Eliana, Natacha, Giacomo, Menelik

Orthodoxy in Dialogue conducted a Feeding the Hungry this Christmas campaign on GoFundMe from November 14 to December 23. We collected $2000 from 36 individuals in Canada, the United States, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Disneyland, and Thimble Theatre.

Our donors are Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Eastern Catholic, Celtic Catholic, Anglican, Protestant, agnostic, atheist, and not too sure at the moment. What unites them is a sense of shared responsibility for our fellow human beings who have so much less than we do—a sense that we are the world.

After church on the day of Christmas Eve, 11-year old Eliana (Orthodox) with her grandfather, and 12-year old Menelik (New Apostolic) with his mother, met for brunch at the Golden Griddle on the corner of Carlton and Church in Toronto.

We spoke of gazing into Christ’s own eyes in the faces of the homeless, the hungry, the thirsty, the barefoot, the cold and shivering. Just as importantly, we spoke of not letting the left hand know what the right hand does, and of praying to our Lord as we go along: “We are unworthy servants; we are only doing what is our duty” (Lk 17:10). 

From there the two young people set out on their Mercy Walk—accompanied by their grown-ups, of course!—hiking up and down Yonge and along some side streets between College and Front, greeting each of our homeless brothers and sisters with Hello! Merry Christmas! God bless you!, $40 in cash, and a handmade Christmas ornament courtesy of Menelik’s mother’s 5- and 6-year old school pupils. (Her class insisted on making them for the homeless when they heard what their teacher would be doing for Christmas.)

At the end, we returned each to his or her own home in great joy, profoundly aware that we received so much more than we gave: in exchange for a few dollars, we met our newborn King of kings and Lord of lords face to face—the God of the universe!—over and over again.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Please read our Christmas message here.

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With all our heart we thank our fellow labourers in Christ whose kind-heartedeness alone made our Mercy Walk possible this Christmas Eve. May our Lord and Saviour bless you and your loved ones at His Nativity and through the coming year.

Natacha Akineza

Claudiu Barsan

Sue Benson

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Jeffrey Carmen

Rachel Irene Cassar

Timothy Connor

Garrison Copeland

Pietro Del Franco

Ronald Dieleman

Jim and Nancy Forest

Christa Gateka

Raph Graves

Kathleen Hanrahan

Michael Janeczko

David and Jen Jenkins

Ioanna Karounos

Mo! Langdon

Inga Leonova

Lisa Less

Sean Lotz

Michael Mackenzie

Carolyn Mackie

Matt Mallonee

Mickey and Minnie Mouse

David Neelands

John Papadopoulos

Aristotle Papanikolaou

Brian Požun

Charlotte Riggle

Ihor Romaniuk

Popeye the Sailor Man

Eliana SanFilippo

Jeff Steen

Laurie Toderian

Françoise Vitard

Menelik Walker