Building Fund – St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church

Our Building Fund logo. Church sketch by CJK Design Group.

St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church was established on Portland’s westside in August 1997. The parish celebrated services at rented facilities before moving into the basement of the Cedar Hills Shopping Center in 1999 and then into a building on Walker Road in 2006. As beautiful and functional as these sites have been for our community, they are temporary. Our parish’s vision is to grow the Orthodox Church by building a Byzantine-style church with supporting facilities and continuing to plant parishes.

The Building Fund is a dedicated fund for purchasing an appropriate piece of land for our future church.

The ideal property would be 5+ acres, easily accessible from major highways and situated such that the church is visible from the street. The church will be a traditional cruciform design with a dome. The design will include a room for young children, a vestry, ample storage, restrooms, and an adult baptistery. The administration and fellowship building will include a large hall/gym, a small hall, commercial kitchen, a bookstore, meeting rooms, a chapel and office space to accommodate two full-time priests, part-time clergy and supporting staff.

St. John the Baptist is also committed to continuing to host Portland’s PanOrthodox pre-K–5th grade school, Agia Sophia Academy (ASA). The plan for the future site includes educational facilities to meet the needs of ASA and the parish Sunday School.

The Fundraising Committee is committed to offering opportunities for the community to work together to raise money for the Building Fund. Currently, there are a variety of yearly activities we offer, including a winter Chili Cook-Off, a summer food booth at a local festival, and a fall Take-n-Bake. Past fundraisers included a Glendi Greek Festival (2009-2013), rummage sales, a dinner dance, parish directory advertising and annual appeal letters.

“We know that our Orthodox theology is apostolic. It is the articulation of the Truth about God, man, creation and salvation that Christ passed on to His apostles and that we have received after countless generations of faithfulness. We also know that this Orthodox and apostolic theology is woven throughout every aspect of our lives and the life of the Church. One of the greatest blessings that any Orthodox Church community could ever have would be to build from the ground up an Orthodox temple that accurately expresses our Orthodox theology in architecture. We, the faithful, do not stand on our own, isolated from those who have gone before us. Rather, we are but a piece of a mosaic of unbroken Apostolic continuity. The temple that we build must fall into the parameters inspired by our Holy Tradition. Like our iconography, our liturgical services, the manner in which we celebrate our sacraments and the content of our preaching and teaching, there is a rich and defined tradition of Byzantine Orthodox architecture. When we begin to design our new church home we will have to adhere to a strict tradition if we are going to succeed in creating a temple that expresses the interrelationship between our theology, our iconography, our worship and our participation in heavenly worship.”~ From the New Site Vision presented at the Fall General Assembly, 2011.

St. John Orthodox Church

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