About Us
Our Parish
Who we are
St. Paisius Orthodox Church is an English-speaking Orthodox mission serving the Fort Wayne area. We are a growing community from all backgrounds and walks of life. What unites us is Christ, Who is at the center of our parish. It is our desire that all come to know Christ’s love and live in communion with Him, through a life of worship, service, and community. Whether you are looking for a new spiritual home, want to learn more about Orthodoxy, or are simply curious, you are always welcome to join us!
Our History
Our parish was founded in 2018 with the blessing of the ever-memorable Archbisop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America, by a few faithful Orthodox Christians most of whom were converts. Fr. Thomas Sprunger was appointed as our parish rector. Our inaugural liturgy was celebrated on Sunday, August 12, 2018.
St. Mary’s Romanian Orthodox Church has graciously allowed us to use their church building to hold services, and we are currently in the process of purchasing the building from them.
Over the past eight years, our parish has experienced steady growth, through God’s help and prayers of our patron, St. Paisius Velichkovsky. We are now home to several growing families, who are in the process of raising the next generation of St. Paisius parishioners.
Our Patron Saint
Our parish is named after St. Paisius Velichkovsky, who is remembered for instigating a revival of monasticism in Russia, chiefly through his translations of Greek writings and his role as a grace-filled elder, who guided countless monastics in the spiritual life. Born in 1722, St. Paisius yearned for the monastic life from an early age. This yearning eventually brought him to Mount Athos, where he was guided in prayer and the ascetic life. He founded St. Elias Skete there, but, due to oppression by the Ottoman authorities, he moved the brotherhood to Moldavia in 1763, eventually settling in Niametz Monastery. There, he translated the writings of the Church Fathers into Slavonic. The brotherhood at his monastery soon grew to seven hundred monks, and the spiritual life of this monastery became known throughout the whole Orthodox world. St. Paisius reposed in the Lord on November 15, 1794. He was glorified on the feast of St. Elias, on July 20, 1982, at St. Elias Skete on Mount Athos, which he founded.
Our Faith
What is the Orthodox Church?
The Orthodox Church is the original Church founded by our Lord Jesus Christ. The Church began with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-11). In its two thousand year history, the Church has had a continuous succession of bishops who trace their lineage back to the Apostles, has brought forth countless saints and Church fathers, has suffered persecutions and produced untold millions of martyrs for the faith, and has continued, to this day, to hold fast to the faith “which was once delivered unto the saints.”
Orthodox Faith and Practice
“Orthodoxy” means both “right belief” and “right worship,” and both are inseparable parts of Orthodox life.
We hold to sacred Scripture as inspired and as the chief part of the deposit of faith. We also hold to the tradition handed down by the Apostles, which has been carefully preserved to this day by the Church. Moreover, we affirm all the decrees of the seven Ecumenical Councils, which were convened in the first millennium to combat the numerous heresies that attacked the divinity of Christ and other dogmas revealed in sacred scripture. The greatest of these decrees is the Nicene Creed, which we proclaim every Sunday, and which affirms the doctrine of the Trinity and other essential doctrines of the Church.
However, Orthodoxy is not merely a set of beliefs. It is life in Christ. This life begins with Baptism, where we “put on Christ” (Gal 3:27), Chrismation, where we are annointed with oil and made Christains, or “little Christs,” and the sacrament of the Eucharist, where we are united to Christ through partaking of His Body and Blood. This life then continues in prayer, fasting, almsgiving, the pursuit of virtue, the struggle against our sinful passions, and the continued participation in the sacraments of confession and communion, and in the liturgical life of the Church. The goal of the Orthodox life is to become saints—that is, to become people who have united themselves wholly to Christ.
Orthodox Worship
Orthodox Christians worship the way the early Christians worshipped. Our liturgy (which is what we call our Sunday service) traces back to the time of the Apostles, to the service used in Jerusalem by James, the Brother of the Lord. The center of our services is not the sermon, but rather prayer, the singing of Psalms and hymns, and the sacraments, especially the Eucharist, or communion, which we celebrate every Sunday.
Our worship services engage all the senses. Worshipers will see iconography and colorful vestments, smell the fragrance of incense, hear the singing and chanting of Psalms and hymns, touch and kiss the icons and the hand of the priest, and those who are Orthodox Christians in good standing with the Church will taste the Heavenly Bread, the Eucharist, which is the Body and Blood of Christ. All these things exist to lead man closer to God. God Himself created man as a physical being, who can taste, touch, hear, smell, and see, and God therefore desires man to draw closer to Him using all the senses.
Visitors often find Orthodox worship both unfamiliar and beautiful. As the emissaries of St. Vladimir the Great reported to him, on seeing the Orthodox liturgy for the first time, “we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth…. We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty.”
Our Leadership
Patriarch Kirill
of Moscow and all the Rus’
Metropolitan Nicholas
First Hierarch of ROCOR
Bishop Spyridon
of Chicago and Mid-America
Our Parish Priest
Father Thomas Sprunger of Grabill, IN received a diploma in pastoral theology (P.Th.D) from the Pastoral School of the Chicago and Midwest Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia on June 10, 2018. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 20, 2018 by the ever-memorable Archbishop Peter of Chicago and Mid-America. Father Thomas converted to Orthodoxy many years ago after a study of the early church. Father Thomas is married to his wife of 38 years, Jody Helene, and they are the parents of five children.