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Reflections on the Urban Summit
By Father Stephen Hryciniak, St. Nicholas Church, Kenosha, WI
Fr. Stephen Hrycyniak and Bob and Joyce Zastany of St.
Nicholas Orthodox Church in Kenosha are just back from the diocesan Urban Parish
Summit all pumped up and ready to share all that we experienced through this
transformative two day event. The car ride home from Cleveland, OH was spent no
longer lamenting the parish we’ve inherited, which can sometimes be
characterized as weary, a bit stuck in a rut, perhaps, and generally resistant
to dynamic forward movement, but rather we found ourselves dreaming new dreams
of what are some distinctly Orthodox ways we can put our holy faith into
sustainable, concrete action for the sake of witness, service, and radical
hospitality, rooted in our existing commitment to a full liturgical life as a
faith community.
Beautiful St. Theodosius Cathedral served as the host community for Day One of the conference, where clergy and faithful from seventeen parishes were represented, and where we received lots of wonderful teaching and did some serious reflection upon the unique blessing it is to be located in an urban setting, with all the opportunities for building relationships with our (often needy) neighbors that it affords. A highlight for us was learning more about FOCUS North America, as well as of the amazing outreach ministry of St. Gregory of Nyssa in Columbus, OH. We ended the day exploring the specific tactic of hosting a block party as a way to get to know our neighbors better, as well as a means of surfacing real needs in the neighborhood that we might address as a parish--something we hope to do yet this year.
Archangel Michael in Broadview Heights, OH opened their state-of-the-art hospitality facilities to us for Day Two where we specifically explored the issue of fostering change and growth in the established parish, which could not have been more germane to our situation. Fr. Gregory Jensen artfully facilitated an extended sharing of parish stories and struggles and opened the door for us to spend the remainder of the day, through the use of case studies, as a means for the group to break through the feelings of stuckness that often surround our communal and ecclesial entrenchment, and to begin to think in creative new ways. Another concrete take-away from this day was the notion that we do not have to do things alone, but we can and must look for like-minded partners to accomplish our strategic objectives. For us, that may mean sharing some training events and learning from our neighboring parish of Ss. Cyril and Methodius who clearly are a bit further down the road with respect to successful urban outreach or to explore additional grant opportunities.
Since the conference, Fr. Michael Plekon has provided us with some source material about the recently glorified St. Maria of Paris, who seems like the perfect heavenly patroness under whose protection we are beginning to place our social action initiatives. The next step for us will likely be to begin a Fellowship of St. Maria of Paris so that we can begin to gather interested folks to pray and to become sufficiently formed as a group of co-workers before we, in our new found enthusiasm, jump into something over our heads, thereby allowing some room for the Holy Spirit to reveal the work God has in store for us. Very special thanks to Joe Kormos and his team, as well as to the host pastors, and presenters for not only informing us, but for inspiring us to dream new dreams for our parish and for the good work God has begun in us through this special event. May He bring it to fulfillment! So be it!
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