The fourth of seven regional Parish Council Conferences within the diocese was held at Christ the Saviour Church in Paramus NJ on June 4, 2011.  In attendance were 70 clergy and laity.  As with all of the regional conferences, the facilitator was Very Reverend Alexander Atty, Dean of Saint Tikhon’s Seminary. Father Atty actively and energetically engaged those gathered as he presented an Orthodox vision of the duties and responsibilities of parish council members.

As the “people of God” they must seek their full potential as members of God’s household and be faithful stewards of the Church spiritually, physically, and financially.  A participant said, “He reminded us that we cannot share our talents if we do not personally increase them within ourselves.”

It was concluded and emphasized that the bishop, priests, and laity must cooperate in God’s work (“liturgia”).  The bishop presides, the priest assists him as a pastor/rector of the parish, and the people of God cooperate in a conciliar way: to increase the spiritual, social, and economic potential of the parish whose existence is that all may attain the Kingdom of God in its fullness!