Volunteers needed to participate in parish life study
The Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute [PAOI] here is looking for volunteers to participate in the recently launched “Parish Life” project. The PAOI - a pan-Orthodox educational center [www.orthodoxinstitute.org] - is known for its recent study “Evolving Visions of the Orthodox Priesthood in America,” which explored personal and professional lives of American Orthodox clergy. For more information go to: http://www.orthodoxinstitute.org/files/evolvvisstudrepwebpost.pdf.
The new “Parish Life” project is first national study of the realities of everyday life in Orthodox parishes. In one of his articles, the Rev. Thomas FitzGerald, Dean of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, wrote: “While it is the parishes which make up the ‘flesh and blood’ of the Orthodox jurisdictions, there has been little serious effort to study these communities of faith in a manner which is realistic, honest, and free from triumphalism.” This “Parish Life” study is a first step towards a better understanding of the numerous challenges and various issues that American Orthodox parishes deal with in their daily lives. A particular goal of this project is to look at these challenges and issues through the eyes of parishioners: young and old, cradle Orthodox and converts to Orthodoxy, the persons regularly participating in parish life and those who attend only occasionally. In other words, everybody’s opinion matters and everybody’s experiences are equally important for this project.
This project is being supported by a grant from the Louisville Institute, a Lilly Endowment-funded program. The fundamental mission of the Louisville Institute is to enrich the religious life of American Christians and to encourage the revitalization of their institutions, by bringing together those who lead religious institutions with those who study them, so that the work of each might strengthen the other.
If you are member of the OCA parish and are interested in participating in the “Parish Life” study, please contact the research director of Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute, Mr. Alexei D. Krindatch, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).