Parish Pulse A Newsletter for Parish Leaders Diocese of the Midwest, Orthodox Church in America January, 2008 - Vol 3, Issue 1 In This Issue Upcoming Events Parish Health Grants Awarded Liturgical Arts Workshop Held Parish Financial Accountability Practices The Parish Summit Areas of Difference Ten Areas of Commonality A Parish Health Model Quick Links Parish Health Ministry Diocese of the Midwest Orthodox Church in America Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory Forever! A flurry of important activities in the Diocese derailed our rhythm of attempting to deliver Parish Pulse every four to six weeks. We're embarrassed to admit that this is the first issue since late May! Thank you to all who have good naturedly contacted us to say "Hey where is my Parish Pulse?" Apparently some are reading these. The remainder of you probably appreciated some modest reduced pressure on your email inbox! This issue has lots of "good stuff" on Parish Health Grants Parish Administrative Good Practices Parish Health Summit Observations of Growing Parishes Parish Health Inventory Model If you are new to this list and unfamiliar with the Diocese' Parish Health Ministry an overview can be found here. Past Parish Health info can be found on the Parish Health page of the Diocesan website. Joseph Kormos Parish Health Facilitator Diocese of the Midwest
Upcoming Events Cincinnati OH Parish Hosting Retreat Sept. 27 On Saturday September 27 Christ the Savior- Holy Spirit Church in Cincinnati OH will host a workshop titled "Healing in Christ: From Orphans to Children of God" featuring special guest speaker Madre Ivonne from the Hogar Rafael Ayau Orthodox Christian Orphanage in Guatemala City, Guatemala. More info and registration Columbus Parish Hosting Choir Concert Oct 5 As part of the parish's 25th anniversary celebration, the choir of St Gregory of Nyssa Orthodox Church in Columbus OH will present a concert of Orthodox liturgical music on Sunday October 5 at 6:00 PM. More info Detroit Area Orthodox Churches Hosting Parish Revitalization Workshop Oct 16-17 On Friday and Saturday October 16 & 17 the Council of Orthodox Christian Churches (COCC) of Metropolitan Detroit will host a workshop titled Enriching Parish Life at Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church 36075 Seven Mile Rd. Livonia MI. The workshop will be co-presented by Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff and Joseph Kormos. To register call Richard Shebib 734-422-0278 or via email. The workshop runs from 7:00-8:30 on Friday night and from 8:30-4:30 on Saturday. A registration fee of $50 per parish covers all attendees from the parish. Deadline for registration is Oct. 1 Canton OH Parish Hosting "Discerning Spiritual Gifts" Workshop Nov 21-22 In virtually every parish we visit and every workshop we participate in the topic of personal engagement with parish life comes up. "How can I best discern what God is calling me to do? What are my gifts and talents that I should be offering back to God?" On November 21 & 22 Holy Assumption parish in Canton OH will offer a professionally facilitated session on Discerning Your Spiritual Gifts. Agenda, start times and registration info will be forthcoming. Parish Health Grants Announced Five Grants Provided The Diocese' first ever parish health grant effort has become a reality over the summer. Numerous proposals were received from mission communities and parishes. A review team of five clergy and five lay persons reviewed the proposals and rated them according to the following criteria: Breadth of involvement - Did the proposal engage many or few parishioners? Importance and impact on the parish or mission Probability of effective execution --just a good idea or can it really get done?
Transferability - Can this effort provide insight for others to use? Uniqueness - Is it creative or more of the same? The reviewer's ratings were discussed in person by a subset group of priests and laity from the Diocesan and Bishop's Council. The overall rankings were affirmed and the reviewers apportioned funds among the proposals. A consensus was reached and five grants in varying dollar amounts were awarded. Raise Food to Feed Hungry The grant that received the most enthusiastic support from reviewers was from St. Nicholas Parish in Kenosha Wisconsin. Parishioners will raise produce to help feed the hungry in the neighborhood. The ministry involves the creation of raised "enabling gardening beds" on the parish property. An 'enabling bed' stands approximately 30 inches off the ground, thereby allowing the elderly and differently-abled persons to easily circumnavigate the space and work in the earth. This will be a collaborative effort involving all interested parishioners, including youth and the elderly, as well as prospective organizational partners. The parish has received significant interest in the project from local Kenosha press. One reviewer noted: "The entire grant was well written and presented a very strong idea. The line that sold it for me was 'this particular facet of concern for the less fortunate has eluded our community for some time resulting in a certain insularity.' " Radio Spots St. Raphael Mission, Quincy IL will receive financial support for an out reach effort to develop, record and place radio spots about the Orthodox faith. While this approach to outreach has been tried before the idea of the potential for impact in this modest sized city was attractive to reviewers. Bookstore and Information Booth Holy Cross Mission, Chisago City MN was awarded a grant for a proposal to expand their presence at community festivals with a booth staffed by members and stocked with information about the mission and Orthodoxy. This will be followed by establishing a bookstore with resources and publications geared for the non-orthodox and the un-churched. Reviewers commented that this proposal involved personal contact with the local community and went beyond standard signs and advertising. Communicate Orthodoxy to Seekers/Inquirers St. Mark Parish Rochester MI saw a need to strengthen their parish's ability to communicate the Orthodox faith and worship to those who enter their doors -- to sustain as best possible the seeker's journey. This effort will, in a structured way, attempt to identify the particular difficulties that inquirers encounter as they seek to understand and engage Orthodoxy. A training program for parishioners will address these specific difficulties and describe the do's and dont's of how to talk to a Western Christian. The classes will be interactive and will include presentations and role-plays. These presentations will be video-taped and made available to other parishes. Sharing Learning All communities receiving grants will summarize what they learn and will offer any materials
produced -- literature lists, reading lists, radio spots training materials etc for use by other parishes. Thank You! Congratulations and thank you to: All of the parishes receiving grants -please do your work with diligence. All the communities submitting requests -- we wish we could have funded all of the proposals. (To that end if you personally -- or your parish -- would like to provide funding for other grant proposals please contact Joe Kormos.) Those who provided funding for this effort. We received money from two private anonymous individuals and from St. Gregory Orthodox Church in Columbus OH who saw fit to support this project as part of their 25th Anniversary celebration. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Parish Milwaukee Holds Liturgical Arts Workshop Parish Health Grants at Work We can hear some of you asking, "I only see four. What parish received the fifth grant?" A liturgical arts workshop for youth was the subject of a successful grant proposal from Ss. Cyril and Methodius Parish in Milwaukee WI. This is the first of the grant projects to be partially completed. This workshop aimed to challenge parish youth to become more deeply involved and to learn to be real stewards of the worship of the church -- opening to them the possibility of liturgical vocations. Skilled instructors equipped attendees to learn to sing, direct, chant, and paint iconography. Too Much Too Fast? Not for Kids! Eleven youth, ranging in age from 11 to 17, participated in the workshop, including one from a Chicago parish and one from the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Milwaukee. There was a range of talent and previous artistic or musical experience & training. Grant funding enabled the workshop to be open to all at no cost with lunch, snacks for breaks and transportation provided. By the second morning concern arose that the scope of the workshop would overwhelm the participants. Instead it was found that kids -- as we know -- have far more energy than adults and they were very faithful to the program and took it very seriously.
They appreciated organizers' efforts and the work of the instructors. Results? What results can be seen? The improvement in singing and directing at Sunday Liturgy was immediately apparent - better blending, more confidence, a nicer sound. A real esprit de corps among the young singers and a desire to take more responsibility, for example in reading has also been apparent. There are several very talented young artists who are interested in doing more iconography. Serious follow-through activities will involve additional instruction in the tones and in directing, as well as in an already-scheduled iconography field trip. The parish has now received a significant new donation for pursuing these follow-up activities and anticipates trying to make this an annual event covered by parish funds. Best Principles and Practices for Parish Financial Accountability - First Draft With financial accountability at the forefront within the Orthodox Church in America, the question can be easily asked, "What practices need to be followed in our parish to assure that we manage funds entrusted to us responsibly and prudently?" Parishioners and donors provide generous support because they trust the parish to carry out its mission and to be good stewards of resources. What must we do at the parish level to consistently earn their trust? Is a published budget, two signatories on checks, donation acknowledgments and an annual audit enough? The parish council at Holy Trinity parish in Overland Park KS asked just those questions and more earlier this year. To develop answers a task force was formed to research this and to propose a best practices manual for use in the parish. Headed by assistant pastor Fr. Chris Rowe the task force produced a valuable document that is being used as the foundation for new parish practices. The document has been posted for your review on the Diocesan website here. It can be used as a potential model for your parish. Fr. Chris would very much like to receive comments and feedback on their efforts. This is "Version 1" of a document that no doubt will evolve and be improved over time. Contact Fr Chris here with suggested improvements.
The Parish Health Summit - Wheaton IL Harvesting What We Know About Healthy Parishes We talk a lot about healthy parishes. We occasionally hear people making great sport of criticizing definitions and conceptions offered on this topic by others -- Orthodox and non-orthodox alike. But what do we really mean by this term "healthy parish" and "vibrant parish"? What do these parishes look and feel like? What goes on there? And, how do we help less vibrant parishes move onto a path to living a life in Christ in a more complete way? In response to these and other questions Archbishop JOB convened a two day Parish Health Summit at St Joseph's parish in Wheaton IL tin early July. Collective Insight & Breadth of Experience The conference was designed to harvest our collective insight on what we know and what we don't know about building healthy, hopeful American Orthodox parishes in the 21st century. Fifteen priests from twelve growing parishes met with Archbishop JOB for two days to share perspectives on this topic. (Four other invited priests were unable to attend.) Invited parishes had more than doubled in aggregate size over the past twenty years. Priests in attendance offered a combined total of over 250 years in the priesthood. As a result it was felt that that these parishes could collectively be well equipped to express a lived model of health and vibrancy. The primary goal of the session was to simply and directly share the approaches, practices and principles that seemed to be working in growing parishes so that participants might leave with fresh sense of potentially effective actions. A secondary goal was to understand what growing parishes seemed to have in common - and where they differed from one another. Healthy Parishes - Diversity of Practice and Environment The Parish Health Summit was one of the few structured Diocesan gatherings in recent memory where priests came together to openly discuss parish life. The environment and agenda was vastly different from Diocesan Assemblies and Clergy Convocations. Summit attendees participated in workshops and exercises designed to openly and fairly describe the strengths and challenges of their parishes. After hearing from one another, attendees attempted to summarize what was learned. One of the key observations centered around the clear diversity of local environments, parish backgrounds and parish practices among these growing parishes. Some common myths about growing parishes were quickly dispelled.
For example: "You can only grow in the 'burbs'" - Some parishes represented suburban locations -- however many invited parishes serve inner city locations. "It's all about buildings" - Some had gleaming new buildings while many worship in old churches and even structures that had been converted from previous non-church use. "Only 'new' parishes grow" - While many attendee s represented parishes that were founded after 1970 -- others offered a heritage back to the early 20th century. "Only parishes that are the only (Orthodox) 'game in town' can grow" - It is true that some growing parishes clearly benefit from being the only nonethnic Orthodox parish in their town -- but others are growing in an environment where members have many nearby choices of Orthodox parishes. Worship style - While all participant parishes had long ago adopted English as the standard language of worship -- participant parishes exhibited a spectrum of worship styles: choir vs. congregational and various chant styles. Administrative Structure - Attendees demonstrated that there is no "one way" to administer a parish. Attendees expressed varying views on issues such as the degree of structure necessary in parish administration and clergy leadership styles. Some saw it as important to embed a culture of active effort -- consistently striving and driving for excellence, engagement and improvement in the parish. Others try to maintain a quiet, tranquil "equilibrium" in parish life. Mission Statements - Some saw written mission and vision statements as being valuable to keeping the parish on the same page. Others completely disagreed. Based on the clear diversity of practice an important conclusion emerged. If it truly desires to do so and will put forth the effort -- any parish can become more vibrant and healthy! Areas of Commonality While the growing parishes at the Summit are clearly distinctive and different -- they also exhibit many areas of commonality as well. As the facilitator for the Summit this author had a unique perspective for discerning those areas of commonality.
Us? A Model? Surely Not! There was a universal feeling among all present that "our parish is far from a model parish." Warts and imperfections in parish life abounded. Yet, as one listened it was hard not to feel that, in an aggregate sense, the collective insight of those assembled could be used to describe a composite view of good Orthodox parish practices. Ten Areas of Consistency Here, in no particular order are ten noteworthy items of commonality. 1. Diverse Membership None of the parishes in attendance was dominated by a single (traditionally Orthodox) ethnic group. Baklava mixes well with peroghis. All parishes either never were ethnically consistent or had transitioned to becoming a pan-orthodox parish or even convert centric parish. Many also cited the importance of generational, and economic diversity among their parishioners. 2. Christians First One of the most frequently mentioned comments by attendees was the importance of helping parishioners to remember that too often we focus on the specifics of being Orthodox to the detriment of the basics of being Christians. Versions of "I remind my flock that to be Orthodox is to be a right believing Christian. We're Christian first -- by being Orthodox" and "We try to lay a strong foundation of the basics of the Gospel" were oft repeated themes throughout the Summit. 3. Focus on the Neighborhood Numerous participants spoke of the importance of engaging with their local neighborhood. This manifested itself in many ways --communication with local ministerial associations, chambers of commerce, "buying local", lines of communication with local paper as well as neighborhood centered charitable endeavors. One priest offered: "We work hard to avoid allowing our parish to turn inward on itself. If we do that we become our own ghetto." 4. Find a Ministry While many present mentioned their efforts to be tolerant of various levels of engagement on the part of parishioners, we heard often about parish's efforts to invite everyone to "find a ministry". Many parishes reported a broad set of ministry areas --something for everyone. One reported thirty seven distinct ministry areas. There was much discussion about how to do a better job of identifying members gifts and talents, and channeling those gifts for proper use within the church. 5. Say 'Thank you' Often Perhaps the simplest yet most commonly expressed idea from these seasoned priests was the tremendous importance of clergy and lay leaders expressing collective, and individual thanks to parishioners for their good efforts. One participant noted, "A
measure of praise and appreciation goes a long way in building a hopeful community outlook." 6."'Yes' More Than 'No'" There was a palpable sense that the priests present felt that in order to help parishioners connect with the work of the parish lay persons need to be trusted. Efforts to delegate abounded. In these parishes fresh new ideas are more often met with "OK lets try that" than "Not in this parish". "We just implemented a new position of parish office secretary", said one priest, "I'm struck by the many new things we're trying that I would have never thought of." 7. Websites There was almost universal agreement as to the importance of effective websites. Many priests mentioned that their website was by far the most important way that new people -- Orthodox and non-orthodox -- find the parish. Email and blogs were also mentioned as an important tool in parish communication. 8. Fund Raising Funding raising is limited in most Summit attending parishes. Often it is focused on fellowship and charitable causes. Few of these parishes spend a significant amount of effort on fund raising. Some have none. 9. Up Dating Parish Council There was important mention of the need for a give and take --synergy -- between the clergy and laity. There were numerous reports of important improvement in the focus of the parish council on "more than money and minutiae". Under the priest's guidance parish councils it seems are engaging with the questions of "What God is calling us to do?" and "Where do we want to head?" They are doing more than maintenance and are taking action to build the health and vibrancy of the parish. 10. Broad Stewardship of the Parish Probably the most consistent theme we heard can be put simply as a sense of broad stewardship of the parish. One sensed that in these reasonably healthy parishes members are more likely to see the parish not as "their own" -- but as belonging to Christ. Parishioners and leaders seem to see their roles as stewards - caretakers of something they have received from the Master. Shortly after the Summit we led a retreat for one of the invited parishes. After reviewing impressive progress on an array of ministries we congratulated them on a fine effort. Their response seemed to exemplify the attitude of many Summit attending parishes. "We take our faith, our parish and its ministries seriously," noted the head of the parish council.
A Parish Health Model Common Sense Good Practice Inventory for Building Healthy Orthodox Parishes Summit attendees discussed how best to share insights they gained with other Orthodox parishes who were not in attendance. It was decided to define a clear set of essential "focus areas" -- dimensions of parish life and practice that were consistent with the lived experience of parishes represented at the Summit in hopes that this could serve as a model parishes to apply to their particular situation. Each attendee offered his nominations for 4-10 focus areas. After spirited debate the group converged on eight essential areas for building health and vibrancy in Orthodox parishes. The Eight areas with subareas are: 1. Gospel Centered Vision Mission, vision & identity; Parish self awareness & understanding; Atmosphere of Excellence; Growth & replication 2. Vibrant Worship Liturgical Preparedness; Congregational participation; Effective preaching; Appropriate worship cycles 3. Shared Leadership Sharing /delegating responsibility; Leading Change; Functional structures & administration; Open financial practice & reporting 4. Open Communication Consensus and Dialogue; Dealing with conflict; Internal Communication methods 5. Authentic Community Atmosphere of love & honest fellowship; Entry & incorporation mechanisms; Connectedness to larger church; Appropriate facilities 6. Christian Formation Orthodox spirituality; Education; Financial generosity 7. Active Service Discernment of gifts; Effective ministries 8. Spreading the Gospel Parish evangelization atmosphere; Personal evangelization practice; Sensitivity to spiritual needs of others; External communication Inventory Materials Being Prepared for Use by Parishes - Stay Tuned! Since the Summit considerable effort has gone into preparing a comprehensive set of parish
assessment workshop tools for discussion by parish small groups and parish leadership councils. We are evaluating a variety of approaches for putting this insight into the hands of parishes and parishioners. Thank you for reading these newsletters, for your feedback and encouragement. Sincerely, Joe Kormos Parish Health Facilitator Diocese of Midwest 513.683.1911