[ Archive for the 'General' Category ]
Posted by Karl (August 8, 2006 at 3:02 pm)
My church is very inconvenient. It’s not particularly close; I have another Catholic church across the street from me. It makes no accommodations for my convenience: there is no Saturday evening Mass where I can discharge my Sunday obligation, and the liturgies are long. I can never plan anything for a Sunday afternoon because I can never be sure how long the liturgy will be. Just when I think that I have it timed, there will be a baptism, or a procession, or a series of special prayers, and all of my timing is lost. There is no early service. There is one liturgy at 10am, for the whole parish. I can’t slip in at 7am for a short liturgy as I could at the church across the street from me.
I have to give up meat every Friday, when the rest of the Church has abandoned this practice. There are numerous days of obligation, which are never, ever moved to the nearest Sunday, which means I must often re-arrange my schedule, arrange babysitters, and otherwise turn my life upside down in order to attend church during the week. Inf fact, a few years ago Good Friday and the Annunciation coincided; rather than move the feasts, we combined them, and a most inconvenient and confusing day of liturgy ensued. Every liturgy is long, always more than an hour, and occasionally more than two. Everything is always sung, without the comfort of an accompanying organ or musical ensemble.
There are no creature comforts, no cry room, and few pews. Many of us stand the entire time. In Lent, we have to kneel and do prostrations, but—get this—there are no kneelers! One kneels on the cold, hard, terrazzo floor.
Why would anyone want to be a part of such a church, especially when there is another, easier church across the street? I wasn’t born into this church, and I have no ethnic or cultural ties, but I chose it. I have no one to blame but myself. I chose it, and you couldn’t pry me away with a crowbar.
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Posted by Carson (July 21, 2006 at 4:35 pm)
Taking ones pulse is not the only way to measure ones health but it is a way. It is possible to take the pulse of your church. You won’t know everything about your church by taking its pulse but it can be an indication of its relative health.
There are many ways to take the pulse of your congregation and they are all fairly simple. One could look at the number of study, interest, or prayer groups in your congregation. One could look at how faithfully the sacraments are offered in the Eastern tradition. Once could look at how many young adults, youth or children are actively involved. Conversely one could look at he average age of the worshiping congregation. One could see how many vocations come from your congregations or how many congregations it has helped establish. One of my favorite ways is to look at the number of baptisms both children and adults that occured in your congregation this past year.
Looking at baptisms: If your church had less than 5 baptisms you are probably a dying congregation with members exclusively past child bearing age. You are headed for death but you can be revived. In a recent poll on byzcath.org it was discovered that a majority of the respondants fit into this category. Look around at the average age of your congregation. Are you willing to change your habits drastically? Are you willing to receive some help in order for you to be revived?
If you have between 6 and 20 you may well be in plateauing. Now is the time for revival. The people may be open to it and want to begin growing again. If you do nothing you will probably begin to die. If you act you can find renewal and begin to grow.
If you are EO or EC and have more than 20 per year you are probably growing and healthy. It is important to take a look at your strengths and continue working on them and look at a weekness and try to make it a strength instead. You are probably in a good place to begin the work to establish a mission congregation some place and to give some gifts to churches that are planting Churches or who are growing. Don’t begin to rest on your laurels. Everytime you do well rejoice and set the bar higher.
Living organisms grow and develop. Stagnant organisms are dying. Same goes for Churches.
Carson Daniel Lauffer
Posted by Carson (July 9, 2006 at 3:52 pm)
Your Pilgrimage of a Lifetime to the Holy Land awaits you on May 28-June 6, 2007.
Fred and Carol Conger from Educational Opportunities will be at Annunciation of the Mother of God BC Church following Divine Liturgy on Sunday July 30, 2006 to share all of the details of this wonderful trip hosted by Carson and Christine Lauffer of our parish. If you cannot come to the event please contact Carson Lauffer.
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Posted by Carson (July 6, 2006 at 10:30 am)
Someone was worried that he might be too much of a materialist because he collects too many icons and religious books. Let’s look at this another way. The saints of all time have taught us that we are given things for one reason. That is to give them away. It seems to me that their insights are very wise and constitute a major clue to effective evangelization.
If you find that you have more money than you need even for retirement start discerning with the guidance of the Holy Spirit who are those whom God puts in your path that might need it more than you. Give it with a prayer.
If someone is lonely or suffers from depression give them one of your icons with a prayer and words of encouragement. Invite to vespers, matins, or liturgy.
If you have too many books start giving them away. If you are good at sewing, or gardening, or crafting, or whatever, start giving the things away with a prayer or an invitation.
We don’t live in villages in which everyone knows everyone else and everyone goes to the same Church. These villages must be created with God’s help.
It may seem simple and it is easy to do. But these simple acts of kindness can have profound effect not only on the recipients but upon the givers as well.
Carson Daniel Lauffer
Posted by JohnS (July 1, 2006 at 5:40 am)
Our Protestant brothers and sisters have often made excellent use of pamphlets on a variety of topics to get the Good News out to others. In recent years, the lay apostolate Catholic Answers has done this quite well. Conciliar Press publishes excellent pamphlets on Orthodox Christianity that can be found in the narthices of Orthodox Churches across North America.
What is not so well known perhaps, is that our own Byzantine Catholic Seminary Press has a wonderful series of pamphlets that outline the gifts of our own brand of Eastern Christianity.
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Posted by Karl (May 29, 2006 at 3:43 pm)
Imagine that you lived in a town where there was a McDonald’s on one corner, a Burger King on another corner, a White Castle down the road, and a Culver’s next door to that. Do you think it would be a good idea, if you were an investor, to start up another hamburger stand? It would be very hard to succeed as just another place to get a fast-food burger. Such a move would be unwise. What you should do is start a submarine sandwich store, something that is different, unusual enough to attract customers.
How does this relate to Byzantine Churches? For most of the last century, we have been building burger stands in Burgertown. Due to persecution from Roman Catholics, self-doubt, and an understandable desire to fit in, Byzantine Catholics in the United States have attempted to be like Roman Catholics. Let me give you an example:
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Posted by Eric (April 22, 2006 at 10:32 am)
The BEMA website has just been converted to a blog format. The core group of BEMA organizers will post here with news and developments, new resources and reflections on our Byzantine evangelization efforts.
It will take some time to put things in order with the new format. For example, the Contact BEMA page will not be ready for a while due to technical issues with the new format. However, you will still be able to contact us via e-mail. Also, quite of the standard pages (on fasting, prayer, etc.) will not have much content at first. Please be patient; we hope that the blogging content will be worth your frequent visits.
