Holy Cross Mission Parish Bulletin June 6, 2010

Glory be to Jesus Christ!

Just a few things:

1.  Divine Liturgy: Hearing of confessions and the reading of the hours at 9:30 a.m.  Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.  This Sunday is also kid’s sermon.  We tried to do it last Sunday, but, um…we didn’t have any kids in attendance.  So we will try this Sunday.

2.  Thank you to all that donated to the Thelma Wynne Project.  We collected a lot of items that I know will be greatly appreciated.  Thank you for your generosity.

3.  Parish Meeting after the Divine Liturgy this Sunday.

4.  As some of you may or may not be aware, July 12-18 is the Sobor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada.  Every 5 years delegates from the parishes of the UOCC gather together to map out the course/direction for the next five years.  Resolutions are presented to give goals for the church as a whole to achieve.  There is sharing amongst the clergy, amongst the laity, and amongst the clergy and the laity.  Issues and concerns are addressed and at the end of the week, the course for the next five years has been plotted and by the grace of God, we will hopefully have smooth sailing.

One of the other big things that happens is that there is the election for the members of the Consistory Board, which is a governing body made of up of clergy and laity that work with the Hierarchy to implement those resolutions passed and guide the ship that is our Holy Church.

I have been thinking about leadership.  What we expect from those that we ask to lead us.  Do we have the right to be disappointed in those we choose if we ourselves elect said leader?

In Romans 12:8, St. Paul writes, “If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.” There are many different styles of leadership.  “Lead, follow, or get out of the way.”  “Lead by example.”  “A great leader puts his vision into action.”  Every on us has probably encountered someone who embodies one of these styles or we ourselves, if put into a position of leadership, we will exhibit one of these styles.

Our role-model for leadership is our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  He never wrote a book on leadership.  Never elected to public office.  Never ran a company and even though he spoke to a crowd of 5000 people, our Saviour focused much of His attention on His disciples.  Christ really preferred to relate to people one on one.

Our Lord and Saviour, in preparing His Apostles to carry on His teachings after He was gone, was concerned about their ability to lead.  That is why one of the last things He told His Apostles was about leadership.  “Those who are the greatest should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant…” (Luke 22:26)

That is the greatest leadership principle…ever.  If you want to lead, you have to be ready to serve and realize, above all else, that the opportunity to lead is a blessing from God and to use that opportunity to build up the body of Christ on earth, His Holy Church.  Humility, patience, discernment, forgiveness and above all else, love.  Those are the qualities are the qualities to look for and more importantly demand that those who wish to take on a position of leadership in our Holy Church exhibit.  Ego, pride, delusions of grandeur our Holy Church can do without simply because the struggle to proclaim the Holy Gospel is hard enough without us sabotaging ourselves.

“If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.”


Answer to last week’s question:
In John’s Gospel Jesus gave Himself a name by saying “I am…” seven times.  What was the first name?  I am THE BREAD OF LIFE.

In John’s Gospel Jesus gave Himself a name by saying “I am…” seven times.  What was the second name?

This week’s
See you in church.

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – June 10 , 2010