Our Story
In the spring of 2005, a group of young men traveled to the St. Gregory of Sinai's monastery in California. The youths enjoyed hospitality from the monastery and in return provided labor. The young men, all laymen, aided the monastic community through service work. The experience was so positive, so refreshing, so reviving that members of that trip decided to mature the concept of service work for monastic communities into a formal program known as “St. Paul’s Fellowship of Labor (SPFL).”
We hope that you consider this program as an opportunity to travel, meet new people, make long lasting friendships, venerate holy places, and give back to an ancient practice of Christianity through labor. Through the exchange of volunteers and monastics, foundations are built, bonds are created, and a future ensured. We hope to create an atmosphere that allows participants to clarify views, deepen understanding, and follow the logic and implications of their beliefs.
Since the spring of 2005, St. Paul's Fellowship of Labor has aided many monks, nuns, volunteers, and countless others. We are growing at a fantastic rate and hope to make international travel more of the rule than the exception. We now have programs in four countries throughout North America.
What We Do
St. Paul’s Fellowship of Labor is a nonprofit organizaiton that provides opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to travel and to serve Orthodox monastic communities around the world through labor intensive service projects. We hope that you consider this program as an opportunity to travel, meet new people, make long lasting friendships, venerate holy places, and give back through labor. We thank you for your interest, time, and support.
Outcomes
A ministry of service, St. Paul’s Fellowship of Labor offers an opportunity to:
- -Enrich one’s understanding and appreciation of Orthodox Monastacism; its history, traditions, services, hymnology, etc.
- -To learn and discuss current issues from a monastic perspective.
- -Create an awareness of the ongoing activity within Monastacism.
- -Refine one’s conceptions of being an active member of one’s church community.
- -Recognize one’s ability to contribute to projects with their individual skills and talents.
- -To foster and strengthen friendship.
- -Provide an interface for exchange between monastics and lay people.
- -To encourage veterans of our trips to informally plan future trips, pilgrimages, and visits together.
- -Simply have an amazing time, one that results in the growth of confidence, maturity, and identity of the participant, their family, and friends.