His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin and the Diocese of the West of the Orthodox Church in America recently announced funding for our new Thriving Parishes Project. Now we are thrilled to be able to share more about the opportunities for growth afforded by the $1.25 million grant, and to extend an invitation to participate in this exciting project.

The Thriving Parishes Project (TPP) can be described as four sub-programs:

1. Deep Parish Renewal, fostering in-person Learning Communities for parish communities addressing ministries, interacting with their own neighborhoods, and the changing contexts parishes find themselves in with a goal of growing our parishes and making them accessible to all (20 parishes; 10 of them being mission plants or urban renewal candidates which will receive direct subgrants);
2. Growing Together, fostering hybrid Learning Communities for Parish Leadership across the Diocese (including training for how to approach Program I especially);
3. Investing the Talent, fostering hybrid Learning Communities to foster vocations including non-traditional priestly formation, diaconal ministry, and music ministry across the Diocese;
4. Cultivating Deep Practices, fostering youth ministry that will truly inspire and nurture the spiritual lives of our young people. We consider the need to minister more effectively to this demographic urgent.

These programs will be administered by a Program Director under the leadership of Diocesan Chancellor V. Rev. Dr. Kirill Sokolov, and with the assistance of a project manager / administrative assistant. His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin has tasked longtime Diocesan Administrative Assistant Priest Andrew Smith with the role of Program Director.

“Being born into and raised in this Diocese, I have always thought it to be a bright example of Orthodoxy in the Northwest Hemisphere, and I believe in its vitality and its future,” Fr. Andrew states. “But as the field is white for harvest and the laborers few, I am also incredibly excited about the potential this new program has to act as a catalyst for growth, not just on the quantitative level, but on the qualitative as well.”

The Diocese will be hitting the ground running in 2024. While the first major events of programs III and IV are still in development, the Diocese will begin selecting the twenty parishes for Program I at the end of January, only four short weeks away. Parish Rectors interested in finding out more about this opportunity are encouraged to attend a Q&A session held via Zoom on either January 10, 2024 at 11 am Pacific Standard Time, or January 16th, 2024 at 6 pm PST. Zoom access credentials will be emailed directly to rectors. It will also be necessary to select a lay leader within the parish to assist the rector lead the parish through the program over its five years (not sure what this would entail? –– come to the Zoom meeting!).

A first round of parish applications are due on January 19 (click here to access the application). Parishes applying for the first round will receive priority consideration. A second round will be due February 19 so that final selections can be made before the beginning of Great Lent (March 18).

Questions? Please join us on the Zoom calls noted above or write to thriving@dowoca.org

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