Hopewell cyclist leading cross-country tour for his church.
By: Michael Redmond
These days, each morning before he leaves the house, Jim Angelus gets a start on his 4,500-calorie-a day diet by putting at least 800 calories under his belt, usually by 6 a.m. Mr. Angelus then spends up to 10 hours of his day out on his bicycle, usually riding 75 miles by noon, and often clocking 120 miles a day by the time he calls it quits.
For the past two years, Mr. Angelus has been planning and training for "The Race to Respond," a cross-country cycling tour which celebrates the 10th anniversary of International Orthodox Christian Charities and which expects to raise $250,000 for IOCC, the official international humanitarian aid agency of Eastern Orthodox Christians.
The tour kicks off Friday, Aug. 2, in Keyport (Monmouth County) and is projected to end in San Francisco between Aug. 25-28. The riders will cross 11 states, including the hills of Pennsylvania, the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and Utah, and the desert regions of Nevada.
"For ultra-cyclists like myself, the challenge to race cross-country at a pace modeled after the Tour de France provides the ultimate test of physical and mental endurance. It’s a matter of riding so you can cover the distance. It’s a matter of riding smartly," said Mr. Angelus, a Hopewell resident who works as an art director/creative director for the Princeton Communications Group.
The tour was Mr. Angelus’s idea. He has recruited five other Orthodox Christian cyclists Constantine Davlantas of Oak Lawn, Ill., age 30; Konstantin Kanelis of Munich, Germany, 35; Alex Mazarakos of Burbank, Ill., 27, and Michael Tsakalos of Phoenix, Md., 26, as well as a support-and-gear crew including "Race Across America" bicycle mechanic Zack Burdett of Houston.
But Mr. Angelus and his partners are not in it for the glory. They are motivated by the opportunity to increase public awareness of Orthodox Christianity in America and to spotlight the international mission of the IOCC.
Being Orthodox in America is "frustrating as hell," said Mr. Angelus. "Nobody knows who we are."
The Orthodox church, numbering 300 million adherents worldwide, considers itself to be the original Christian church. In the year 1054, after more than two centuries of growing estrangement, Western Christians (today’s Roman Catholics) and Eastern Christians (today’s Orthodox) severed their ancient union, primarily over Rome’s assertion of direct papal authority over the entire Christian church.
Orthodox Christianity in North America dates its origins to the arrival of Russian missionaries in Kodiak, Alaska, in 1794. Today there are an estimated two to four million Orthodox Christians throughout North America, organized in more than 2,000 parishes and missions throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Orthodox Christians in the United States do have "an ‘image problem,’" writes the Rev. Stanley S. Harakas of Brookline, Mass., a Greek Orthodox professor of theology. "We are small in numbers, we represent various national traditions, we are organized into different ecclesiastical jurisdictions, and we came late onto the religious scene in this country long after the phrase ‘Protestant, Catholic, Jewish’ became a journalistic cliché."
Jim Angelus, his wife, Lynn, and their 10-year-old twin sons, Nicholas and Evan, are members of Mother of God Orthodox Mission in Rocky Hill. Having been raised in the Greek Orthodox church in America, Jim and Lynn are standouts among their fellow parishioners because they are both "cradle" Orthodox.
Founded by eight people in 1998, Mother of God Mission now numbers more than 30 families. Virtually the entire congregation is composed of converts to Orthodox Christianity. This is remarkable because the Orthodox, traditionally, do not proselytize the way some other Christian groups do.
"Our parish is thriving for a twofold reason," said the Rev. John Cassar, the mission’s pastor. "First, there is a real interest in Orthodoxy on the part of Western Christians and we’re open to the community. We strive to be authentic Christians, to be the church as a loving community and to project an attitude that is welcoming."
The Orthodox mission is Rocky Hill exemplifies what appears to be a time of dramatic growth for Orthodox Christianity in America, according to numerous independent sources. About 1990, a new wave of immigrants from traditionally Orthodox lands (the Balkans, Russia, Middle Eastern Christians) began to arrive in the United States, and "Orthodox churches in America began to welcome tens of thousands of (native-born American) converts, especially dissatisfied Protestant Christians" (The Chicago Tribune).
International Orthodox Christian Charities was founded 10 years ago by The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), an umbrella organization for most of the nation’s Orthodox churches. The IOCC has since done more than $140 million in relief and development work in 21 countries, by no means limited to traditionally Orthodox lands.
"IOCC is a shining light for the Orthodox faith in the United States," said Jim Angelus. "Through its work, people are beginning to see who we are Greeks, Russians, people of so many different ethnicities, all Americans or living here in America."
Anne Glynn Mackoul, a Princeton attorney, is an IOCC board member, an elected representative of the Antiochan Orthodox church to the World Council of Churches and a member of St. Philip Antiochan Orthodox Church in Souderton, Pa.
"IOCC’s major achievements have been to serve as a forum for American Orthodox from different jurisdictions to work cooperatively together, with the blessing of their bishops, and to help people who may not otherwise have received help," Ms. Mackoul said.
"Humanitarian outreach from Orthodox Christians proved to be very important during the Balkan crisis. We were able to render aid in circumstances where others couldn’t. Our humanitarian efforts on the ground in (the West Bank) are also very important. People see it as a Jewish-Muslim area, but there are many (indigenous Arab) Christians there," she said.
A native New Yorker who is an alumnus of the Parsons School of Design and the Indiana University (Bloomington), Jim Angelus, age 45, is just keeping his eye on the prize at this point.
"I’ve always wanted to go cross-country on a bike. Now that I’m going with other riders, with Lynn and the kids in the pace car, it’s going to be a rip," he said.
Everything except the Rockies, one expects. The team has to make a 20-mile climb from 6,000 feet at the base (Estes Park) to 12,500 feet at the peak (Trail Ridge). At the base, the temperature is expected to be 75-80 degrees. On Trail Ridge, it’s expected to be 35 degrees.
Serious biking is nothing new to Jim Angelus. "It’s just something I do," he said. As a kid, he biked all over Manhattan. Following his education, when he returned to New York, he would jump on his bike and find himself out in Long Island. "I would get onto a road and just start riding, and keep riding. Before I knew it, I was 20 or 30 miles out in Nassau County."
Mr. Angelus made a point of expressing his gratitude for "the tremendous" support of Lawrence Krampf , the Princeton Communications Group’s chief executive officer, and to Darren Pickles, fitness director of The Princeton Family YMCA. The Y sponsored Mr. Angelus’s fitness training for a year.
The five cyclists and their support crew are expected to pass through Princeton on Saturday, Aug. 3, as they maintain an average pace of 130 miles a day.
For more information about the IOCC and "The Race to Respond," visit www.racetorespond.org. Mother of God Orthodox Mission (Orthodox Church in America) is located on Princeton Avenue in Rocky Hill and can be reached by calling (609) 252-0310 and by visiting www.geocities.com/mogrh