A Church Grows in San Angelo

By Bill Maxwell

Times-April, 11, 2004

At a time when religion and religion­related issues are Balkanizing our nation, a church in San Angelo , Texas , views itself as a place of healing. It "embraces all comers as they are," the pastor said.

I am not religious, but I believe that this church is special because of how it came into being and how it was built

In January 2001, in a field in San Angelo , 17 women and four men climbed out of their cars and trucks, milled about and silently looked over the old farmland. All the while, they glanced at one another in mild disbelief. They were going to build their church - St Athanasios the Great Greek Orthodox Church - with their own hands. But could a mere 21 people, the entire congregation, build a church? As the Rev. Elias Greer realized that none of the women and only one of the men had construction experience, his confidence wavered.

He was right to worry because, although the church is complete and the membership is growing, building the modest structure severely challenged the congregants' personal lives.

From the start, the women, inspired by their faith, agreed to learn all they needed to learn to build their special sanctuary. Although St Athanasios was established in 1995, it did not have a permanent home and held services in four different spaces during the next five years, including a room at the local Days Inn

motel and in the Rev. Greer's living room. Purchasing the property on which to build was the easy part The heavy lifting started when the cash-strapped group had to buy con­struction materials. In addition to using their own money and accepting donations, parish­ioners did one of the things they do best They held bake sales. And they have raised thou­sands of dollars.

As happy customers bought the baked goods, they had no idea that behind the scenes, each woman had to supply the ingredients, making everything from scratch. She also had to invest many hours of her time and hike the family's electric bill each month. Several hus­bands complained mightily, causing long­lasting, deep friction for some marriages. Ulti­mately, though, baking and selling drew the women closer. together.

Members were secretly amused when their friends and neighbors doubted that they could build a church.

"When we first started telling people that we were doing this construction," Catherine Spears said, "they didn't really believe us until we started getting the framework up. And then you'd be surprised how many cars stopped, parked on the side of the road and watched what we were doing. They could see there were only three, at the most four, guys at a time. The rest of the work force was women. These guys would just sit in their trucks, with their mouths wide open, looking as the church

went up."

Soon, more people, especially men with construction experience, volunteered. Such help came at the right time because the lone male congregant who had experience quit the church halfway through the project

"I think a lot of volunteers came because word got around town about this small group, mainly women, was willing to get out there every weekend, from 7:00 until dark," Spears said.

The women like to talk about the physical effort of building the church, and each acknowledges a heightened spirituality as a result of the experience.

"The ordeal of constructing the church is not just about the making of one building," Stephanie Brady said. "Its about the construc­tion of a parish, a living, viable family. That takes work and effort The best part is by working together, united on a large project, we strengthen our presence in San Angelo and our relationship with one another. I feel close to

everyone in the parish because of the intimate contact we've had to maintain . . . through financial difficulties."

Spears: "When we started the construc­tion, I was very intimidated. But I and the rest of the women quickly learned how to drive nails, put up walls, do insulation and cut the out­side sheetrock and nail it up. We also learned how to put up siding and caulk it It was so empowering to learn how to do the different facets of the construction work. I realized that there was not much that I could not do once I set my mind to do it The work was hard, and I went home exhausted. But there was a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

"I believe that building this church has deepened my faith in God and the miracles that occur around us every day."

All parishioners agree that St Athanasios probably still would be a mere dream if not for the Rev. Greer's leadership. A 51-year-old Greek-American, Greer earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Angelo State Uni­versity , and as one of the original members of the school's ROTC, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force as a pilot After military service, he owned and oper­ated several restaurants. In 1995, he completed the degree of master of theological studies at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of The­ology in Boston and was ordained into the priesthood.

Then, he followed his dream to establish a

parish in San Angelo , his hometown. As he led the church, he and his wife and three children subsisted on money he earned sharpening knives throughout the state and money his wife earned ironing clothes. Later, the church paid him a small monthly salary, but the money was never enough to make ends meet Over time, the hardships hurt the marriage, and the ' couple divorced.

Greer turned down several offers to head large parishes elsewhere, one in Los Angeles . His work was at St Athanasios, he said.

With an all-time high of 30 members, of which six are men, the church still holds bake sales to raise funds to finish landscaping and, of course, to complete the pastor's office and pri­vate quarters.

John Choate, whose wife also is a member, said that working alongside the women changed his life: "I am an English and theater teacher by trade, so I'm not really at home on a roof laying metal in 100-degree heat I was com­pletely unprepared to do physical labor for 10 hours a day. One thing that kept me going and kept me humble was watching the ladies work and struggle every day right along with the men. Whenever I wanted to take a break, I would see the ladies hammering away for hours on end. That really kept me motivated. Not only did they do the physical labor, but they kept baking baklava and having bake sales, which kept the funds coming in for con­struction. They were truly amazing."

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