Neighborhood Resilience Project and the Orthodox Church
The Neighborhood Resilience Project has a faith-based affiliation with the Orthodox Christian Church through a relationship with Saint Moses the Black Orthodox Church in the Hill District. The church provides pastoral support and spiritual direction as well as limited legal oversight.
His Grace the Right Reverend THOMAS (Joseph), Ed.D., is an auxiliary bishop of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, serving in the Diocese of Oakland, Charleston and the Mid-Atlantic. Bishop THOMAS serves as the Spiritual Advisor of the Neighborhood Resilience Project.
About St. Moses the Black Orthodox Church
Saint Moses the Black Orthodox Church is in the Antiochian jurisdiction, under the guidance of Metropolitan Joseph and His Grace Bishop Thomas and pastored by Father Paul Abernathy, also CEO of the Neighborhood Resilience Project. Presbytera Kristina Abernathy is the First Lady of the parish.
All people are invited to join us at any time we are having worship, follow along with the music as best you can (we’re there to help!) and receive a blessing and the holy bread at Communion. Come as you are, but don’t stay as you are!
Who was Saint Moses?
Saint Moses the Black – not to be confused with the Holy Prophet Moses from the Old Testament – was a 4th-century gangster-turned-desert-monk in Africa. Saint Moses was widely known for his holiness and deep humility, once resisting the request to serve on a council of judges to condemn a brother. Eventually he succumbed, arriving with a basket thrown over his back, which was leaking out sand. When asked why he carried the basket, Saint Moses stated, “I carry behind me my manifold sins where I cannot see them, and I come to judge my brother?” On hearing this, the other monks also forgave the guilty brother.