St Ambrose  Parish Pulse
    A Newsletter for Parish Leaders
      Diocese of the Midwest,
     Orthodox Church in America

June 2009; 2009 #3
January, 2008 - Vol 3, Issue 1
Some Past Parish Health Ministry Articles

1. Parish Financial Audit Guidelines
2. Best Practice Principles and Policies for Parish Financial Accountability
3.Clergy Compensation Policy
4. Workshops & retreats available through the Parish Health Ministry
5.How Do Visitors Expereince Your Parish -- Mystery Worshippers Provide Unvarnished Feedback
6. Toward better Parish Websites
7. Improving parish bulletin content
9. Photographing Your parish
Attitudes that Enable parishes to grow

10. Growth and decline in our parish -taking action
11. Reorganizing Parish ministries
12. Areas of diversity among growing parishes
13. Areas of commonality among growing parishes

Videos & Powerpoint Presentations
1. Orthodox Evangelization 
Intro to Orthodoxy - A Three Part Inquirers Class (Powerpoint)
2. The parish Video -Life and Vocation of an Orthodox Parish in America
3. Father Arseny Society Video --
4. The Saturday Lunch Program

Glory to Jesus Christ!
Glory Forever!
Greetings,
Welcome to the June 2009 issue of Parish Pulse.

In this issue we cover:
  • Upcoming Events
  • Parish Health Grants
  • Urban conference planning progessing
  • Webinar pilot series
  • Sharing the Hope that is in us --St Mark parish Rochester Hills parish grant update.
  • Patriarch Athengoras Institute study of Orthodoxy in America.
Please share this publication with your fellow parishioners and encourage them to subscribe. Better yet send lists of names and e-addresses to us.

If you are receiving duplicates of this newsletter please use the unsubscribe button at the end to remove one of your addresses. 

Joseph Kormos
Parish Health Facilitator
Diocese of the Midwest

Upcoming Events

Camping Schedule
Numerous camps are scheduled within the Diocese including:
  • FOCA Sports Tournament -- July 12-18 St Vladimir Camp Green OH
  • St. Vladimir Camp Green OH - Ages 7 - 11 - June 28 - July 4; Ages 12 - 16 - July 6 - 11 -
  • Eastern Orthodox Youth Camp -- July 26 - August 1 - La Cygne, Kansas
  • Chicago Deanery Summer Camp -- June 27 - July 1; Edwards YMCA Camp, East Troy, Wisconsin
Further info is available on Diocesan Website

July 15 Parish Health Grant Applications Due
See related article below or go here for more information.

July 16-17 -Urban Parish Summit  Cleveland OH
see related article below or go here for more information.
Archimandrite Melchizedek Consecrated Bishop of Pittsburgh
New Bishop has roots in Diocese of Midwest
Melchisedek
Archimandrite Melchizedek (Pleska), a native of the Diocese of the Midwest, was consecrated as Bishop of Pittsburgh and the Diocese of Western Pennsylvania on June 20 at St Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Allison Park PA. Raised in Dayton OH, Archimandrite Melchizedek (Thomas Pleska) was an early parishioner and choir member at Christ the Savior-Holy Spirit parish in Cincinnati OH. His mother is a parishioner at St Paul Church in Dayton and his sister Nancy Magnon was also a parishioner at St. Paul's until she recently relocated to Tennessee.
 
Diocese to Hold Urban Parish Summit
July 16 & 17 Cleveland OH  

St TheodosiusOver forty clergy and laity have registered for this summer's parish summit which focuses on the theme "The Vocation of the Orthodox Urban Parish in the 21st Century" to be held in Cleveland OH.

Space is limited to sixty persons. Clergy and parishioners from the numerous urban parishes from within the Diocese of the Midwest have received invitations from His Eminence and have first chance to participate.

Agenda will include open discussions, structured workshops, and presentations from subject matter experts. AFocus logo broad range of topics will be covered including practical ideas for urban ministry, myths about the needy, examples of Orthodox urban outreach, connecting with Urban professionals and harnessing parish stories as a tool for driving change in heritage parishes. Among those invited to provide contributions to this event is Fr. Justin Matthews Executive Director of the newly formed FOCUS North America.

St Gregory lunchIf you have an interest in the issues facing urban parishes and are not from one of the specifically invited parishes and would like to attend please contact Joseph Kormos at 513-683-1911. A modest registration fee will apply to cover meals and handout materials for attendees from parishes that did not receive a specific invitation. Space available attendance is available to parishes of other Dioceses and Orthodox jurisdictions.

Parishes need to make their own travel accomodations.
sewer
The Summit web page offers information on: 
  • Summit Goals
  • Travel accommodations
  • Agenda information
  • Invited parish listings
Parish Health Grant Applications Due
July 15 is Due Date

Parish Health Grant Applications Due July 15
The Diocese' first ever parish health grant effort became a reality in 2008. After receiving numerous proposals from mission communities and parishes, grants totaling over $9600 were awarded to six parishes for projects such as:
Kenosha gardening
  • feeding the hungry in the neighborhood via the creation of raised "enabling gardening beds"
  • developing, recording and placing radio spots about the Orthodox faith.
  • establishing a bookstore and information booth at local festivals
  • creating a liturgical arts workshop for youth
  • preloading MP3 players with Orthodox content and provide players to parishioners along with training.singing Milwaukee
  • Building classes to strengthen a parish's ability to communicate the Orthodox faith to inquirers.

Grant Program in Review
The parish grant program continues in 2009. Grant amounts are less than $3000 and designed to provide stimulus to new ministries or to strengthen existing ministries. Here is what you do to receive a grant for your parish: (You really know this already -- don't you?)
  1. Come up with a good idea. For some parishes this is easy. Other parishes find this "idea-thing" to be very hard. So let us offer some insight here:
    • A good idea (for the grant project anyway) involves real actual work. (You know --effort.)The more people from the parish who share the work --the more robust the grant proposal -- and get this -- the more likely a grant will be awarded and the more valuable the outcome!
    • Grant ApplicationGrant ideas are not for fixing your roof or supplementing your parish budget. 
    • The best ideas result in something that turns the crank in your parish -- and provides tools, insight, materials etc. for other parishes to use.
  2. Fill out an application . This means you describe the need, the objectives, the steps, who will be involved, why they are likely to accomplish something, what you think you'll accomplish and ho much money you're requesting.
  3. Email it (get it -- no paper!!) to Joseph Kormos before July 15.
  4. Evaluation -- sit back and allow the committee some time to sift through grant requests.
Oh yes, the published review criteria are: Impact on the parish; breadth of parish involvement; probability of effective execution; transferability to others; collaboration with others; and availability of matching funds
Those receiving a grant will be informed within one month of the deadline.

Confirm Receipt!
When submitting grant proposals please confirm receipt -- either by phone or email. We just found one in a spam folder!
Webinar Pilot Series Attracts Growing Audience
Pilot Project Demonstrates Useful Approach to Distance Learning

webinar collageThe Diocese of the Midwest recently completed a pilot project using webinars (web based seminars) as a resource for delivering useful developmental content for parish clergy and lay leaders. Three webinars were delivered live online. Attendees received powerpoint slides delivered to their desktop, heard live presentations via phone or computer internet connections, participated in polls and asked written and live verbal questions. While occasional technical glitches were encountered (all of which were traceable to yours truly as on-line host!) attendees were unanimous (those who offered opinions anyway) in their praise for the webinar medium and, more importantly the messages and messengers.

Psychology of Leadership
Fr. Gregory Jensen kicked off the series in late March with a session titled "The Psychology of Leadership" which was based on leading research into the topic. Fr. Gregory returned to the Diocese' webinar podium in April with a follow up session that was not surprisingly titled Psychology of Leadership II. This session focused on practical applications of the leadership principles in parish life.  If you missed Fr Gregory's sessions you can download session one slides here and session two slides here.  You can view and listen to an archive of the second webinar (less a few opening slides missed due to pilot error) here.

"Religious Trends in America" Draws Cyber Audience of 25 Persons
Fr Basil Aden tried his hand at cyber presenting on May 20 when he addressed an audience of 25 clergy and laity to offer perspectives on the "American Religious Landscape". Fr. Basil's presentation archive along with questions and answers can be found here and his slides here.
Aden Religion map



In his session Fr Basil reviewed a variety of demographic and spiritual trends which nicely summarized into three major attitudes shaping American view toward religion:
  1. aden graphicAnti-institutionalism -- indifference to religious backgrounds, denominations as church organizations and teachings of religious hierarchy.
  2. Religious pluralism -- an attitude of "co-existence" with other religions and believers despite the teachings of their denomination. Increasing attraction to having a wide range of options for personal choice of affiliation and belief.
  3. Self directed spirituality --"Spirituality" according to each person's own definition.
Fr Basil offered useful, though brief, opinions on how these attitudes may play out among current Orthodox, our associates and friends, and our outreach to America and Americans.

Here is a comment offered by one priest in the audience that typified the reactions of many.

"The presentation was very well done and more than worth the time I invested in it.

What I found most valuable was Fr Basil's recommendation that we begin our evangelistic outreach to those outside the Church and the catechesis of the faithful where their interests are.  I was also quite gratified to hear Father discourage people from  presenting the Gospel in terms of Church structure or what to most Americans would seem to be esoteric spiritual practices.  Again very well done. 

My thanks and congratulations to Fr Basil. "

Next Webinar Topics?
Our webinar schedule will take a breather for a few months as we work on other Diocesan matters -- including this long overdue issue of Parish Pulse -- and as we replenish our supply of topics and speakers. We hope to pick up again in mid August.

In the interim His Eminence has asked us to request input and feedback on the types of topics that we can present that can be most valuable to you as pastors and parish lay leaders.

So -- the request line is (as always) open.

In the interim here are our favorite ideas:
  • Training in -- (Nah... on second thought we'll wait on that -- to hear what you have to say -- then claim the best ideas for our own!)
 Sharing the Hope That is In Us"
Rochester MI Grant Team Completes Project on communicating the Orthodox faith to inquirers

St Mark Sharing Hope CoverWe were recently invited to participate in the final wrap-up of the parish health grant project at St. Mark's parish in Rochester Hills MI.

If you are an avid (or even lazy) reader of Parish Pulse you know that the Rochester Hills grant team has been hard at work for many months on their grant to help parishioners be more effective at communicating the Orthodox faith to visitors and friends.
The grant team accomplished an amazing amount of work including:
  • a broad survey of Orthodox converts to understand what they found attractive and difficult in their journey to the Orthodox faith.
  • a survey of parishioners to determine areas and aspects of the Orthodox faith they find least prepared to explain and discuss with inquirers. 
  • Creating six training classes to assist parishioners to become better prepared to answer questions likely to be asked by inquirers. St Mark Folder2Themes were selected based on the results of the two surveys (topics most relevant to inquirers and those in which parishioners seemed least confident. Selected topics then were Liturgy, Sacraments, Theotokos, Icons, Saints, Tradition. Content of the classes was designed by the team to particularly highlight areas where persons of other faiths might have questions and to offer at least first level answers to those questions 
  • Design layout and printing of parish welcome packets to be used by the parish's greeters ministry. Packets include information about the parish and the Orthodox faith and are in some ways tailored to speak to the potentially differing perspectives of Roman Catholics or Protestants.
Anatomy of a "Sharing the Hope" Class
Each week's fast moving, highly structured class was facilitated by members of the grant team and often included some of the following:
Rochesterchurch
1. Call to Share
A brief talk, titled "The Call to Share", on various aspects of the importance of being prepared to share the hope that is in us. (Role of laity, "a balancing act", The Great Commission, establishing trust, etc)

2. Interaction Skill
A brief review of a skill for properly interacting with inquirers in a loving manner: (empathy, pay attention to others, active listening, communicating clearly, positive interpersonal skills.)

3. Weekly Theme
The topic of the week was covered by:
  • An overview of the week's theme and its learning objectives.
  • A perspective from a former Roman Catholic or Protestant on how non-Orthodox might view the week's topic.
  • A talk delivered by the parish priest. In this he covered what the Orthodox believe/teach in the context of likely issues to inquirers of various religious backgrounds. Each class had specific learning objectives.
  • Breaking the class group into subgroups to discuss predefined questions about the topic. These included what Orthodox believe and introduction to questions of likely importance to inquirers.
  • Returning from subgroups the class received and discussed, brief answers to questions that might be on the minds of someone exploring the Orthodox faith. The answers are of course not the complete answer or the only answer -- but they prepare attendees for a conversation with a non-Orthodox person.
Fellowship followed each session.

Parish Reaction?
By now you're probably wondering how all of this went over with the parish? Did anyone show up?
Rochester class
The parish response was highly favorable. The training class was offered for six weeks with both a morning and evening session each week.  The first  week found 30 parishioners participate in the morning session and then about 30 others found it more convenient to attend the evening session -- 60 willing students in all. More importantly they came back. For six weeks the combined attendance exceeded 55 people.  (For those of you who like numbers -- that would be approximately 500 learning hours for the.)
 class.

We had had an opportunity to visit on the last session and to thank the grant team and the parish for their hard work. Suffice it to say the parish's previous attempts at adult education were not as well attended. We wanted to understand just why this effort generated above average interest. We asked them three questions. Here are a few important answers.

Why Did You Attend?
  • "I was invited" (Every parishioner was called personally.)
  • "The Parish Survey helped me to realize the areas I did not understand well. I wanted to fix that."
  • "I wanted to test myself."
  • "I kept hearing Fr Andrew pray for this effort in the Great Entrance - that made it seem important to me."
  • Our grant team laid out a clear purpose for my attendance. I saw it as a way that I could help our parish and the Orthodox Church to grow."
  • "I wanted to be "armed'".
  • "I wanted to learn how to answer questions with confidence and be a better ambassador for my faith."
  • "I would probably not have attended if it it was simply designed as a class to teach me about Orthodoxy. But since it was set up to help me properly use that knowledge in encounters with others it became a lot more interesting to me. It helped define an active role for me in the church."
Why Did You Continue to Attend?
  • "It was really well organized and very professional- I could tell they were not going to waste my time or wander."
  • "It was fun."
  • "After a couple of weeks I could see this was really going somewhere - I wanted to see it through."
  • "It was presented in a down to earth manner on a level I could understand."
  • "The format of the classes worked well -each week we left with the answers to specific relevant questions that inquirers might have." (i.e. There is a reasonable possibility students can actually remember some of this.)
What Did You Learn?
  • "I learned the Theotokos' central role /position in the church. And, more importantly, that she is a key stumbling block for many; and a bit of how to answer that question if it arises."
  • "I learned why I am Orthodox."
  • "I learned a lot about my fellow parishioners (grant team and attendees) - how hard they are willing to work at something."
  • "This was both educational and spiritually and emotionally uplifting for me."
  • "I learned that we all knew more than we thought we knew! We were already reasonably well prepared to encounter others simply by knowing the Creed."
  • "Why we do what we do."
  • "I learned what questions others will have when they are beginning a serious encounter with Orthodoxy --and how to help them at least a little bit."
  • "I learned that we have the skill and energy to undertake an important effort. And I learned I do not have to do everything. In fact on this effort I actually I did very little." (Parish Priest)
Pictured below is the Grant Team from St Mark parish with their leader Edith Marshall Roberts second from left front row.. They are smiling because --their work is complete. And more importantly, a job well done is uplifting indeed.
Rochester grant team

Class Contents Available for Parish Use
If you want to check this out yourself, the contents of the class are available on the Diocesan website here.
A Profitable Day in Springfield
Surveys of Orthodox in America Yield Useful Insight
Alexey KrindatchAlexei Krindatch is an Orthodox sociologist and the Research Director at the Patriarch Athenagoras Institute of Orthodox Studies in Berkeley CA. Mr Krindatch recently concluded a number of studies of Orthodoxy in America. This spring he was recently invited as a guest lecturer for a week by the sociology department at Denison University in Springfield OH its annual colloquium. Since some lectures were open to the public and being that Springfield is a modest drive from our extensive Parish Health Ministry headquarters building (!) in Cincinnati, we drove up to sit in on two lectures.

Overall Study
On day one Krindatch, a knowledgeable Orthodox Christian and parishioner in the OCA's Diocese of the West, discussed his overall study of attitudes of Orthodox Christians toward a variety of topics based on a survey and face to face discussions in OCA and Greek Orthodox Archdiocese parishes. The full study is available on line and makes interesting reading. (If you are into that sort of thing!) The following are a few brief items from the report and from our notes that you may find interesting:
  • Respondents see the major weaknesses of their American Orthodox parishes as: "self-isolation" from their local 'non-Orthodox' neighborhood communities, finding enough volunteers for various chores in a parish and the feeling of being bound by the established routines of church life.
  • Those who grew up in the Orthodox Church and those who converted to Orthodoxy in the later stages of their lives are equally optimistic about the future of their home parishes.
  • Persons who defined their theological stance and approaches to Church life as "conservative" are firmer believers in the future growth of their parishes, while persons saying that they are theologically "moderate" or "liberal" were somewhat more inclined to predict decline in members of their parishes." 
  • Likewise those Orthodox describing themselves as theological  "conservatives" or "traditional" are more likely to describe their home parishes as being "vibrant, active and alive" than the respondents who defined themselves as either "moderate" or "liberal."
  • 91% of respondents see "liturgy and sharing in Eucharist" as the most important aspect of parish life which attracts members to their parishes. This is far exceeds any other factor.
  • In general, Orthodox laity positively view the skills and qualifications of their parish priests. With regard to 10 out of 17 areas of pastoral work, more than two thirds of the respondents said about their parish clergy that they are "confident and experienced in this area."
  • However, only about 50% of respondents qualified their priests as "confident and experienced" with regard to "social outreach into local community" and "fund raising and financial skills."
  • Respondents were asked about their views on the the ordination of women. Orthodox men and women have the same level of support for this topic -- 28% of male respondents and 29% of female respondents agree with this.
  • Leading worship, teaching and 'prayer guidance and spiritual role model' are seen by Orthodox as the most important qualities of priests. Setting goals, casting vision, administration and training people for various ministries are seen as markedly less important .
Profile of a "Successful Parish" Study
After completing the above study, Krindatch was engaged by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to identify qualities of "successful" parishes based on further analysis of his existing data. (Again the data was from both OCA and GOA parishes.) He posited key attributes of "success" (his term not ours) and related those qualities to a subset of questions on his survey. By identifying those who answered "yes" to all questions (13%) he isolated a control group of "successful parishes". Answers and attitudes from the control group were compared to the answers from "the remaining 87% of the respondents to draw conclusions about the differences between successful and average parishes.
 
Krindatch posited that successful parishes are those that "pursue stewardship as a way of life" and "have abundant programs for youth". You may find this view of success to be a bit narrow ( we would have structured it a bit differently) , but nonetheless the conclusions from this study are interesting.

Krindatch found five factors that were distinct features of successful GOA and OCA parishes in America:
  • Openness to diversity in parishioners
  • Connectedness to the local community
  • Welcoming innovations in the parish
  • Encouraging critical thinking
  • Collective decision making in the parish.
For those of you enjoying charts (and we've learned that many of you do!) here is the raw data in chart form:

Krindatch data2

The Parish Conversation

We think these five points can make fruitful conversation in parishes. The questions are probably obvious but we might suggest:
  • In what ways is our parish open to diversity among parishioners? Do we have barriers to accepting new and different people and their ideas into the parish and into the parish life?
  • What are the examples of our connectedness to the local community? Are their 1-2 ways in which this aspect of our parish can be strengthened?
  • What changes in practices and approach have we made in our parish in the past three years? Why did we make them? How did they take place? What was effective and ineffective?
  • How do we treat new ideas in our parish? How do we look for new ideas? How do we deal with persons on the margins of the parish? What do we do to encourage a thorough review of our life as a Christian community?
  • How do we make decisions in the parish? What is needed to help make good decisions and to help those good decisions take root and bear fruit?
What Makes a Solid Parish Youth Effort?
Lessons Learned from Diocesan Parishes

Watch this spaceWe have some valuable insights contributed by priests and youth leaders in the Diocese that we want to share -- but we think we've covered enough for one issue... we'll pick up with this topic in a future issue of Parish Pulse!
Thank you for reading these newsletters, for your feedback and encouragement.

In Christ,

Joe Kormos
Parish Health Facilitator
Diocese of Midwest
513.683.1911