I often attend a nearby parish. It’s one that is holding on to its ethnicity, let’s say, St. Victor Venetian Orthodox Church (fictional name). The parish membership is dwindling. Donations are not matching expenses – by a big gap. The older ethnic generation is dying. I would say that some of the parish is in #3 Denial of risk and peril; while the very small active core group and their priest are in #4 Grasping for salvation.

Over the years that the current priest has been at St. Victor’s, he has destroyed parish leadership. He runs ever parish organization meeting, from their ladies’ group to the St. Victor’s service organization. He tells people working in the kitchen how to chop the fruit for the fruit salad. Twice now he has been elected Parish Council President! (Obviously that Archdiocese does not outlaw this in their bylaws.) They have dependency on fundraisers, and still they are losing money. They have so-so attendance at Sunday Divine Liturgy, and very poor attendance at any non-Sunday services.

They do not pray together. They are not growing. They do not have much witness to the community around them. Those who want to hold on to their ethnicity say, for example, if we’re not going to be the Venetian Orthodox Church, then why are we here if we’re Venetians? And even if just a few people understand the old country language, once a month the Liturgy starts in Venetian.

It’s sad. There are good people who attend St. Victor’s. Will the doors still be open in 1 year, let alone in 5?

I pray for this priest and the faithful of this parish.