Tidbits on Parish Health Page To
read selected tidbits of parish activities within the Diocese go to the Parish Health page and
look in right hand column.
Stop, Start, Strengthen
On Saturday July 7, parish leaders from Holy Trinity Cathedral escaped
the Chicago heat to explore the following questions:
Where are we heading as a
parish?
Where do we want to head as a
parish?
Most importantly, where does God
want us to head as a parish?
What keeps us from accomplishing
more?
Discussions
resulted in a first draft of elements of a future parish vision which
addresses strengthening existing activities, practices and behaviors and
replacing other behaviors and activities with new ministries more
reflective of living a life in Christ.
Responding parishes indicate 55 high school graduates and 50
college graduates. A quick perusal indicates what seems to be a large
number of sons and daughters of clergy graduating this spring! (Nine
clergy offspring from 23 parishes.)
To see the current list click here. How many names do you recognize? (I discovered two
cousins!)
Evangelization Education Initiative Being Planned
Sharing Our Faith with Others
Positive reaction to the Inquirers ClassPowerpoint
is leading to requests for tools and
training on Orthodox Evangelization practices.
We heard a lot about this need at the Breaking Our Insularity Workshop in Cleveland in May.
How can we do a better job of sharing our faith with others? How can
we capitalize on those evangelizable moments?
A start is available from this new article -- Actions Speak Louder Than Words by Fr. Eric Tosi Chairman of the OCA's department of
Evangelization. Further insight as to the sources of
our ineffectiveness are offered in this article Evangelization by Allurement by Fr. V.
Berzonsky.
But articles are not enough.
An Education Initiative - Why Now?
Past OCA publications, workshops and AAC's thoroughly covered the
Evangelization topic. However much of this effort was in the early 80's.
Probably less than 20% of our clergy and faithful under age 50 have been
exposed to this. Those who were exposed have no doubt forgotten much of
it and as times and issues change content needs to be updated.
Joe Kormos & Fr John Matusiak are discussing ways to repurpose the
highly successful "Orthodox Evangelism: The Basis and Basics"
(the "purple book") as well as new material suitable for
delivery to your parishes via the the web in
bite size, on demand content chunks.
Stay tuned. For more about this project click here. Feedback welcome.
Clergy Compensation Policy Committee to Meet
Proposed Diocesan Policy to Be Discussed at Cleveland
Diocesan Assembly
The clergy compensation practices
survey has been closed. Responses were received from 53 (51 were
usable) rectors and priests in charge.
A Clergy Compensation Committee consisting of a dean (Fr. Andrew Yavornitzky) and a clergy and lay representative from
Diocesan Councl (Fr. Andrew Clements & Sam D'Fantis) will meet
with the Chancellor and Parish Health Facilitator on August 7 to review
the detailed results (averages, medians high, low; compensation vs parish size and years of service) and to draft a
policy. The proposed policy will be discussed at the Diocesan Assembly in
Cleveland on October 2 & 3.
Response Overview Available
Non-confidential responses (no salary data or respondent specific open
ended responses) are available for viewing by clicking here.
Communications Practices Survey
Preliminary
Results Available
A disappointingly small number of respondents participated in the
internal and external communications practices survey. nonetheless
we've summarized results here.
The survey is still open and can be accessed here.
PARISH LIFE: WHAT ARE WE STUDYING
Facing the
World
We're always
interested in what parishes are studying together.
One parish reports that it is studying Archbishop Annastasios'
book: Orthodox Christian Essays on Global Concerns. The book consitst of seven
25-35 page essays that addresses the common issues affecting the
religions of traditional societies around the world: globalization,
religious pluralism.
Parish Health Events- Church School Teachers
Training 10/13/07 in Cincinnati
Columbus Deanery to Host OCEC Church School Teacher
Certification Workshop
A workshop for Church
school teachers will be held at Christ the Savior-Holy-Spirit parish in Cincinnati
from 9:00 AM to 4:40 PM on October 13. This event, sponsored by the
Columbus Deanery, will be taught by a certified trainer from the Orthodox
Christain Education Center. Church school teeachers from any Orthodox parish are welcome to
attend. A fee of $25 covers the training manual and lunch.
Lay Catechist and Other Proposals in Development for
Diocesan Assembly.
Fr. Michael Butler, Director of Vocations for the Diocese, is developing a plan for implementing a
comprehensive structure and integrated, multi-media curriculum content
for vocational formation for Deacons, Readers, Subdeacons,
Choir Directors, and Lay Catechists.
Fr. Michael will report on progress at the the
Diocesan Assembly in Cleveland. The report will give particular emphasis
to moving forward with the Lay Catechist concept discussed at the Clergy
Convocation in February.
Fr Micheal is seeking a few interested
reviewers for these projects. If interested contact Fr. Michael Butler
via email or phone (440-427-9439) .
Thank you for reading these letters and for the many
encouraging comments.
In Christ,
Joe Kormos, Parish Health Facilitator
Diocese of Midwest
