As you navigate this website we invite you to learn more about Orthodox Christianity, our missionary efforts to establish an Orthodox Christian church in the Joplin area, and the people involved in these efforts. We also hope that you will come and join us at Divine Liturgy, that you too may experience the words of the psalmist David and, “Taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)
About The Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church is evangelical, but not Protestant. It is orthodox, but not Jewish. It is catholic, but not Roman. It isn’t non-denominational, it’s pre-denominational. It has believed, taught, preserved, defended, and died for the Faith of the Apostles since the Day of Pentecost 2,000 years ago.
“Orthodoxy is what Christ taught, the apostles preached, and the fathers kept.” – St. Athanasius the Great
For General Information about Orthodoxy see here https://www.orthodoxintro.org/ and for information about the Orthodox Church in America Jurisdiction see here https://www.oca.org/about
Our Leadership
Our Archbishop: The Most Reverend Archbishop Daniel
Bishop Daniel [Brum] was born in 1954 the eldest of three children born to Orville Antonio and Marjory Brum. He was raised in Riverdale, CA—a community predominantly comprised of Portuguese-American families—where he graduated from high school in 1973.
Raised in the Roman Catholic tradition, he enrolled at Saint Patrick’s College Seminary, Mountain View, CA, where, during his freshman year, he first encountered the history of the Orthodox Church and frequently attended services at Saint Nicholas Church, Saratoga, CA, at that time under the rectorate of Mitered Archpriest George Benigsen, who welcomed him and encouraged him to explore Orthodox Christianity further. In the early 1970s, he began reading the Church Fathers and tried to integrate what he was learning of Orthodoxy into his regular courses of study…
Our Priest: Fr. Michael Kuzara
Fr. Michael has been a convert to the Orthodox Christian faith for 25 years, and an ordained priest of the Orthodox Church of America (OCA) for 12 years. He has served as a civilian Chaplain at Fort Leonard Wood in Rolla, MO, and was attached to the altar of The Nativity of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church in Madison, IL, before moving to the Joplin area with his wife Barbara, in 2011. Fr. Michael and Mat. Barbara have been married for 32 years, have three adult daughters, and lived and worked in the St. Louis area for all their adult lives until moving to Joplin.
About Us
We are an apostolic expression of the early Christian Church whose mission is to go forth into all the world bringing the fullness of faith by means of preaching the gospel and traditions of the Ancient Christian Church.
We are primarily a church of converts who have found a renewal of our faith through the fullness of the faith that has always existed since the day of Pentecost, based on the salvific work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As is the case with most of us, our faith needs shoe leather so we can walk as Jesus walks. The Orthodox Church has given us the ability to express the heavenly here on earth. By means of the Divine Liturgy and the other Mysteries (Sacraments), grace is received by the believers to incorporate the life of Jesus in our daily actions.
Our Mission
Our goal is to evangelize the Joplin area through exposing people to the living Word of the Ancient Christian Church, providing the history and teaching of the early church fathers as they were first taught by the Apostles, based on the teachings of Jesus Christ. In the eyes of the Lord, what is true has always been true, and unchanging. What was pertinent for the Ancient Church is still true today. We do not need to reinvent our faith, but only live it. Our prayer is to bless freely and generously all who come with a thirst for the Truth. We invite you to “come and see that the Lord is good” so by the grace of God you may be fed as the early church was fed and be nurtured by his unceasing love.
