SSJC-WR COMMITTEE MEETING – Minutes
February 23, 2019
San Rafael Roman Catholic Parish
17252 Bernardo Center Dr.
San Diego, CA 92128
Present: Fr. George Morelli, Msgr. Dennis Mikulanis, Fr. James Bankston, Fr. James Babcock, Pastor Paul Bieber, Diane Alves, Bob Greenwell, Mark Hartman, Anthony Porrello, Sally Provencio
The meeting opened at approximately 12:05 PM. Opening prayer was given by Msgr. Dennis Mikulanis.
Chairman’s Report: Fr. George Morelli opened the meeting by asking if everyone approved the minutes from the previous meeting (which had previously been sent out). There were no objections, so Parliamentarian, Mark Hartman, said “The minutes stand approved.”
Fr. George reported that he had talked to Fr. Steve Tsichlis; and it looks like holding our Western Region conference at St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church, Irvine this year may not work due to major renovations happening there.
Vice Chairman’s Report: Fr. James Bankston said he had nothing to report as Vice Chairman, but he would talk about the website later.
Secretary’s Report: Diane Alves said that she would have obtained approval of the minutes from the November 17th meeting at this time, but that has already been done.
Treasurer’s Report: Bob Greenwell said that he had received $500 since October. The bank account currently has a balance of $2,257.97 which is the most we’ve ever had. Fr. George spoke of a parishioner from his parish, Lynda Grasser, who wants to join and is willing to pay a $25.00 membership fee. He also mentioned that we need to send money to the national headquarters of SSJC. It was decided that we should send 20% of the membership fees. Bob made the motion. Pastor Paul seconded. The motion carried unanimously.
Light of the East Newsletter: Jim Trageser wasn’t present to give us an update. Father George will contact him.
Website Team Report: Fr. Bankston reported that the website is functioning as it should. A new version of the WordPress software is available, but Fr. Bankston doesn’t want to update at this time because he has information that there might be “bugs” in this version. Diane mentioned that Fr. Hans had suggested she always upgrade to the latest version, but this time she has not done so. Fr. Bankston said, “You can update the website, but leave the upgrading to me.” He also mentioned that he wants Anne Petach to continue to handle the MailChimp invitations to our events.
Fr. George then asked if we have any software on the website to track visitors. Fr. Bankston said he will look for such an add-on. It was agreed that such software could provide us with interesting information. Diane mentioned that she would like to change the way we display the minutes on the website. Each minutes report is currently a web page which appears as a menu item (there are too many). Diane proposed a single minutes webpage containing links to the minutes for various dates. It would be like the web page we have for the newsletter. Fr. Bankston agreed. He mentioned that future minutes should be in PDF format since not everyone has Word. The older minutes can remain as HTML pages.
Old Business
By Laws Revision: We are all very pleased with Pastor Paul Bieber’s revision of the By Laws. Mark made motion to accept the new By Laws, Bob seconded. Thank you, Pastor Paul for a great job!
New Business – Light of the East Conference 2019: At the previous meeting we decided that our subject would be Ecclesiology i.e. how churches are structured: patriarchs, bishops, etc. A recent dispute between the Moscow Patriarchate and Constantinople over Ukraine would have been included in the coverage of this topic.
At this meeting, Fr. George mentioned that Fr. Steve advised against using the Ecclesiology topic for our conference because it is too much of a hot button issue. Fr. George added that there is a lack of qualified speakers in our area except for Fr. Michel Najim who is Dean of the Antiochian Cathedral in Los Angeles and a former professor at Balamand Seminary in Lebanon. We also decided that another controversial issue which we previously discussed, clergy sexual abuse, is probably not good either. Both Ecclesiology and Sexual Abuse are currently “Elephants in the Room.”
After considerable discussion we decided on a new topic, “Monasticism for the Rest of Us.”: Father George suggested this topic while mentioning that St. John Chrysostom had spoken of black and white monasticism where black refers to those who wear a black habit while white monasticism is about the spirituality of ordinary people. Fr. George mentioned an Orthodox Church in the Home tradition and Interiorized Monasticism (in the writings of Paul Evdokimov). He would be willing to talk on this subject. Discussion followed which included the fact that some Roman Catholic religious orders are monastic while others are missionary or social service oriented rather than cloistered. Some Roman Catholic religious orders also have 3rd orders which are organizations of lay people connected to the order and its spirituality.
As usual, we intended to have a Roman Catholic speaker, an Orthodox speaker, and an Eastern Catholic speaker; but we finally decided tentatively on four speakers, Brother Daniel of Prince of Peace Monastery, Mother Melania who is in a women’s monastery near Magic Mountain (Anne Petach knows her), Fr. George, and Chris O’Donnell, a parishioner of Msgr. Dennis, who is married with 3 children and a member of a 3rd order. If this is the final list, Brother Daniel and Chris O’Donnell are Roman Catholic, Fr. George and Mother Melania are Orthodox (or is she Eastern Catholic?). Have we left out an Eastern Catholic speaker? Some members of our group mentioned that Eastern Catholic and Orthodox Monasticism are alike.
Details: Tentative dates are May 18th or June 1st. Location will have to be finalized, San Rafael’s Parish schedule is being looked into by Msgr. Dennis. $75 stipends for local speakers. We should get our advertising of this event to “The Southern Cross” by April 1st. Of course, Jim Trageser also needs to get our conference in the newsletter and then Diane should post it on the website. Fr. James will do a flyer. I believe there were a couple volunteers to distribute flyers(?). Fr. George will contact Orthodox Clergy, Msgr. Dennis will contact Roman Catholic Clergy.
Conclusion of meeting: Our decisions include the decisions above about topic, place, and speakers. We also decided to have three speakers in the morning (by holding registration at 8:30 and the first speech at 9 AM) followed by lunch (Msgr. Dennis mentioned assorted sandwiches from Panera for $10 each, Sally mentioned fruit from Costco). After lunch we would hear the 4th speaker. Finally, there would be a panel consisting of all the speakers answering questions from the attendees.
Motion to Adjourn: Fr. James Babcock made the motion, 2nd: Bob Greenwell
Closing prayer around 1:50 by Fr. James Babcock.
Respectfully submitted by Secretary, Diane Alves