Seven new “Resource Handbook” articles available on OCA.org web site
Seven new articles have been posted on the “Resource Handbook for Lay Ministries” page of the OCA.org website.
To refresh and direct our thoughts toward ministry in this new year, the first article offers a review of the 2007 Parish Ministries Conference by Fr. David Cowan. The conference theme was “Ministering to Those Too Often Neglected.”
Dr. Albert Rossi, a frequent “Handbook” contributor, is the author of “Time Management: An Orthodox Perspective,” which opens with the provocative statement, “there is no such thing as time management.”
In “Ten ‘Green’ Projects Any Parish Can Adopt,” Elizabeth Perdomo suggests simple adjustments parishes can make toward better stewardship of their resources [water, electricity, etc.] – a topic of timely significance today.
Two articles describe the experiences of parish groups who helped to build homes in different locations: “A Work Week in Louisiana – An Outreach Experience” by Antonia Godbold of Holy Apostles Church, Columbia, SC, and “Our Parish Youth at Project Mexico” by Larissa Hatch of Holy Trinity Church, East Stroudsburg, PA. In a third article on Community Service—”A Short Term Youth Mission to Appalachia: High Impact, Low Cost”—Mark Klinski reports on a group from St. Joseph’s parish, Wheaton, IL, that spent a week in eastern Kentucky assisting some of the nation’s neediest families with significant house repairs and while witnessing to their faith in a region that has no Orthodox Christian presence.
In an article titled “Fellowship Kidz,” Deacon Benjamin Tucci discusses ways to establish a parish group for children in kindergarten through fifth grade that combines fun time, fellowship, education, worship, and service. “The simple fact is that if you do not find ways to get your young children interested in the Church, they will find interesting things to do elsewhere,” Deacon Benjamin writes.
The “Resource Handbook for Lay Ministries” is a publication of the OCA’s Department of Christian Service and Humanitarian Aid.