Between new calendar and old calendar Christmas, a time of great grace and mercy, we spoke with Fr. Photius Parks, priest of the St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Mission Parish in Hernderson, North Carolina about the mission’s origins, its life, and its hopes for the future.
Fr. Photius Parks. Photo: https://saintanthonyorthodoxwnc.org/about/clergy-staff
—Fr. Photius, tell us about your mission parish. When did the mission in Hendersonville, NC begin, and how?
—St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Mission started in 2019. We were formed out of another mission that was in Candler, NC. That particular mission was closed after our church building of over a decade was unexpectedly unavailable to us.
From there, our mission rented space for a few months from a Protestant congregation. When we started, sacramental-supply wise, we had almost nothing: we had an antimension, a holy Gospel, and a few icons. That’s it! We didn’t even have a chalice set. I put our story and needs out on social media and churches around the world assisted us. Our first chalice set graciously was sent to us from the Russian church in Thailand! It was powerful to see how benevolent the Orthodox faithful around the world can be in helping to build up missions like ours!
After that, we rented a new store-front building and have been there since the latter part of 2019. Our current church building is zoned for fifty people but we exceed that often. I call it a “cathedral in a box” because our church building is very box-looking from the outside but quite beautiful on the inside. The building itself, which is 800 square feet, is way too small for us now, especially when we have up to twenty-two kids at Sunday Divine Liturgy!
—Were you the first priest there?
—By God’s grace, I was the first priest at Saint Anthony’s. To be a part of this church has been a tremendous blessing.
—How many parishioners were there at the beginning, and how many are there now?
Photo: https://saintanthonyorthodoxwnc.org/about/history
At the beginning, we had about ten people come to Liturgy. Now we have up to sixty at a Sunday Divine Liturgy. We have nowhere to put people!
—Tell us a little about Hendersonville. What are the people there like? What is the prevailing faith?
Hendersonville is a unique city in that it often makes the top-ten lists of places to retire. It is surrounded by some stunning natural beauty and so a lot of people move here. With that said, it has a dichotomy of immense wealth and immense poverty. For example, three blocks from the city homeless shelter are $3.8 million dollar condos. Our area is very transitory, so a lot of people move in and out and it can be difficult when you get close to people and they move away. But we simply try to love everyone who comes through our doors as if they were Christ, no matter how long they stay with us.
The prevailing faith in our area is Southern Baptist (Protestant), with over fifty Baptist churches in Hendersonville alone. But they are starting to discover Orthodoxy!
—Do you have good relations with the surrounding community?
—St. Anthony’s has great relations with the surrounding community. During Hurricane Helene, our tiny fellowship hall had power so we cooked for local businesses, residents, and clean-up crews who didn’t have power or food. Numerous parishioners at St. Anthony’s work and volunteer at local non-profits throughout our city. Since we do Morning Prayer, Monday-Friday, even non-Orthodox routinely come and attend.
—How many of your parishioners are actually from Hendersonville? Do people come from other areas?
—A majority of our parishioners are from Hendersonville, but we have numerous families that drive from up to forty-five to sixty minutes away. We have a few families that live in South Carolina too.
—What is your typical parishioner like?
That is a difficult question. We have a lot of young families with children as well as numerous older folks to help guide them. We have “Cradle-Orthodox” parishioners from Russian, Ukrainian, Arab, Greek, Romanian, Carpathian backgrounds as well as numerous converts. I would say that our typical parishioner discovered our little church, and the love that we have for Christ and each other, and stayed. We recently had two unrelated visitors visit on Sunday for Divine Liturgy and both said that they had never visited another church with more love. We also have four seminarians at our parish, so that is a wonderful blessing as well!
—How many worshippers do you typically have on a Sunday or feast day?
We can swell to close to sixty people on a Sunday. Almost a quarter of our church can’t see the Liturgy because we are so packed, which is not good. On a major feast day we can go a little higher in numbers but we often hover around sixty.
—What is your jurisdiction, and what calendar do you follow? Have you celebrate Christmas already?
—We are a part of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, and we celebrate on the New Calendar. We just celebrated Nativity and it was lovely. Christ is born! Glorify Him!
—Do you have any special parish traditions for the great feasts?
—We have a few special traditions for the great feasts. We celebrate the Holy Supper on Christmas Eve, which is always delightful. With a blessing of course, we like to incorporate different traditions and music from the various Orthodox backgrounds of parishioners. At a typical service at our church, you will hear multiple melodies from different jurisdictions and multiple languages.
Something unique about our parish is that we do at least one service every day. Monday through Friday morning, we do First and Third Hours from the Horologion. It is a lovely candle-lit service and we can sometimes have more than fifteen people attend. I have witnessed this simple service change lives.
Inside the current St. Anthony Mission Church
—Tell us about the new church you want to purchase.
—By God’s mercy and many prayers of the faithful, we have finally found an existing church building to purchase and hope to take possession of it early March 2026. Commercial real estate is very expensive here, especially after hurricane Helene destroyed a lot of it. The new church building is nearly move-in ready and can hold an estimated 150 people. The church building was listed for $520,000, but they accepted our offer for $400,000. That is a lot of money but that price is less than most two-bed room homes in our area. By God’s mercy, I can’t wait until we get the mortgage paid down and we can officially invite all of your readers to come to the consecration of the church!
After many years of searching for a new church building, we are so thankful to God to have found our new home. The church building is in a changing neighborhood, so besides finding ways to serve our new neighbors we also hope to improve the building by possibly adding a cupola or two (or three?), upgrading iconography throughout, having a very full parish library, and making it as beautiful as we can. To do all of this would be a great blessing, but most importantly we want to continue to preserve our close-knit, and loving church family all the while grafting others into it.
—What is your vision for the future?
The answer to that question is ultimately up to our Hierarch, Metropolitan Gregory. One idea that I think would be very beautiful (and only with the Metropolitan’s blessing!) is to be able to offer as many services as possible at our church. Imagine, if a parish was able to offer clergy and lay-led services similar to a monastery. As I mentioned above, we currently celebrate First and Third Hours, Monday-Friday. How wonderful would it be to add Typika, Sixt, Ninth Hours, Vespers, and Small Compline to our daily “cycle” so that parishioners and people in our community could have ample opportunities to come to church and experience worshiping in a beautiful and holy place? Our visitors would meet a church family that will swallow them up with the love of Christ!
Ultimately, the vision for our parish is to continue to grow in loving God with all of our being and loving our neighbor as ourselves. If we continue to strive in doing that, everything else will fall into place.
Donation info:
St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Mission was built by the benevolence of the Orthodox faithful around the world. Again, we humbly beg for your prayers and charity, if your heart is led to assist us. When you are able, we want you to come visit us in Western North Carolina and for you to see firsthand what your prayers and your benevolence have built for the Kingdom of God!
To donate:
Please send checks to:
Saint Anthony the Great Orthodox Church,
120 Chadwick Ave., #8,
Hendersonville, NC 28792
Or donate online:
PalPay
Tithe
Rev. Photius Parks
703-498-0434
fatherphotios@gmail.com
