DIOCESAN ANNUAL ASSEMBLY
HELD IN BOSTON FOR THE FIRST TIME
Boston, MA - “The strength of a parish is not measured by how much money they have in the bank but how many children they have in their Church School, how regularly they attend church and how often they take Holy Communion,” said His Grace Bishop Mitrophan of Eastern America in his annual report at the 2007 Diocesan Annual Assembly hosted this year, for the first time, by the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Boston.
The two-day affair began on Friday, March 9, 2007 with the registration which was immediately followed by the Invocation of the Holy Spirit served in the recently purchased church in Boston. The awe-inspiring church, built in 1928 in the Gothic style with a stone façade, has a capacity of 700 while the hall can facilitate 400 and was officially purchased from the Roman Catholic Church on November 21, 2005. A temporary iconostasis serves the needs of the church presently and while the parishioners are awaiting a real one to adorn their new spiritual home His Grace, the bishop, reminded them and all of their visitors during the assembly that “its iconostasis is every Orthodox believer who enters it to pray.”
After the Lenten dinner, served in the hall, the first session of the assembly was called to order during which reports were heard on the financial state of the diocese, parochial statistics, Shadeland Camp, Christian Education, the Diocesan Relief Fund, the Stewardship Committee and many other administrative aspects from the life of the diocese. As each item on the evening’s agenda was met by response, comments and questions from the clergy and delegates the first session ran well over two hours.
The following day began with the Holy Hierarchical Divine Liturgy officiated by His Grace Bishop Mitrophan who was assisted by V. Rev. Stavrophor Nedeljko Grgurevic, V. Rev. Stavrophor Stevan Stepanov, V. Rev. Stavrophor Srboljub Jockovic, V. Rev. Stephen Zaremba and Deacon Dragoslav Kosic. The clergy sang the responses while a good number of parishioners from the St. Sava parish joined the assembly in prayer and attended the morning’s service.
Following a light, continental breakfast the second session of the assembly began with an introduction of Rev. Dr. Alkiviadis Calivas, Professor of Liturgics at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and noted author of several books, who gave a most intriguing lecture about the Lenten services found in Holy Week. In his historical look at the Lenten services he noted, among other things, how some services, especially the Vesperal liturgies on Holy Thursday and Saturday, had at some uncertain time in history, probably some time after the fall of the Byzantine Empire, been transposed from the evening to the morning hours. He expanded on this during the lively discussion which followed the lecture giving a suggested order of these services if they were to return to their original liturgical order. The discussion also included talk about the new calendar and the litany of the catechumens.
After a final miscellaneous item on the agenda the assembly was adjourned with a prayer. Attendees were grateful to Protopresbyter Rev. Aleksandar Vlajkovic, the host priest, and the parishioners of St. Sava Church in Boston for hosting a very productive assembly and for their warm hospitality. While this was the first assembly hosted by this parish it surely will not be the last.