Anjela and Vincent Govan, Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral
Vincent shared a bit of their story with us:
“Anjela and I have been married 28 years, and our son Francis is about to turn 10 years old. I grew up in Michigan and Anjela grew up in the Soviet Union. We met and got married while attending the University of Michigan. In 2004 Anjela converted from Russian Orthodox to Roman Catholic, and I was raised Roman Catholic. In the Diocese of Raleigh, we attended Saint Catherine of Siena in Wake Forest from 2004-2017, then after moving we now attend Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral parish since 2017.
Over the years we have experienced the personal, spiritual, and sacramental help of many priests, deacons, and religious. We also have experienced the difficulties due to how few priests, deacons, and religious there are in our diocese. We would really like to see a better ratio of priests to parishioners so that our parish priests are more able to provide just the kind of personal, spiritual, and sacramental support that is urgently needed in the growing church of the Diocese of Raleigh. With this need in our hearts, we made a sacrificial gift to the Diocesan Seminarian Fund (Seminarian Partnership Program) to support seminarians. We hope that through the Holy Spirit, our donation and the donations of many others will grow into a larger diocesan clergy more able to provide God's love to our growing church.
One of our favorite Bible verses is Matthew 25:14-30, Jesus' story of the three servants given five, two, and one talent of gold. The words the master speaks to the servants who worked and invested the gold, "Well done, good and faithful servant," are the words we desperately hope to hear at our judgement. Our hope is that our donation to the Diocesan Seminarian Fund will be one part of this "investment" of the gifts we have received from the Lord.”