailed to PO Box 745, Goldendale, WA 98620.

Thank you for your support and prayers!