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We have four from our parish going so far. The community our pastor belongs to is covering registrations for us but the economy is so bad here people are feeling they can't manage the rest of it. I just went back to work part time after 9 months off and a weak year before that.
I am looking forward to going, especially with St. Andrew Russian Greek-Catholic Church there. smile We Russian Greek Catholics are so few and far between.

Fr. Anthony of St. Basil the Great Byzantine Catholic Church in Los Gatos is expecting some of his parishioners to go.

With a very large St. Peter the Apostle of the Chaldeans and Assyrians Eparchy in So CA I'm hoping they will be well represented.

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Wonderful! They will be happy to see you. I don't think the Chaldeans were present at the midwest conference, but they don't have a large presence in this region.

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True, and you don't have any Russian Greek-Catholics that I know of in the Midwest, either, at least not in the local Cleveland area (most Russians are Orthodox in our area, as you'd expect. In fact, St. Theodosius was built partially by Tsar Nicholas II himself, if I remember the story correctly). Most Byzantine Catholics in this area are either Ruthenian or Ukrainian. Although I think you do have the Romanian Greek-Catholics around, since they have one in Cleveland in the Gordon Square area, then you have the cathedral in Canton, so they are around. Then you have the Lebanese Melkites, I think, or were the Lebanese Maronites? I get those two so confuzzled now.

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I just posted my notes from Abouna Justin's great talk on how to exercise the royal priesthood to evangelize the contemporary or post-modern man. I included some highlights below, but all my notes are at the link. I hope to get the other notes up soon. Who else took notes? I would like to read them!
Abouna Justin Rose's talk at the Encounter 2012 West Conference [facebook.com]

We continue to function as if there is a Christiandom still in the world.
  • We need to shift our focus. This is the goal of the Year of Faith.
  • The pope and the Patriarch of Moscow’s work together recognizes that the world has shifted.
  • We need to see the world as an opportunity to evangelize.
  • Humility, learning, lived experience, stewardship must come first before we can tell others about it.


We need to turn away from vocations programs.
  • We don’t have a vocations crisis. We have a holiness crisis. We have a domestic church crisis.
  • We need prayer, fasting, and almsgiving programs.
  • We need to keep the faith alive in the domestic church.
  • We need a renewal and re-discovery of the same old evangelization.


Don’t try to convince a post-modern person unless she can see you living it authentically yourself.
  • Underlying post-modern thought is the idea that truth or meaning is subjective. We must have priestly compassion for the anxiety and angst felt by the post-modern person because they’re being told to deny the existence of God within them.
  • Pastors can only be shepherds of the flock if they are among the sheep.
  • Many thirst for the living water. You have the bucket in your hands.
  • The Samaritan Woman—St. Photini—should be the patron of the post-modern age and the New Evangelization.

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I figured out how to get the notes in a google document. It's easier to read and print from there than from a facebook note. The talks were inspiring and I highly recommend reading the notes. I'll do Fr. Ed Cimbalta's talk next.

I might have misquoted, unintentionally implied something other than was intended, or just messed up altogether. Whatever mistakes there are are mine.

Abouna Justin Rose's talk at the Encounter 2012 West Conference [docs.google.com]
Deacon Sabatino Roberto Carnazzo's Talk at Encounter 2012 West [docs.google.com]


Some highlights from the deacon's talk.

Matthew 28:18: And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and earth have been given to me.
• He could have asked for anything at this point. The risen Lord appearing before His disciples! And what does he ask of them?
Matthew 28:19: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations.
• He invited them at that moment to become leaders.

Lay Leadership
• is not a band-aid that Vatican II has applied to a sick church
• is not an answer to the vocations crisis
• is not saying parish councils can hire and fire
• What is it and why do we do it?

1 Cor 4:15: For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.
• Why be followers of Paul not Christ?
Gal 2:20: it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me
1 Cor 4:17: For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son…
• Just as Christ showed Paul and Paul showed Timothy, Paul now sends Timothy to show others
• A good father rejoices in the fact that his son has grown up and become what he intended him to be.

What exactly is man’s goal according to God’s plan?
• What is last in execution is always first of intention. Man was made the crown jewel of God’s creation, but the story doesn’t end with man’s creation. There was a 7th day.
• When God rested on the 7th day, he blessed creation and sanctified it. He made creation holy.
• Man was made in the image and likeness of the one who blessed and sanctified creation.
• Man has a vocation to now bless and sanctify creation in God’s image and likeness.
• We have to go out into the world and lead others to God.
• In this way, creation is divinized.

It is our job to go out into the world to make it more like Him.
• Moses was shining when he came down from the mountain so they no longer saw Moses, but saw God when they looked on him.

The fall was so destructive because the one who was to have dominion did not bring things to order, but to disorder.

What’s stopping us from acting as disciples?

Clergy are plagued by the “Me First” Syndrome
• Are we, clergy, treating our churches as St. Paul would tell us “as our spouses for whom we’d lay down our lives” or are we treating them as concubines?
• A test for clergy in order to answer the above question can be found in Colossians 1:24ff: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake…
• Do you rejoice in suffering for the sake of the church or do you just complain?

Laity are plagued by the “My Real Estate” Syndrome
• That’s my job.
• We’ve never done it that way before.

We must give to others what God has given to us.
• Paul rejoiced that his son Timothy could do what Paul did.

Stop pointing the finger at others and take responsibility.
• Is your parish a geriatric ward or a growing family?
• Most of our parishes have 30-100 people on Sunday. Laity: you know who you stand next to. If you know the person you stand next to wasn’t at church, did you go knock on their door or give them a call?
• Clergy: if you know your parishioners are going to the Latin Church or to a Protestant Church, go stand in front of the doors of that church and wait for them and invite them back.
• Pray with them, eat with them, live with them, and then they’ll die with you.

1. Pray
o We better put Jesus back in the center of our churches—domestic and liturgical!
o The average American has a TV in the center of the family room and spends 2.7 hours watching it each day.
o If you don’t have an icon of Christ, go right now and get one, get a nail, and hang it up. Not in some obscure place, but right in the middle of the living room. Better yet, get a lampada and a censor to go with it. Now!

2. Fast
o Don’t wait for the Church to tell you to fast.
o Obligation was left behind in Judaism. Fasting is an opportunity.
o Sin causes us to focus on ourselves while fasting focuses on others.

3. Tithe
o Do not be one who stretches out his hand to receive but withdraws it in giving. Give a ransom for your sins if you have it to give. Do not hesitate to give, nor give in a grumbling manner, for you know who is the good Paymaster who rewards? –Didache
o I know times are tough. I hear you say you can’t afford to tithe. You can’t afford not to. That goes for the clergy as well. Yes, it is hard. Do it and God will supply what you need.

4. Education
o You cannot give what you do not have.
o You cannot teach what you do not know.

Adult Formation
o He used to teach children’s Sunday School. His assessment: What he did in 1hr of Sunday School was unraveled the rest of the week because of the family life and culture.
o We need to reach the parents so they’re continuing the work through the week.
o Our current adult programs are culturally oriented, not intellectually oriented
o We fill our churches for festivals, but not for Bible studies.
o Play to your strengths! We are culturally rich! If that’s all you have, get up and in the middle of BINGO and preach for 5 minutes, then let the people go back to their games.
o Our parishes are geographically spread out, yes. But we have other Eastern Catholic parishes nearby. We have to work together!
o Adult education is expensive. His program has an annual budget of a quarter million.
o As Bp. Nicholas (Samra) has said: “How much do we spend to spread the Gospel?”
o Secularism is bankrupt. We have the answer they’re hungry for. Lift up your eyes and see that the fields are ripe for the harvest.

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I got up the notes from Fr. Ed Cimbala's talk on the blue print for church growth, which talked a lot about finding our spiritual gifts. It was highly praised by those who were in attendance for its practical guidance.

Fr. Edward Cimbala's Talk at Encounter 2012 West [docs.google.com]

When we first recognize our desire to live as Christians, we do it like the 10th leper (re: Luke 17:15). We run to God and jump in! Then we tire and burn out. Then our service to God and our relationship with him starts feeling like it is going nowhere. We’re spinning in place because in all this we haven’t discerned where God wants us.

When we discern our gifts, we’ll be able to be good leaders.
• Your own passions, gifts, and style will energize you and allow you to enjoy the work.

Your passion might be for a group (children, homeless, moms…), or for an issue (abortion…), or with functions (assisting with liturgy, being a prayer warrior…)
• Everyone can have a passion. A passion isn’t necessarily loud or active.

Don’t think or say you’re too old, too young, of the wrong gender, nash…
• Let’s not step on passion. Let it happen!

When people come to him and say, “You know what we should be doing?” (which usually means, “Do you know what I think you should be doing, Father?), he listens and says, “That’s a great idea! Have at it!”

Passion helps you know where to serve and direct your gifts.


How to Discover our Spiritual Gifts
1. Prayer
o Fr. Ed had difficulty with this one. His confessor told him to set his iPhone timer for 15 minutes, to set it aside, and then to pray. He found this very helpful because he no longer had to think about how long he had prayed and he could focus on his prayers. He now shares this with others in case it helps someone else.
2. Trial and Error
o There is nothing wrong with failure.
3. Ask someone
o What do you see in me? Watch out! Your friends and family will be honest, but that’s what you need.
4. Assessment tools online
o Don’t take it to heart, but see what they recommend and discuss it with your pastor.

God has arranged a place for you in the body of Christ that serves the church in accordance with your personality, gifts and style.


What we are to do:
• Identify your personality
• Identify your spiritual gifts
• Identify what God wants you to do
• Grow in your relationship with Christ
• Pass it on

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CDB1718 - this is marshall rose, the webmaster for melkite.org - i'd like to put your transcripts on the website. could you drop me a note - webmaster@melkite.org ?

thanks!

- marshall

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