www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization We keep talking about evangelization...

Olga wrote: I think evangelization needs direct human contact and it needs to be connected to a nearby parish church.

Anastasios responds: Exactly, Olga. That's why I don't want to create some overly-centralized group. Just a meeting place for sharing of ideas and perhaps pooling of resources.

Olga wrote: Anastaious, you have said you might consider the priesthood. have you thought about being a missionary? I think you you would make a good one, layman or priest.

Anastasios responds: Yes, I have, and thank you for the compliment! Perhaps me and Anthony will do a mission trip together!
I do believe that we need to work on missionary work in the US, but also I have wondered if my natural talent for languages means I should serve as a missionary. For instance, I wonder if since I speak Slovak conversationally and can write it somewhat, that I should go to Slovakia and work there. Or since I am getting to fluency in Hindi, if I should work on converting Indians to Christ? I will ask all for prayerful rememberance.

Christ is Risen!

anastasios

I think that Mr. Pete K. needs to be more charitable. Several months ago, when I proposed starting a letter writing campaign to get Rome to formally remove the ban on married Byzantine priests, Pete hurled accusations against me of "dissension" and trying to "splinter the Church." Yuck.
He made such a big stink out of the whole thing, making personal accusations against me, that I finally abandoned the idea.

Apparently Pete is a lurker who only comes out of the shadows to unjustly accuse people of "splintering the Church."

Pete, WE LOVE THE CHURCH. Please don't jump to conclusions about us.

Anthony

You miss my point. The laborers in our Church are so few that it doesn't make sense to keep re-creating the wheel. We must cooperate with our Church and those in authority to evangelize. This website seems to have blessing of our hierarchy. I've seen statistics posted in this forum that readership is near 1,000 a day. Most of the other sites for parishes that are linked from here have readerships of several hundered a year. You've got a huge start in your efforts if you work with Church and the priests and people who bring you this site rather than doing your own thing.

Imagine 5 different people in your parish working to evangelize. Then imagine those same 5 people each doing something different. Next imagine them meeting and organizing thier efforts. Now imagine them doing it with the neighboring parish, then the deanery , then the eparchy. Get my point?

>>>You miss my point. The laborers in our Church are so few that it doesn't make sense to keep re-creating the wheel.

If I'm recreating the wheel, where is the webpage attatched to this site containing information about evangelization techniques, articles with tips, stories sent in by evangelizers, etc?

If I got the idea to organize a grass roots campaign, knowing how internet-savvy I am it must mean it does not exist.

>>>We must cooperate with our Church and those in authority to evangelize.

Of course. But lay evangelization IS different.

>>>This website seems to have blessing of our hierarchy. I've seen statistics posted in this forum that readership is near 1,000 a day. Most of the other sites for parishes that are linked from here have readerships of several hundered a year. You've got a huge start in your efforts if you work with Church and the priests and people who bring you this site rather than doing your own thing.

Pete, please explain WHEN I said I would not cooperate with these people??


>>>Imagine 5 different people in your parish working to evangelize. Then imagine those same 5 people each doing something different. Next imagine them meeting and organizing thier efforts. Now imagine them doing it with the neighboring parish, then the deanery , then the eparchy. Get my point?

EXACTLY!!! That's why I want to start a grass roots effort to get things organized! And make it ON THE INTERNET for those of us who are the only parish in the state! Get my point? :-)

anastasios

Anastasios,

I apologize. I didn't realize that you had offered your skills to work with whoever does this page and was turned down. I suspect the non-existence of such pages here is due to lack of help rather than lack of support for evangelism.

Pete

Pete,

Just to clarify: Actually I had not officially asked the Adminstrator previously to add such pages, this is a rather new idea fresh in my mind. He did not turn me down; in fact, I ask him publicly now if he would like to associate the page with byzcath.org or let it run by itself. I am in total agreement with you that it is not because of lack of interest but rather because of lack of help and time. So I am offering my help. :-) Sorry if I responded to your post rashly, too! I'm just really revved up about this all right now! Let's all work together!

anastasios

anastasios,

I will be happy to help in anyway possible! Just email me.

Holy Mother Please Pray For Us!
Ray S.

Found this on the net. Anthony, you should like this.

anastasios
http://johningg.home.mindspring.com/handbook/outline.html

WOW! What a marvelous resource! I plan on printing, and reading the entire thing ASAP.

Anthony

Okey dokey.

I talked with the Administrator this evening about 'evangelization'. He is, unfortunately, under the weather right now and limited in time and energy.

I suggested that I start an evangelization discussion section under "Parishes" to see what develops. If the 800 to 1,000 visitors a day come out of the woodwork to the evangelization thread (let's face it, the people we want to post there are the committed folks who are willing to be activists and who are willing to share their ideas, successes and failures), then he'll gladly set up an evangelization section on the forum.

Ready, set, go..........