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My Fellow Parishioners,
I can’t believe it is the last quarter of another year. I have truly enjoyed serving the Cathedral as President of the Parish Council for the last two years. I have seen a lot of changes occur and know that we are about to embark on the biggest changes our community has seen in the last 50-years.
Most importantly at the Special General Assembly in September held by the Parish Council, the GA approved several motions to proceed with the planning and construction of the Family Center. This means that the 50-year dream of our community to build a Family Center will now become a reality. I would like to commend the Family Center Committees for their selfless contribution of time, talent and treasury for over four years to bring us a design that encompasses the growing needs of our community. With the leadership of Dimitrios Vasiliadis as Chairman of the Building Committee, which is comprised of very talented Stewards, they have worked very hard to learn the needs of the ministries, and hear the numerous requests from the community resulting in a design that enhances the best aspects of our current facility while providing a structure and design that addresses the growing needs of our community. The Family Center Phase II and Phase III design fulfills the growing needs of our numerous ministries, religious, youth and senior activities, educational and academic requirements, to allow us to continue to grow and expand into the future. It also gives us the opportunity to fix what can potentially be very large expenses of replacing the old boiler, inefficient windows that cause us to lose heat, roof leaks, no central air, an old pot-holed parking lot, and other problems that face an aging building. Therefore, with all that said, I appeal to everyone to make their pledge and donate money to ensure we financially support the project and have ground breaking by spring 2009. There are also naming right opportunities to honor your family name or in memory of a loved one who has passed away. There are not too many chances in our lifetime to be able to have our name appear on a building we helped build. This is a new beginning for the church and we cannot do it without everyone’s help. If you have not done so at this time, please speak with your family members and fill out a pledge envelope so that you can proudly know that you helped build the Family Center. The Capital Campaign Committee is available to discuss your pledge and they have made it easy to give, weekly, monthly, semi annually….but just give.
2008 Clergy Laity Conference
A memorable experience for me as President was attending the Clergy Laity Conference this summer in Washington D.C. Also with me representing Saint Spyridon was Father Dean and Presbytera Cynthia, and Harris Pitsillidis. It was a very informative conference hosted by the Archdiocese that brought together the leaders of every church community in the United States to share in knowledge and experience. We attended many worthwhile programs and workshops on every topic or category that affects our Cathedral. One of the most informative workshops was on church finances and operating budgets and we learned a lot about how many of the churches handle their budgets and expenses. They also had discussions and workshops on fund raising and campaigns and many of the things that they reviewed in these workshops and meetings we actually do here in our church and our community. We also attended a workshop on Capital Campaigns and it was really interesting that the basics that they discussed are what we are actually doing here at Saint Spyridon for our Family Center Campaign. Another main theme of the Clergy Laity emphasized interfaith marriages…statistics reflects that there are about 80% interfaith marriages. They had seminars that gave helpful suggestions on how we should reach out and make people feel invited and welcomed in our community. In addition, Stewardship and donating to the church was another important topic that they discussed. It was also emphasized that it is our job to help people in our community understand of how important their Stewardship contribution is to the survival of our church. It was suggested that we should build awareness that people should give 10% of their earnings. There were approximately 780 delegates from churches all over the country, over 400 clergy, youth representatives as well as Philoptochos. It was very informative to everyone there. The main focus was to bring people back to church. The Archdiocese provides a website that offers printed material to distribute to the community on every topic and workshop they offered at www.ClergyLaity.org Another recommendation was to make everyone feel welcomed in our Orthodox community regardless if they are just Greek. We are all Orthodox Christians and this is our bond In addition, it is also really important to be educating our community that we are not only part of our Greek Community and Parish but part of our neighborhoods and our city…and to be reaching out to our community. I have charged the Parish Council to take some of these recommendations and implement them as initiatives for us to achieve for our community. We need to find more volunteers to get involved and help the Parish Council achieve some of the goals we need to set which continue to help our community evolve and grow. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO BE PART OF ANY SUB COMMITTEE OF THE PARISH COUNCIL…WE NEED EVERYONE TO HELP AND GET INVOLVED.
2009 Parish Council Elections
The Parish Council Elections are in November on the 16th. My greatest hope is to find qualified and talented stewards who would like to serve on the Parish Council and to be nominated. The role of the Parish Council is to help the Cathedral operate efficiently to ensure that its needs are met and our community continues to grow. As the governing board, the PC is responsible for all contracts, initiatives, action plans, the budget, Stewardship and oversee the tasks that the sub committees are working on are accomplished. In addition, we serve as the ambassadors of Saint Spyridon both to our community as well as outside of our community in our neighborhoods and City. With the construction of our Family Center, the 2009 Parish Council will have a critical role that will be charged with making the decisions on My Fellow Parishioners, I can’t believe it is the last quarter of another year. I have truly enjoyed serving the Cathedral as President of the Parish Council for the last two years. I have seen a lot of changes occur and know that we are about to embark on the biggest changes our community has seen in the last 50-years. Most importantly at the Special General Assembly in September held by the Parish Council, the GA approved several motions to proceed with the planning and construction of the Family Center. This means that the 50-year dream of our community to build a Family Center will now become a reality. I would like to commend the Family Center Committees for their selfless contribution of time, talent and treasury for over four years to bring us a design that encompasses the growing needs of our community. With the leadership of Dimitrios Vasiliadis as Chairman of the Building Committee, which is comprised of very talented Stewards, they have worked very hard to learn the needs of the ministries, and hear the numerous requests from the community resulting in a design that enhances the best aspects of our current facility while providing a structure and design that addresses the growing needs of our community. The Family Center Phase II and Phase III design fulfills the growing needs of our numerous ministries, religious, youth and senior activities, educational and academic requirements, to allow us to continue to grow and expand into the future. It also gives us the opportunity to fix what can potentially be very large expenses of replacing the old boiler, inefficient windows that cause us to lose heat, roof leaks, no central air, an old pot-holed parking lot, and other problems that face an aging building. Therefore, with all that said, I appeal to everyone to make their pledge and donate money to ensure we financially support the project and have ground breaking by spring 2009. There are also naming right opportunities to honor your family name or in memory of a loved one who has passed away. There are not too many chances in our lifetime to be able to have our name appear on a building we helped build. This is a new beginning for the church and we cannot do it without everyone’s help. If you have not done so at this time, please speak with your family members and fill out a pledge envelope so that you can proudly know that you helped build the Family Center. The Capital Campaign Committee is available to discuss your pledge and they have made it easy to give, weekly, monthly, semi annually….but just give. 2008 Clergy Laity Conference A memorable experience for me as President was attending the Clergy Laity Conference this summer in Washington D.C. Also with me representing Saint Spyridon was Father Dean and Presbytera Cynthia, and Harris Pitsillidis. It was a very informative conference hosted by the Archdiocese that brought together the leaders of every church community in the United States to share in knowledge and experience. We attended many worthwhile programs and workshops on every topic or category that affects our Cathedral. One of the most informative workshops was on church finances and operating budgets and we learned a lot about how many of the churches handle their budgets and expenses. They also had discussions and workshops on fund raising and campaigns and many of the things that they reviewed in these workshops and meetings we actually do here in our church and our community. We also attended a workshop on Capital Campaigns and it was really interesting that the basics that they discussed are what we are actually doing here at Saint Spyridon for our Family Center Campaign. Another main theme of the Clergy Laity emphasized interfaith marriages…statistics reflects that there are about 80% interfaith marriages. They had seminars that gave helpful suggestions on how we should reach out and make people feel invited and welcomed in our community. In addition, Stewardship and donating to the church was another important topic that they discussed. It was also emphasized that it is our job to help people in our community understand of how important their Stewardship contribution is to the survival of our church. It was suggested that we should build awareness that people should give 10% of their earnings. There were approximately 780 delegates from churches all over the country, over 400 clergy, youth representatives as well as Philoptochos. It was very informative to everyone there. The main focus was to bring people back to church. The Archdiocese provides a website that offers printed material to distribute to the community on every topic and workshop they offered at www.ClergyLaity.org Another recommendation was to make everyone feel welcomed in our Orthodox community regardless if they are just Greek. We are all Orthodox Christians and this is our bond In addition, it is also really important to be educating our community that we are not only part of our Greek Community and Parish but part of our neighborhoods and our city…and to be reaching out to our community. I have charged the Parish Council to take some of these recommendations and implement them as initiatives for us to achieve for our community. We need to find more volunteers to get involved and help the Parish Council achieve some of the goals we need to set which continue to help our community evolve and grow. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO BE PART OF ANY SUB COMMITTEE OF THE PARISH COUNCIL…WE NEED EVERYONE TO HELP AND GET INVOLVED. 2009 Parish Council Elections The Parish Council Elections are in November on the 16th. My greatest hope is to find qualified and talented stewards who would like to serve on the Parish Council and to be nominated. The role of the Parish Council is to help the Cathedral operate efficiently to ensure that its needs are met and our community continues to grow. As the governing board, the PC is responsible for all contracts, initiatives, action plans, the budget, Stewardship and oversee the tasks that the sub committees are working on are accomplished. In addition, we serve as the ambassadors of Saint Spyridon both to our community as well as outside of our community in our neighborhoods and City. With the construction of our Family Center, the 2009 Parish Council will have a critical role that will be charged with making the decisions on everything that occurs during the construction phase as well as once the Family Center is built. Therefore, PLEASE NOMINATE QUALIFIED INDIVIDUALS FOR THIS IMPORTANT ROLE. We have to fill 5 open positions in November.
I also want to thank my wonderful fellow Parish Council members. It’s been a great year and we have accomplished so much in 2008. It’s been a pleasure to serve with you and I know that each of us have the best interest of our Cathedral as we serve on the governing board of our community. As we say good bye to 2008, I wish to acknowledge and thank the following:
• Father Dean, and Father Greg--or being our spiritual leaders who provided our spiritual guidance while also selflessly working behind the scenes to be wherever a parishioner needed them. They visit the sick in hospitals, hold the hands of the family members who are grieving for a loved one who has passed, bless homes and businesses when asked, are available to listen when their may be a family crisis, are our best ambassadors in the community at large, and much, much more that we don’t see….and they do it with a smile and with love in their hearts. On behalf of our community we thank you Father Dean and Father Greg for your devotion and love of our community. The 2008 Grecian Festival--proved to be one of the most fun and best we have had since it’s 35 years. Under the leadership of Co-Chairmen Mike Dionis, and George Maniatis, the festival netted in excess of $120,000. I also want to thank the Committee Chairpeople, the hundreds of volunteers, our sponsors and program book advertisers for pulling together to make this a stellar festival.
• The 10th-Annual Golf Tournament---was also a great event that netted in excess of $22,000 under the leadership of Co-Chairs Stu Paskalis and Tina Niedbala and their committee.
• The Special Events Committee--Chaired by Evangelia Velentzas for planning and hosting six events in 2008. These events brought “glendi” for the community as well as raised money for the Cathedral and the Family Center. The Parish Council Subcommittee Chairpeople--who volunteered their time and talent to work on different initiatives to ensure that the Cathedral’s many ministries and activities functioned seamlessly.
• The Veteran’s Recognition Committee--the newest PC Subcommittee lead by Chairman Peter Leasca for helping to recognize Saint Spyridon’s veterans who enlisted to help fight and keep our country safe. Here is a man who recently retired from his career but didn’t stop but instead volunteered his time and worked diligently to create this committee so that veteran’s would finally be recognized.
• The School Committee--with Co-Chairs Jessica Pitsillidis and Katerina Kambosos and their committee for working to help evolve the Nursery School program at Saint Spyridon to fulfill the needs of our youngest parishioners our pre-schoolers. The 2008 school season commenced in early September with a very talented and experienced Director and Lead Teacher Mrs. Laura Fitzgerald, who hired Jennifer Ward, Gloria Naun as her staff, and is working on providing a curriculum and program to be one of the best Nursery Schools in Worcester.
• The Delegates from the Prefecture of Serres--visit and the Orpheus Concert. For the first time in our history we welcomed the visit of over 100 delegates who came to Worcester from Greece and were honored by the Mayor and City of Worcester. We also enjoyed the beautiful performance of the Orpheus Concert with the proceeds donated to the Family Center and thank the Cultural Center Hrisohorafiton for sponsoring the visit and the event.
In summary, I was blessed to serve as President of our wonderful community. I thank everyone who volunteered to help support our church and its groups and activities. At a time when there is economic instability, the rising cost of fuel and necessities, people losing their jobs and their homes, the constant in our lives is our spiritual life and our church. The church, lead by our spiritual leaders Father Dean and Father Greg will always be there for us, the door remains always open for both our joys and our struggles and pain. I just feel sorry for those in our world who do not have the spiritual foundation to rely on as we do with our Greek Orthodox Christian faith. It is really important that we honor our Christian Stewardship responsibility to our church and budget your Stewardship dollars as you do your household utility bills. In addition, please also donate to the Family Center so that we can indeed see ground breaking this next spring.
As the holidays come upon us and we look forward to enjoying our families at Christmas, I wish to leave you with the thought that the true celebration of Christmas is not the Christmas lights, or Santa Claus or all the sales at the department stores, but the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.
Merry Christmas, and May God Be with You.
Gus Giannakis,
President
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