At this year’s Christian Education Workshop, Connecting Our Youth To Their Faith By Serving Others, we asked, “How do our children grow a servant’s heart?” Our presenter, Andrea Danko-Barna of the Neighborhood Resilience Project (NRP) took a deep look into this question through the teachings of St. Theophan the Recluse, as well as St. John Chrysostom, St. Maximos the Confessor, and other Church Fathers. She presented a three-part talk: The Life of the Church, Suffering & Trauma, and Raising Them Right.
Andrea, a PhD student, administrative assistant and Church School Director, for Father Paul Abernathy of the Antiochian Archdiocese, who is the head of NRP, a non-profit organization that responds in a uniquely Orthodox Christian way to acute and long term care of community members experiencing trauma. This ministry is based at their parish community of St. Moses the Black in Pittsburgh, PA.
We learned that serving others is not merely a ministry of the Church, but rather, the Church is Ministry. God comes to us in the person of the dying, the sick, the needy. We are “missing the mark” if we are not “going out” and “walking alongside” the “least of these” to achieve our salvation.
We are thankful to Fr. Ambrose Inlow and Saints Peter and Paul Parish in Syracuse, NY and to Fr. John Morris and Christ the Saviour Parish in Paramus, NJ for graciously hosting these events.
Over 25 of our Church School Teachers, Youth Workers, and Clergy benefited from this important presentation. Workshop recordings and presentation slides are being made available to those who couldn’t attend in person at tamarancowan@hotmail.com.
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Diocese of New York
and New Jersey
33 Hewitt Avenue
Bronxville NY 10708
914-779-6580 (Phone)
914-779-6581 (Fax)
info@nynjoca.org