God has opened up an exciting new avenue for St. Michael’s, Orlando, to serve its community. The church, located in College Park, held the first meeting of its mental-health support group, Holding Hope, on Thursday, Dec. 7, at 6:30 p.m.

This special group is being established for those 18 years and older to provide a sacred, safe community space that will give hope and light for those experiencing mental health challenges. The group will meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month, including Dec. 21.

The name of the group, Holding Hope, speaks to the genesis of this idea. Six years ago, Heather Niemas, the group’s primary facilitator, was experiencing profound hopelessness. As she tried to figure out whom she might ask for help, she remembered the kindness of the people at St. Michael’s, where her child had attended preschool several years prior. She reached out to the church’s rector, the Rev. Rick Luoni. “Father Rick held hope for me when I couldn’t hold it for myself,” Heather said.

“I want St. Michael’s to be a place where people experience God’s love, and this means being a loving incarnational presence of Christ for others,” Luoni said. “We must be an unshaming place.” He explained that one of St. Michael’s values, seminal to the gospel mission, is that “we exist for people who are not yet our members. The church is the only organization that exists for non-members. We are not a country club.”

It wasn’t long before Heather began attending St. Michael’s; she said she came to know Christ through the loving hands and feet of Jesus in the people there. For her, the natural outcome of this journey is a desire in her heart to hold hope for others when they cannot hold it for themselves, just as Luoni did for her.

Despite being in its initial stages, the group’s values are set. Holding Hope embraces with intention the ideas that hope and joy can be held in darkness, that healing can come through compassion and acceptance, that a person does not have to exist alone, that everyone needs community, that peace and sadness can coexist and that people are connected through their struggles. Holding Hope seeks to be a place where all these values are upheld.

For more information, reach out to the church office at 407-843-8448.