Goldendale, WA, June 27, 2025
Photo: goarch.org
One of the many monasteries founded in North America by the great Athonite and missionary Elder Ephraim celebrated the 30th anniversary of its founding this week.
On Tuesday, June 24, three hierarchs of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Metropolitan Apostolos of New Jersey, Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco, and Bishop Ioannis of Phocaea, celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. John the Forerunner Greek Orthodox Monastery in Goldendale, Washington, for the feast of the Nativity of St. John, reports the Orthodoxia News Agency.
The celebration also commemorated the 20th anniversary of Met. Gerasimos’ enthronement as Metropolitan of San Francisco.
Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr
The hierarchical Divine Liturgy brought together prominent Orthodox clergy and faithful from across the region.
In his sermon, Met. Apostolos delivered a reflection on the monastery’s patron saint, explaining that his epithet “Forerunner” describes his ministry as the last of the prophets, as St. John prepared the way of the Lord by preaching repentance.
The Metropolitan emphasized the spiritual significance of repentance in Christian life, teaching that it marks the first step in receiving the Lord in our lives as we take our hearts, which are hardened through sin and passions and soften them, allowing Christ to enter.
Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr
Following the Divine Liturgy, Met. Gerasimos and Met. Apostolos celebrated the blessing of holy water and blessed the new monastery trapeza.
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Photo: blogger.googleusercontent.com The monastery was founded in 1995, when local doctor Gerald Timmer donated his 48-acre property to the Greek Orthodox Diocese of San Francisco for the foundation of a convent.
The monastery’s establishment was guided by Elder Ephraim, who was contacted by His Eminence to help establish the monastery in Washington. Elder Ephraim was already the spiritual father of 11 monasteries in Greece before he began the work of establishing monasteries in North America in 1989.
The monastery is part of a larger network of Orthodox monastic communities that he helped establish across North America. There are now 17 such monasteries in North America, with prayer for the world as their primary profession, providing spiritual guidance to the faithful and helping preserve the holy traditions of the Church through exemplary Christian life and devotion to God.
Photo: orthodoxianewsagency.gr The monastery’s humble beginnings involved three nuns called from the Holy Orthodox Monastery of the Panagia Hodigitria in Volos, Greece to come to Goldendale. The three nuns who arrived were in their thirties, with the two younger nuns, Sister Parthenia and Sister Agni, trying to remember the English they had learned in school, while the third, Sister Efpraxia, spoke no English at all, reports the Goldendale Sentinel.
Today, the monastery is thriving, and Sister Efpraxia is now Gerondissa Efpraxia, the current abbess of the monastery. The community has expanded to include approximately 20 nuns and novices who support themselves through traditional Orthodox crafts and their popular bakery.
The monastery serves as a living repository of Orthodox traditions. The sisterhood practices traditional Orthodox arts including iconography, prayer rope making, incense production, and beeswax candle making. Their bakery, located along Highway 97, has become a beloved stop for travelers, offering traditional Greek foods and pastries.
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