The Diocese’s Thriving Parishes Project Introduces ONCD at St. Seraphim Cathedral
August 2-3, 2024 – St Seraphim Cathedral/Protection of the Holy Virgin Parish – Santa Rosa, CA
The Diocese’s Thriving Parish Project (TPP) took a major step forward on Friday, August 2, with the introduction of Orthodox Natural Church Development (ONCD) to the parishioners of St. Seraphim Cathedral in Santa Rosa. ONCD will eventually be presented and taught to 23 parishes of the Diocese as part of Initiative I of the TPP, “Deep Parish Renewal.”
Archpriest Jonathan Ivanoff (St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church, Shirley, NY) introduced the theme of Church Health at a 6:30 PM talk open to the whole parish.
Fr. Jonathan met with six hand-selected members of the newly formed Church Health Team (CHT) on Saturday, August 3rd for all-day instruction in evaluating, analyzing, and implementing improvements in church health. By the end of the day, the CHT already had a plan for moving forward.
St. Seraphim Cathedral is one of the largest parishes in the Diocese of the West, begging the question: why bother spending resources here to address the topic of church health in what is, for all intents and purposes, already a healthy parish?
As we know from the Parable of the Sower, seed that falls on the good ground produces a crop: a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold (Matthew 13:8). In the Parable of the Talents, both the servant who produced five talents and the one who produced two heard the Lord say to them, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” (Matthew 25:14-23). The opportunity of the TPP allows us to experiment with how fruitful each parish in the Diocese might be, regardless of size or present level of health: some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.
We look forward to the inaugural retreat for the 23 parishes involved in the TPP on October 14-15, 2024 at St. Nicholas Orthodox Church in Portland, OR. Many thanks to Archpriest Lawrence Margitich and the parishioners of St. Seraphim Cathedral for being willing to be trailblazers on this journey!
