Saturday, May 8, 2021

Restoring Our Relationships: The Impact of the Pandemic and Technology on the Church and Our Society

 


(Antiochian) - Everyone is invited to join us for the 2021 Virtual Parish Life Conference.  This year we are spreading out the sessions over the month of June in order to make them more accessible to our summer schedules.  Please note the wonderful line up of topics and speakers, and invite everyone to join us!

Welcome to the all-virtual, all-new Parish Life Conference, brought to you by Holy Cross, Linthicum!

The PLC2021 will feature one Saturday of retreat & worship, followed by three Wednesday evening discussions, all focused on renewing our relationships with each other and Christ. Please pre-register at no charge to receive the Zoom link for each individual event.


Schedule


Inaugural Saturday: June 12

9:00am - Opening Keynote: "Be the Salt" by Fr. John Parker, Dean of St. Tikhon's Seminary
5:30pm - Diocesan Wide Vespers

Your parish is invited to celebrate Vespers at 5:30 PM this one Saturday, so that we may all lift our voices up in prayer at the same time, even if we can’t physically be together. Even if your parish celebrates Vespers at a different time, please plan to attend so that our prayers may be united in God’s eternal time. If you are unable to join your local parish, visit Holy Cross, the host parish, virtually, for the live-stream of this service.​

7:30pm - Closing Keynote: "The Gift of Identity: Finding Ourselves in Christ" by Steven Christoforou and Christian Gonzalez, Y2AM of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

Based on the themes introduced in PCCH’s episode 99, Steve & Christian will focus on modern concepts of “the self”, how our true self differs from our curated self, and the gift of identity that we receive through Christ.​

Initial Wednesday: June 16

7:30pm - His Eminence, Metropolitan JOSEPH and His Grace, Bishop THOMAS

Our Hierarchs will speak to our relationships with each other in the context of the Church and our relationship with Christ. Their words will be followed by a question and answer period.
Middle Wednesday: June 23

7:30pm - "Exalting the Valley of Accessibility" by Summer Kinard, Author of of Such is the Kingdom: A Practical Theology of Disability

“Disability is not a boundary to holiness, because God is with us.” Summer will expand on this thought and provide an interactive workshop focusing on how we can be a more inclusive community of God, incorporating people of all abilities and backgrounds in our worship and activities.

Final Wednesday: June 30

7:30pm - “Restoring Our Relationships: The Impact of the Pandemic and Technology on the Church and Our Society”

Panel Discussion with Erik Hadden, LCPC; Dn. Marek Simon, OCF Executive Director; Terry Mattingly, Syndicated Columnist & Senior Fellow for the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi

2 comments:

  1. "Identity" is one of those words, like "justice" which modernity has largely corrupted. Because of that, when I see it in the title of a presentation, especially by folks from the GOA, I get real nervous.

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    Replies
    1. I hear you Michael. The term so encapsulates the modern Cartesian Self where all thinking begins with the self (really the ego) instead of with the truth of creation, God, and "the selfs" contingency.

      Is there anyway to subvert the term and use it, simply because folks might listen, to get a (modern) person to begin to see Christian anthropology? Maybe...

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