SSJC-WR COMMITTEE MEETING – Minutes
November 17, 2018
St George Antiochian Orthodox Church
4175 Poplar St.
San Diego, CA 92105
Present: Fr. George Morelli, Fr. James Bankston (by phone), Fr. James Babcock, Fr. Ramon Merlos, Pastor Paul Bieber, Diane Alves, Bob Greenwell, Jim Trageser, Mark Hartman, Anthony Porrello, Sally Provencio
The meeting opened at approximately 10:40 AM. Opening prayer was given by Fr. James Babcock.
Chairman’s Report: Fr. George opened the meeting telling us that he had received email on upcoming events from Jack Figel of the national SSJC organization which are the Orientale Lumen Conference in June and an Ecumenical Pilgrimage in July. He also reported that he has talked to Fr. Steve Tsichlis of St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine about holding a Society of St. John Chrysostom, Western Region conference there next year.
Vice Chairman’s Report: Fr. Bankston who was on speakerphone said he would talk later about the website.
Secretary’s Report: Diane Alves mentioned that the minutes of the previous meeting are on the website. She had printed copies to pass out and asked if anyone wanted to make any changes or had any objections. No one asked for any revisions, so Bob Greenwell made a motion to accept the minutes. Jim Trageser seconded.
Treasurer’s Report: Bob Greenwell said that he had recently received $300 in dues. The bank account currently has a balance of $2,057.97. Then Fr. Babcock said we have never had a fundraiser, and someone else said we might do future fundraising on the website.
Light of the East Newsletter: Jim Trageser had to leave early, so his report was given before the website report. He hasn’t quite completed our first totally online newsletter. The main article is about our reorganization. Jim mentioned that his plans to have an article on Orthodox reaction to Roman Catholic sex abuse/pedophilia scandals isn’t happening because information on that subject seems not to exist. The issue will have an article on current events involving Ukrainian church ecclesiology. There will also be profiles of two San Marcos churches, St. Petkas Orthodox Church and St. Mark’s Roman Catholic Church. Diane mentioned that Jim should send the newsletter (PDF) to her for posting on the website.
Website Team Report: Fr. Bankston reported that the website has been cloned and is now hosted by Mark Hartman saving us from paying the now former web host, Fr. John Schroedel. Bob asked if the previous web host had been notified. Fr. James reported that he had contacted Fr. Schroedel and received from him the domain registration which we needed. There followed discussion of posting on the website the list of Southern California parishes which Jim Trageser is compiling. Fr. Bankston said there is a WordPress widget which allows posting an Excel spreadsheet. There was also mention of some former website functionality tied to MailChimp which allowed people on the mailing list to correct or delete their entries. (Note from Diane: I think that functionality is in MailChimp itself, not in the website. Someone who receives an email from MailChimp can reply with a correction or cancellation. Anne Petach knows the most about MailChimp and can answer these questions.)
Old Business — By Laws Revision: Fr. George and Pastor Paul Bieber have both summarized in emails the changes decided on at the last meeting. Pastor Paul will create a clean copy of the new By Laws to replace the old By Laws on the website. Jack Figel of the national organization has approved adding the Assyrian Church to those churches whose members are eligible for our Executive Committee membership.
New Business – Light of the East Conference in 2019: Fr. George has talked to Fr. Steve Tsichlis who is willing to let us host the conference at his church, St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine. We discussed holding a meeting with Fr. Steve at his church on January 21st which is Martin Luther King Day. Before that day we would hold a preliminary meeting either on January 12th or January 19th. We decided on a topic which was proposed by Fr. James (Babcock?), the subject of Ecclesiology which is about how churches are structured: patriarchs, bishops, etc. This subject is key to the recent news that the Greek Orthodox and the Moscow Patriarchate are no longer in communion mainly because of conflicts between bishops over the Ukrainian church. Apparently, the Serbian Church is siding with Moscow. Fr. George mentioned that the Antiochian Orthodox Church is still in communion with every other Orthodox church except Jerusalem. A motion was made to accept Ecclesiology as our topic by Mark Hartman. It was seconded by Fr. Ramon Merlos.
We decided that our conference will include all churches which have apostolic succession which normally means having a Roman Catholic speaker, an Orthodox speaker, and an Eastern Catholic speaker. The subject of including the Coptic church was brought up but it was decided that we won’t include them because Coptics have a very complicated, fragmented ecclesiology in their relationships with other Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches (but not as fragmented as Protestants!) About Protestants, it was mentioned that some Scandinavian Lutheran churches have apostolic succession; Anglicans were also mentioned in this context. Pastor Paul Bieber agreed to be a presenter at the conference on this subject. For Eastern Catholics, Fr. Bankston agreed to contact Fr. Andriy Chirovsky of a Tucson Ukrainian Church as a possible Eastern Catholic speaker. We will also need an Orthodox speaker and a Roman Catholic speaker.
Conclusion of meeting: The following decisions were made:
A preliminary meeting about the Ecclesiology Light of the East Conference will be held in January (12th or 19th) and then we will meet with Fr. Steve on the 21st if he agrees. The assumption is that Fr. George will contact him.
Motion to Adjourn: Bob Greenwell, 2nd: Fr. James Bankston
Closing prayer around 12:30 by Pastor Paul Bieber
Respectfully submitted by Secretary, Diane Alves