Thriving Parishes Project and the Catholicity of the Church

I Believe in One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church…

What comes to mind when you see the word Church with a capital “C”? Most of us probably think of different realities: our own St. Nicholas community, the Diocese of the West, the Orthodox Church in America, the wider Orthodox world, Christianity as a whole, or perhaps even a particular ethnic identity such as Romanian or Greek. Yet in our daily lives, we most directly encounter the Church in the context of our parish.

But what do we really mean when we confess the Church to be “Catholic”? One dimension of catholicity is the ability to embrace everyone. To paraphrase Fr. Alexander Schmemann: parishes, shaped by their environments, are naturally limited in their catholicity. They can be ethnic, convert, “middle-class,” liberal, conservative, missionary, urban, suburban, or rural. Ideally, these qualities should not determine their life, but they cannot be ignored. It is through the diocese that a parish receives its catholicity—the constant challenge to transcend being a self-contained community and to identify not only with its own people and needs, but with the eternal life of the Church as a whole. The parish achieves this only together with other communities that share in overcoming natural limitations.

Thriving Parishes at St. Nicholas

his vision of catholicity is why we are participating in the Thriving Parishes Program, a project of the Orthodox Church in America that helps parishes reflect on their health, strengthen community life, and plan for a flourishing future.

This summer, 35 members of St. Nicholas completed an anonymous survey focusing on the health of our parish. On September 11th, the Thriving Parishes Health Team met with Father Andrew Smith to review the results. The next step will be parish-wide focus groups, open to all who wish to participate, where we will discuss the outcomes together. These will take place on Sunday, October 5th and Sunday, October 19th following lunch. After these conversations, the Health Team will develop an Action Plan to address the areas of concern and to strengthen our life together.

Seeing the Bigger Picture

Why mention all this? Because it reminds us of the bigger picture of what it means to be the Church. We are not alone in our challenges or our growth. Browsing reports at dowoca.org and oca.org shows the shared goals, successes, and struggles of our sister parishes. Personally, I have made it a daily habit to begin by reading the Epistle and Gospel on the OCA website before I look at anything else online—a simple way to ground myself in the life of the Church beyond our parish.

Finally, catholicity is not only about surveys, reports, or websites—it is about personal encounter. I encourage everyone to visit our local parishes, attend their altar feasts, and welcome them to ours. A wonderful opportunity will come with St. Nicholas Day, December 5–6.