AIOPA - Monthly Meeting

During the October 25 meeting:

Fr. Christos began the meeting at 7:04pm and Opening Prayer was offered by Fr. George Ascente.

Florian Ion gave an update on the activities/meetings with AOCB/AIOPA as well as an overview of what has been accomplished to date.

Several workgroups were represented and reviewed their activities and accomplishments.

Please see the attached slide deck for full details. Highlights from the slide deck presentation and meeting discussion include:

Religion—Fr. Christos Mars gave a report on the Christmas concert (4th quarter of calendar year, 2nd quarter of ecclesiastical year). He noted that His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios proposed and enacted the idea of a Pan-Orthodox inter-parish Candlelight service and Christmas concert in 2019. The idea is to ask each choir from local churches across jurisdictions to participate in the concert and bring their clergy and faithful with them (sharing both secular/cultural and religious songs for the season of the Nativity). There were 3 choirs at inception – 2 Cathedral choirs & 1 from St. John the Wonderworker, each with 3 hymns – in different languages).

Fr. Christos noted that Leon Melissas (Choir Director at the Cathedral) will be the lead on speaking with each choir director in order to organizing the music, and bringing choirs together for the event. If your church would like to participate, please email Fr. Christos (frchristos@atlgoc.org) by November 1 so that we can finalize the program. Fr. Anthony Salzman is putting together a flyer for distribution to communities, which will go out soon.

Fr. Christos noted that a date and time for the concert is established; Sunday before Christmas, December 18th at 5 pm. The candlelight service will begin promptly at 5pm with a concert and light Lenten food to follow at the Annunciation Cathedral.

Florian noted that this concert will be the highlight for the religious work group for the rest of the year, and that it is essential for us to reach out to communities and have them contact Fr. Christos with their commitment.

Fr. George Ascente asked a question about whether a guitar would be allowed to accompany his musicians in the Cathedral, in order to share Romanian carols in the traditional style. Fr. Christos stated that he would ask His Eminence if instruments are allowed and report back.

Mirjana Brockett spoke about her experience in two septate choirs. One in Serbian and one in Russian.

Charity— Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta event (Evelyn Kemp requests that each parish send out information for the event to communities)

Evelyn will send out communications to STS. RNI community and Fr. Christos will send out communications along with the minutes of this meeting.

Florian reported that 2 parishes have already volunteered to participate in this event (whatever contribution a parish is able to offer is appreciated) so that we can show the power of bringing multiple parishes together; this means that we are able to do more together than apart.

Development— John Marion reported that the development team (parish council round table) meetings have occurred twice. Once on 10/24 - 3 attendees, and approximately 3 months ago- 10-12 attendees)

John noted the structure of each meeting included introductions, mentioned issues that might be helpful topics for the group to discuss (access to meeting notes can be forwarded to AIOPA group) and sharing common problems. He spoke about significant leadership resources, specifically Hollie Benton from the Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative. He noted that Fr. Matthew Dutko at St. Elizabeth in Woodstock is taking advantage of resources from OCLI, and requests for Hollie’s presence @ January parish council leaders meeting.

Fr. Christos also reported that these resources exist and that Hollie will be meeting with Clergy Brotherhood in December.

John also reported that the parish council president from the Cathedral, Voula Giannakopoulos, spoke at the meeting and shared the methods of adaptation that the Cathedral put in place to generate more online giving...using a tablet, examples of best practices, etc.

Goal of the Parish Council Presidents meeting is for the sharing best practices and learning from one another. They meet once a quarter.

Social— Florian suggested that everyone report on their festivals because October was festival season. Mirjana reported on the Serbian festival (2nd festival – significance of church tours). It took place on October 2nd & 3rd; Groups of YAs and dancers from different local parishes attended.

Fr. Christos reported on the attendance of many young adult groups at each of the local festivals, with this effort being spearheaded by many YAs at the Cathedral.

Fr. George Ascente reported on the Romanian festival and people told he that they are in need of this as well as why does this not happen more often? He noted that the parish had signs explaining our faith in the church – specifically related to the iconostasis, the iconography & things that one sees in the Orthodox Church. He also noted that it was a very good festival with many people in attendance which was beneficial for the church budget.

Julia Hill reported on the young adult retreat hosted by Holy Transfiguration Orthodox Church (12th and 13th of November, $25 for the whole weekend – service project, vespers Saturday night & bonfire)

She also reported on the effort of YA leaders to gather for an in-person meeting – to brainstorm pan-orthodox young adult events in the future. They are still in the process of finding a time that works for everyone to get together.

Communications – Fr. Anthony gave a summary from the OCL conference and how nice it was to introduce AIOPA to all that where there. Fr. George Ascente hosted the conference. Fr. Anthony also thanked Florian, Fr. Christos and Tony for attending, representing and for their entrance into dialogue with this group.

Orthodox Chronicles informs communities about what has happened in AIOPA, ensuring that it comes out regularly around the start of the new month. The Newsletter centered around celebrations for the upcoming month (significance of hearing from brother clergy – suggestion for a schedule of introductions/reflections by clergy and then moving toward introductions from lay-people around 1 year anniversary.

Clergy-brotherhood meets every month as well.

OCL 35th annual conference – what has happened since March 17th since AIOPA was formed – church unity and pan-orthodox collaboration and communion.

Florian reports on action steps for communications before and after events: 2 things we are looking for – website and chronicles (need graphics and statistics to note attendance & parish participation, updating events with pictures, send to Julia/Fr. Christos for Chronicles)

Send communications about events prior to the event – and then note the impact after the event

Florian offers closing remarks – poses the question: What do we think about in reference to AIOPA - that our goal is to maintain momentum and inspire others to run similar initiatives in their own cities [understand the problem and approach, have the long term in mind, continuing to meet in work groups, building relationships, communication, God works through people]

Fr. Christos said that we will continue to do our best as we do the work presented to us.

Fr. Anthony leads us in closing prayer and the meeting concluded at 8:00pm.

Attendees: Fr. George Ascente, Fr. Tom Alessandroni, Mirjana Brockett, Julia Hill, Florian Ion, Garrett Klawuhn, John Marion, Fr. Christos Mars, Fr. Anthony Salzman, Jackie Sarantis, Liviu Sofian, Sarah Stewart