May Minutes 2006

Unable to Attend:

Treasurer: Robert Zubenko
Community Development Team Leader: Luba Johnson
Diocesan/All-American Delegate: Anthea Lukoshonak
Assistant Lay Chairperson: Caye Caswick

Meeting brought to order at 7:00 P.M. with Christ is Risen

Bible study: Miraculous Escape: Acts 12:1-25

Minutes

Minutes for March - approved pending question for fees for picnic Mike, Pearl 2nd all agreed

Financial Secretary Philip Nezanov's and Treasurer Bob Zubenko's reports are not included in the online version of the council minutes.

Reports

Education Team Leader - Maria Kopulos
present, written report submitted

Church School - Lana Kokayeff

1. Annual Church School Lenten Retreat- was held on Sunday, April 9th from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm. Theme was "Love One Another." The number of students from pre-school to 6th grade who attended was 27- that's a 92.6% score !!!!! (That number does not include the 3 toddlers for whom Pat Harrison babysat.) It started with an instructional Divine Liturgy celebrated in the Fellowship Hall. After liturgy, YO provided a bread/soup charity lunch for everyone. From noon until 2:30 there were activities for students and parents. Father Andrew visited all the classes and spent designated time with the 1st confession candidates. Deacon Andrew also went from class to class and presented (in his usual vibrant fashion) church etiquette. Maria Vrame taught songs to the younger children. At the closing, all the students met in the church where Maria Vrame guided everyone in song and Father led in a closing prayer. One of the projects completed by the students was the "Living Icon" which are displayed in the Fellowship Hall. There is also a collage with photos that will be framed and kept in the Educational Building hallway. Parents were treated to "Walk the Line" in the conference room during the retreat.
2. Class confessions were on Sunday, March 26 for 3rd thru 6th grade.
3. First Confession - Three students made their first confession on Lazarus Saturday April 15th; two others on April 9th, and the last one on April 16th. So all 6 candidates successfully participated and were rewarded with certificates and gifts. (The reason these dates were staggered is because some of the children were going on or returning from vacations.)
4. TV/DVD/VCR- 21" unit for the church school was purchased at a cost of $269.99. We'll have to purchase a portable stand for it…cost should be around $100.
5. Church School Closing - Annual attendance awards and graduate recognition will be on Memorial Day weekend (5/28). We try to have Youth Sunday the lst Sunday of June when attendance awards/graduates/Olympians are recognized. But that conflicts with this year's picnic on 6/4. The other option was to wait until June 11th, but that is Pentecost. Thus the decision for a 5/28 closing.

Adult Education - Clark Wilson

The Purpose-Driven Life is resuming its weekly meetings May 12. My article on St. Thomas was published in the third issue of the small Indian ministry's magazine. I received a physical copy. I created my credit database and started entering parishioners' credits into it. I have not updated the credits white-board in the fellowship hall. I helped out with the YO retreat 8 April 2006. During Lent I was in our on-line chat room several Sundays, and some guests did actually show up sometimes. (Fr. Andrew was off at the services that happen every Sunday evening during Lent.) Caye Caswick also was on line in the chatroom several Sundays. My article "Define the Divine" was published in the Evangelist issue that came out at the end of Lent. I am scheduled to write another article in the series for the next issue. There will be an educational open deanery meeting at St. Luke's 16 May 2006 at 7 p.m. It will be a lecture "Defacing the Icon of Christ: Stigmatization of the Poor and the Collapse of Christian Love." I plan to attend. The coffee-hour discussion table continues each Sunday. The inquirer Carlus continues to worship at St. Luke's but we have made no recent progress on the catechism workbook that Fr. Andrew gave him earlier this year.

Christian Resource Center - Deacon Danial Doss

Icons were ordered for new members, amongst other books and icons.

YO - Maria Kopulos

Present/Past News:

The Lenten Retreat (April 8th) was pretty well attended for the most part. It began at noon and lasted until 8:00. The topic discussed was "Hosanna", which was mainly about the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, then leading into his crucifixion. Alexander Lukashonak and Clark Wilson were a huge help in the development and discussion groups. Confession was given by Father, communal type and personal. A few of the kids stayed to make homemade soup and bread for the following day. Stea Zekios was a huge help in this area, as she is the head bread maker. The final products were served the following day, and raised money to benefit Project Mexico and St. Innocent Orphanage ($154.00).

New News:

I will be looking for someone interested in taking over this ministry!(I would still be interested in assisting) It has been a wonderful past 4 years, but my responsibilities are taking me down other avenues, and into new ministries. *Please let me know if there is anyone interested. Thanks!

Movie Club - Ken Stevens

Last month the club viewed United 93….it was very provocative and gave us much food for thought following the movie. Our custom is to go to a fast food restaurant and discuss the salient theological/church-related issues.

This month (next Sunday), we talked about seeing DiVinci Code. Even though it is fiction, it gives us a context for discussion. However, since the reviews were so poor, if word of mouth is bad, we may do something else instead.

Junior Olympics - Chuck Bern

This is held Memorial Day Weekend at Sts. Constantine and Helen. No report submitted.

Additions: Chuck reported that 26 children from St. Mary will be attending the Greek Olympics. The majority of events will be on Saturday.

Open ministries:

1. Bulletin Boards. Maria suggested adding a health Bulletin board.
2. YO. Father suggested Lauren for this position. Maria suggested Andrew Lukoshonak

Property Team Leader - Mike Bauml
present, written report submitted

Expected expenses this month: 1400.00 - second installment of basement floor cost and possibly expenses for landscaping repair to be determined.

Maintenance Report

Nick did a great job with the painting of the old basement. Also he will be helping further by touching up the paint after the floor installation and trimming the door frames.

Kitchen Ministry

Peter Zekios has asked to step down as the kitchen minister. Peter had done a great job and we would like to thank him for all his hard work. Carla Stevens has agreed to take his place. We welcome her to our team and look forward to working with her.

Pending Projects

1. Plaster is coming off the wall on the way up the choir next to the window due to an old leak. We need to fix this.
2. Waterproofing stone above the front door. Waiting for information from George Evangelopoulos.
3. Finish repairing the Air Conditioning unit for the new basement. Nick got it running again but it needs a sensor to be replaced.
4. Missing baseboard in the fellowship hall needs to be replaced.
5. Broken window in classroom: Pending

Environmental

Team Projects

• Sacristy Carpet Repair: Due to an accident with some incense, a portion of the sacristy carpet needs to be replaced. This is pending.
• Lawn Repair: WE consulted with Fenn Landscaping and received a quote of 6400.00 for all the landscaping repair from the drought and the sidewalk construction. As this seemed too high and additional estimate is being prepared from a different company.
• Choir Room: The natural brick wall still needs to be trimmed and the wall cleaned or painted. This is pending.
• Broken water fountain: Nick will contact a plumber to have this repaired.
• Church sidewalk: We were able to get a great price from Liberty Concrete. The total price was 4500.00. They did a great job and were able to get the sidewalk done in time for the Holy Week Processions.
• Office Heater/Ac unit: Pending
• Old Basement remodel: Peter Zekios contracted a friend and donated the cost of the machinery needed to remove the old floor in the basement. Thanks to this and the help of several of our teams members we were able to get the old tile floor up by ourselves in only a couple of hours. This saved us 1000.00. Nick Lisowski painted the entire basement for us. The floor is in the process of being installed and should be finished in a week. The cost of the floor was 2800.00. Following this, Nick will touch up the paint job and replace the trim around the doors. The floor will be waxed. Scot Miller will be contacted to repair any of the broken light fixtures. New storage shelving will be placed in the storage area - some of this has already been purchased. Once this is completed, we will have a team in to move everything back out of the stair wells and organize everything. The initial bid on restoring the basement was about 10,000.00 Thanks to all those who helped and donated materials and their labor we were able to completed the project for 5000.00.
• Spring Cleanup Day: Spring Cleanup was successful as several parishioners showed up to help get everything ready for Pascha. Additional the carpets were cleaned and the basement floor cleaned and waxed.
• Additions: Mike called Scott -will make sure light fixtures are done. Some painting will be done. Air conditioning needs a sensor.

Evangelism Team Leader - Pearl Homiak
present, written report submitted

There are no recent reports from any ministries. I asked for and received feedback about financial needs for 2006. Most of the ministries have minimal monetary requirements. As head of the Evangelism Ministry, Lee Kopulos submitted an itemized list of proposed expenditures, which involves the use of most of our money. This also includes attending the Evangelism Conference (see below).

The Evangelism Team met on Sunday, May 21st and discussed evangelizing ourselves. Each person spoke about their own personal efforts to evangelize both themselves and others, not only within their ministries but also at work, etc. We talked about different ways of doing this, such as through regular prayer (at least morning and evening), reading or listening to the Bible and other spiritual texts, and taking the risk to share with others (i.e., non-churched people) how God has blessed each of us. Even though this is scary at first, the more we work on ourselves, the easier evangelism gets. And evangelizing people can even be fun and can give us a real feeling of living in Christ.

The up-coming Evangelism Conference (Labor Day weekend) was also discussed. It will be held in Denver this year and at Antiochian Village next year. Those Team members that were at the meeting were very interested in going to it. In my post-meeting email to all the Team members, I asked for "a show of hands" from those who would like to go. The Evangelism Conference is important because not only are evangelism skills learned but also participants support and encourage each other in evangelism.

Although we don't have a lot of money, I'd like to use much of it for this. Lee Kopulos and I have been to the Evangelism Conference several times, and it is very, very worthwhile. In the budget for 2007, we need to allocate more money to enable more people (even non-Team people) to go to this conference and other gatherings that can strengthen our evangelistic efforts, both for ourselves and other persons. This will greatly contribute to steady church growth and health.

Additions: Maria asked about the conference Labor Day weekend. Pearl stated that probably not a lot of people will respond, but Pearl recommends this as a good way of promoting evangelism. Father Andrew asked if pearl knew the location in Denver for the conference- she does not know. Father suggested putting the conference in as an agenda item.

Mike would like to see more people respond and participate in the Online Bible Study.

Community Development Team Leader - Luba Johnson
absent, written report submitted

The Quad-Parish picnic is on the go. The parishes have met and we are ready for June 4th. If the weather does not cooperate the picnic will be held in the St. Luke fellowship hall.

Ken and Mike - I need some young strong men to help me set up with the tables at the picnic site on June 4th. Please recruit some help to be present at 7:30 a.m. Thanks!

On May 16, 2006, St. Luke hosted about 22 persons from our deanery meeting. Refreshments were served by St. Luke.

The Women's Retreat during lent was very well received. There were 32 in attendance and two guest speakers for a total of 34 women. This has been the best turn out except when it was combined with the OCA Church School teachers retreat. The retreat covered all expenses and approximately $200 went into the general funds.

Prayer Ministry - Mary Kincaid

We prayed for approximately 55 people, plus our military personal and our expectant mothers. Continue to pray for those on our list and light a seven day candle which is put outside in front of our cross after vespers on Saturday.

Sunshine

Birthday cards continue to be sent out by Svetlana Lynch.

These past two months flowers have been sent to the Claiborn family on the birth of their daughter Zoey, Stephen Hansen and Diane Wilczak's mother for health. Bulletin sponsored for health of Tom Kozbeil, Stephen Hansen and June Anderson.

Golf Outing

I will be talking to Matthew Andoniadis regarding his plan for golf outing and date.

I will not be able to attend the June or July meetings. Please keep me posted via email on what is going on.

Diocesan/All-American Delegate - Anthea Lukoshonak
absent

Assisant Layperson Report - Caye Caswick
absent, written report submitted

• Sent invitations to 29 Lost Sheep for Palm Sunday and Pascha services
• Asked for volunteers to form a Stewardship Subcommittee. Got four replies. Two volunteers-one interested but too busy at the present time, one interested but noncommittal. Will work on setting up our first meeting and out plan of attack (maybe at the picnic-so it can be informal and might get more youth involved.

Charities - Karen Verderber

Karen submitted the following list of charities for our approval for the upcoming collections.

1. "OCF- Real Break" request for support for Guatemala trip March 11 from Juliana Khouri to serve Hogan Rafael Ayan Orphanage.
2. "Ilaasi Friends of St. Herman Seminary" Kodiak Alaska Fundraising 2006
3. "OCA Mission Appeal 2006"
4. "OCMC 2006 mission Appeal (March 2006)
5. "Teybeh Housing for needy Christians in Israel"(YO Charity April 2006)
6. "Project Mexico"
7. "IOCC" (May 2006 Banquet)

Lay Chairperson Report - Ken Stevens
present, written report submitted

St. Luke Men's Study Group Proposal May 4, 2006
Program/Ministry Title
St. Luke Men's Study Group
Suggested Format

A month gathering of St. Luke members (men only) who will meet to discuss men's specific concerns around Christian living and principles.

Strategic Rationale

Men, women, and children all deal with different issues. Since we know each demographic/gender group has its own specialized thinking, concerns, and emotions, we need to take this understanding and then apply it when studying other Orthodox Christian ethics/tenets.

Key goals

• Develop a Christian study that speaks specifically to men relative to their won set of fears, joys, and other emotional and spiritual issues
• Speak specifically to a man's salient issues; e.g. battling pride, lust, greed, isolation, materialism, discontent, strained or broken relationships
• Help men embrace God's purpose for their lives
• Liberate our male parishioners spiritually and develop their leadership potential
• Tactical support
• Purpose-driven life materials tailored for men
• Bible study with focus on a t' have pro/of…man's role in serving the Lord

Ministry leader candidates:
Dn Andrew Werbiansky, Stephen Hansen
Venue:
Home or Church (to be determined)
Timing:
Start Date, August or September 2006
Bottom Line:
It's high time to awaken the largest sleeping giant in most churches, including St. Luke .i.e. THE MEN. Addressing men-only issues could help unleash potential in all of us for enhanced ministry, services, and personal fulfillment for the betterment of all.

Additions: Father said Clark may be interested in helping out.

Pastoral Report - Father Andrew Harrison
present, written report submitted

April & May

• Meetings - 6
• Counseling sessions - 2
• Baptisms- 2
• Funerals - 1
• Services - 45 (Liturgies, Vespers, Matins)
• Other activities- Liturgy at St. Conny's, Akathist Grays Lake Monastary, 2 parish retreats, 6 Deanery services, Attended IOCC Dinner - 5 also attended - $600 given to IOCC
• House Visits/blessings/Shut ins - 4
• Morning prayers - 15
• Hospital - 2
• Nursing visits - 2, 22 patients
• Garden School - 2 visits
• Confessions - 136 - 20 listed members have not had confession
• Purpose Driven class - 1
• Car Mileage, Total miles = 3,959. - Business miles = 3,574. Personal miles = 385. Odometer reading, Feb.28 - 53,320 -. - April. 30th - 57,2 279
• Civil Air Patrol 1 Moral Leadership Class - 25 attending
• New Liturgical Books - 50 Holy Wednesday, 25 Holy Saturday Liturgy, 75 Post Pascha Books, 25 Children liturgy books - $1000. donated by George Evangelopoulos to defray cost
• New Processional Cross - donated by George Poulos
• Proto Deacon Andrew - nothing new to report - I just serve on Sunday, help out with the Teen class. I will be helping out with the formation of a men's group and with the Altar servers Fathers day dinner
• Altar servers, John Verderber - On June 18th, Fathers Day, we are planning to have a spaghetti dinner fundraiser in order to purchase new Altar Servers robes. I am also going to ask any of the fathers of the servers if they would like to serve on the altar with their sons and also help in the fundraising dinner. We won't put a price on the food and we hope people will donate generously to our cause. We still have difficulty scheduling the servers-boys we have not seen show up last minute to serve and then we have to many people in the altar. We have a new processional cross.
• Handmaidens, Lynn Betsanes - Hung and using new bell Adulphus , Have new bell name tags for the wall that I need to post, Checking bells on Sunday 5/21 for their contact point with the clappers. The bells were safety checked at the concern of Fr Andrew. The two large bells were loose and in danger of falling. New nuts were added. These should be checked yearly. Handmaidens came early to decorate the tomb and practice for their jobs on Holy Friday. Friday night two girls passed out candles to the parishioners and four girls sprinkled rose petals during the Myrrh Bearing Women sond. Saturday, four girls guarded the tomb and two girls passed out programs. They all came forward to receive candle light form Father Andres and pass it to the congregation. Teresa and Kristen rang in the bell tower with me. Many girls shared in the ringing after Liturgy was over.
• Readers, Jim Lewindowski - Still in conversation with Ken in reference to him being tonchured. Will be in the process of asking Nick Liskowski to be a reader. There are still errors in the process of reading which need to be corrected. We need a card for each tone with the rubrics. Received a complaint about the way some readers are dressed.
• Choir, Maria Vrame - We are now in summer mode, which means I don't always have a lot of singers on Sunday. Would like a stronger participation from the congregation to fill in our blanks. I presented new music fir the procession around the church on Holy Friday night. I hope this met with your approval. Since December, we have been rehearsing Sundays after church. I've been able to get a little better attendance for rehearsals, although our practice is much shorter. It gets hairy because of a lot of conflicts after church but we keep on trying. During summer we really don't rehearse, unless there is a special hymn we need to review we practice while the congregation is going up for antidoron. There is a music seminar in August, I will try to attend for a few sessions, but won't be there the entire three days. It is at St. George Antiochian Church in Cicero.
• Vestments, Helen Partoll - The white covers have been put on for Pascha. Some altar covers have burn holes which need to be repaired. Luba had her sister repair some covers.

Additions: There were two mail items- one was a letter from Kay Malone - She recommends a book the- De Vinci Deception

Phil made a motion to accept the reports as presented. Ken 2nd. All agreed.

Old Business

Charities Approval

Maria motioned to accept Project Mexico for June- father 2nd- all approved

Natural Parish Development - Pearl

Pearl passed out a handout explaining Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff's role in the Natural Church Development program.

His role is to train and mentor the Church Health Team and help it's members to develop the skills needed to carry out the NCD action plan. Specifically he provides:

1. Direction regarding selection of the 5-8 parish members that comprise the CHT and it's leader
2. Guidance for the survey process and selection of 30 parishioners to take the survey
3. Scoring of the survey and providing a report summarizing its results and preparing a CHT Resource Workbook for each CHT member
4. 1st visit he analyzes the results of the survey with the CHT members (results will subsequently be reviewed by Focus Groups which are made up of other parishioners). He trains CHT members for upcoming phases of work to be done which will include digesting the results of the input from the Focus Groups and deciding of 3-5 key issues that need to be addressed
5. 2nd visit- He facilitates an all day meeting with the CHT to study the 3-5 issues and to begin the process of planning how to address the Minimum Factor. He also provides training regarding the Bionic Principles and he helps the CHT to construct a plan of action which will take 6-9 months to implement
6. During implementation of the action plan, Fr. Jonathan (weekly or biweekly) stays in touch by phone and amil with the CHT and priest
7. 3rd visit- near completion of the action plan implementation period, he comes to evaluate the process to discuss taking another survey, and to discover further progress plans

Additions: Minimum factor = weakest point Cost- $2500 dollars + airfare and lodging

Ken wondered how many programs have been completed. He feels program is structured- however commitment and patience need to be assessed- we have to know if we have the resources to successfully use this program.

Pearl agreed that this needs to be a total parish endeavor.

Maria suggested we send out a mailing- or have Fr. Ivanoff come and talk to parish some evening to see level of support.

Mike expressed concern that cohesiveness of group and participation could be problematic. Also, NCD could become too autonomous-conflict with council.

Ken suggested that before we do anything we need to sell the parish on this idea- then bring Fr. Ivanoff in.

Ken suggested we call a parish meeting-this is a major initiative.

Pearl suggested passing out her Likert scale to congregation. Also wanted to try to get Father Ivanoff for the fall. Pearl volunteered to present to the congregation.

New Business

Forest preserve

Father Andrew has written a letter to explain how our parking lot has been used by people trying to access the hill. Paving the rest of the area we use for the lot would not just benefit us but the community. Mr. Malis, head of FPD planning and development said no deal, as we are not a gov't entity. They have no reason to pave cause people can use ours- and suggested we close off lot from the public and then "maybe something will happen". Father would like to see a letter from the council expressing concern about liability etc. Ken asked Maria to see if Suzanne knows anyone/ anything about property law. Father suggested putting up a sign and closing down the parking lot during the week for a couple of months.

Steas's insurance policy

Ken stated this policy is worth keeping up with the payments. Phil moved to keep funding Stea's policy at $66.75. Mike 2nd all approved.

Landscaping

Mike obtained one estimate was $6400 which he felt was high. He got another estimate from College Student Landscaping for $5000. He reported that we need to get moving on this ASAP; sod is best established in the spring before it gets too hot; the side walk needs to be shored up, bushes need to be replanted before they die. Ken felt our first priority is saving the sidewalk. Mike stated we have to do some of this grass in front and grass on side as well. Maybe we can lower the price by saving some of work for later. Most of building fund is spent. Mike will talk to Bob. Father will put in plea for next building fund collection. Father also suggested a letter to parish- talking about need and emergency of shoring up sidewalks. In the mean time, Mike will proceed with talking to Bob.

CLOSING PRAYER

The meeting was adjourned at 9:20 P.M. with the singing of The Resurrection of Your Son

Submitted by Debra Dandeles, Council Secretary