A ministry to the dying and the departed · Upstate South Carolina
The Brotherhood of St. Joseph of Arimathea
No Orthodox Christian in our region should die without a priest, and no family should keep vigil or bury their dead alone. The Brotherhood brings a priest to the bedside — your own priest first — and stands with the family through the funeral and the days of remembrance.
Courtesy of St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Christian Community · operated by Refuge Fellowship, Inc.
Ask for a priest
The Brotherhood's care line is being prepared. Until it opens, please call your own parish priest directly.
The request form opens with the Brotherhood.
If someone is dying and you cannot reach a priest, call 911 for medical help and keep praying: Lord, have mercy.
Find an Orthodox parish
The Orthodox communities, clergy, hospices, hospitals and funeral homes across the Upstate — each checked against its own published information.
Open the directoryServe with the Brotherhood
Priests, deacons, readers and lay chaplains from every Orthodox jurisdiction serve together here, each under the blessing of their own priest.
Sign in or joinOur heritage
From the fifteenth century on, the Orthodox people of Ukraine cared for the sick, buried the dead and prayed for the departed through their church brotherhoods. Our Brotherhood takes its name from St. Joseph of Arimathea and its pattern from them.
Preparing ahead
Papers to fill in for those you love, for your care and for your burial, and Orthodox craftsmen who make plain wooden caskets in the old way.
Our patron
St. Joseph of Arimathea
A secret disciple of the Lord, Joseph went boldly to Pilate and asked for the Body of Jesus. He took Him down from the Cross, wrapped Him in clean linen, and laid Him in his own new tomb (Matthew 27:57–60; John 19:38–42). The Church remembers him with Nicodemus and the Myrrh-bearing Women on the third Sunday of Pascha.
The Brotherhood takes up his work: to care for the dying, to honour the body of the departed, and to stay with those who mourn.
What the Brotherhood does
- Brings a priest. Your own priest is asked first and always kept informed; another priest is asked only if yours cannot come.
- Keeps vigil. Readers read the Psalter and pray with the family.
- Helps the household. Meals, rides and errands in the hard days.
- Remembers. The third, ninth and fortieth days, and the year.
- In time, we hope to help with funeral costs through grants paid only to funeral homes and cemeteries — gifts decided by need, never earned by dues or membership.
Our promises
What we will never do
- We never record anything said in Confession, and we never record medical details.
- We never charge for spiritual care, and we never accept payment for a listing or a referral.
- Lay members never perform a Mystery of the Church. Confession, Holy Unction and Holy Communion are for priests alone.
- We never pass a family's names or numbers to anyone who has not accepted the visit.
Support the Brotherhood
The Brotherhood is being formed at St. Michael the Archangel in Pickens. Gifts are received through St. Michael's own giving page and support the work as it begins.
GiveFor readers and chanters
St. Michael's Chant Stand sets out Vespers, Typika and the Akathist for any day, ready to read where no priest can serve; the Services Trainer teaches how they go.