SAINT STEVEN’S SERBIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL ANNUAL REPORT JANUARY 1 — DECEMBER 31, 2016 Ministry and Education Liturgy and Service Fellowship and Family 1 Saint Steven’s Annual Report 2016 hen we speak of the church, we often think of a “Granted, there are building. Yet, biblically and spiritually speaking, a times when we, W church is much more than a building. The origin of the personally and word “church” comes from word ekklesia which means "the collectively face gathering of the people" and refers to the Church as the Body of challenges and Christ, the people of God. struggles to one degree or another, but As the days and months of the year progress, through our various I am glad that we are ministries, we as the ekklesia, the gathered people of Saint Steven’s a healthy church and Cathedral, strive to focus on the very nature and purpose of the are always seeking to church. I found the following post by and Orthodox priest on the overcome such Orthodox Christian Network, an Orthodox Media Ministry and challenges in a way commissioned agency of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox that honors God and Bishops in the United States: Those involved in the early church, we His intentions for His are told in Acts 2:42, had four purposes: Teaching/learning about the church “ faith, fellowship, breaking of the Bread (the Eucharist) and prayers. A fifth was soon added, which was the “daily distribution”, serving food to the poor and the widows. (Acts 6:1) 2 Teaching/Learning—Knowledge is power. There is no power for someone in something they have no knowledge of. For example, I do not know much about the periodic table in chemistry. So, when someone starts talking about the elements and their properties, I quickly tune out and move on. If our knowledge of Christianity is like my knowledge of chemistry, then we will quickly lose interest in the things of God. Teaching and learning about the faith is also not confined to Sunday school, or to children. We should strive to continually learn about our faith, and we should see opportunities to teach others about the faith throughout our adult life. We must become lifelong students who at the same time are lifelong teachers. Fellowship—A Christian does not live in isolation. Being a Christian is about being “in communion” with the Lord and with one another, following the two great commandments which are to love God and to love our neighbor. Saint Paul tells us in Galatians 6:2 that we are to “bear one another’s burdens” and this is done in the context of fellowship. Breaking of the Bread—The central act of the church is the celebration of the Eucharist. One can learn about the faith in a Bible study in a home. One can have fellowship with other Christians outside the church. But the central act of the church community is the Eucharist. Because that is what is unique to the church community. It is the one thing that the church community does that cannot be done outside of the church community. Every church is, in reality, a Eucharistic assembly. Prayer—The most basic function of the church is prayer. Prayer is done constantly. Individual members pray to the Lord. Members pray for one another. Gatherings open and close with prayer. The priest prays with and for his parishioners. Prayer is something that should be done daily by all Christians, multiple times per day. 3 Daily distribution—From the get-go, there was a sense that the church needed to minister to the poor, and to those outside of the church. Community outreach, both ministering to one’s own church community and the community outside of the church, was important in the life of the early church. The church had a great desire to serve the poor, the widows, those afflicted in any way, so that no one would go hungry, no one would go without prayer, no one would be excluded from fellowship. This excerpt beautifully describes what we, as the Church today, are still called to do, and which still defines our very purpose. If we fail today in these historical and basic ministries of Teaching/Learning, Fellowship, Worship, Prayer and Outreach, then we no longer function as God intended when he established His ekklesia. As we review the work of the past year, we can see clearly that we have not failed. We have not failed in the work that is referenced in the Holy Scripture, and implied in the very nature of the church. Granted, there are times when we, personally and collectively face challenges and struggles to one degree or another, but I am glad that we are a healthy church and are always seeking to overcome such challenges in a way that honors God and His intentions for His people. For this, we must always be thankful and strive with even more zeal and love to do even more, for as the Lord told us in the parable of the faithful servant, “to whom much is given, much is required.” (Luke 12) Cathedral Dean 4 Excerpts from The Parish Community: Our Life in Christ “The Orthodox Parish in North America” by: V. Rev. Thomas Hopko After the family, we experience our life in Christ primarily in the parish. From birth to death, the parish community is where God “raises the infants, guides the young, supports the aged, encourages the faint‐hearted, reunites the separated, leads back those who are in error and joins them to His Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” (from the Anaphora prayers of St. Basil) The vitality of spiritual life in our families and personal prayer is nourished by the parish. All outreach to, and our relationships with, our neighbor‐ hoods, dioceses, the national church as well as the worldwide church flow from the parish community. Many people today lament the state of our parish life in modern and secular North American society. There are many crises to be dealt with daily, simply because the devil hates and opposes the holiness and unity of a true parish community whose life is fully in Christ. The purpose of this paper is not to despair over these crises, but to examine our parish life, rejoice and give thanks for the godly aspects of our communities and enable us to see the shortcomings as challenges and opportunities to strengthen and grow our life in Christ. One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic An Orthodox parish has only one God‐given reason for being. It exists to be the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ. Whatever the original reasons and conditions for its founding, whatever other services and activities it may provide, whatever other desires and needs it may fulfill for its members, a community of Orthodox Christians must be Christ’s one holy Church.…The parish must be holy because Christ’s Church is holy. Everything in the parish, and everything about it, must be holy because God and Christ are holy. There can be no aspect of a parish not inspired and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of God and of Christ. Everything in and about a parish—its organization, structure, administration, finances and properties, as well as its theological and moral teachings and practices, and its liturgical and sacramental rites and services – must be of God. They must be determined by God, inspired by God and submitted to God for His glory and the good of His people. The Christian parish must also be catholic. For the parish to be “catholic” means that it is full, complete and whole, lacking nothing in its mystical and sacramen‐ tal being and life as Christ’s holy Church. … An Orthodox parish, if it is Christ’s one holy Church, will be apostolic in at least two meanings of the term. It will be apostolic because it is founded upon Christ’s apostles 5 and firmly rooted in apostolic doctrine and tradition….The Greek word apostolo, from which the words apostle and apostolic are derived, means “to send.” So does the Latin word mitto, from which are derived the words mission and missionary….An Orthodox Christian parish, however it was founded and for whatever purpose it was organized, must understand itself to be an apostolic community with a missionary purpose. Its members, especially its leaders, must be conscious of themselves as people sent by Christ from God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring God’s unity, holiness and fullness to all human beings in this divided, sinful and fragmented world. Heart: Liturgical Worship and Sacramental Service Jesus says that God must be loved first of all with all one’s heart. In biblical usage, the heart is the center of a person’s being. It is the ground of a person’s life, the seat of a person’s will, and the source of a person’s activity, beginning with one’s words. It is the “place where God bears witness to himself,” according to St. Isaac of Syria; the place in a person, according to St. Macarius, which contains God himself, and Christ and the Holy Spirit, and the whole of creation, visible and invisible, spiritual and material, good and evil. A person’s heart reveals what he or she really is, and really thinks, and really wants and really does. “For where 6 your treasure is,” Jesus tells us, “there will your heart be also.” (Matthew 6:21) The heart of a parish, if it is Christ’s one holy Church, will be totally given to God.