Review Your Website

As parishes work to return to a normal stride after almost two years of COVID related disruption it's a good time to take inventory’ of a wide array of parish good practices. One of them is to tend to your parish website.

While Facebook and other social media (more on that in a future issue) are of course an important -perhaps primary- method of communicating your parish to the world - the website still remains your communication front door. Many parishes are experiencing a flurry of new people and inquirers. So its clear that people are looking for churches -- Orthodox Churches.

This check list will help you be prepared:

1. Does the home page of your website prominently display services times, church address, parish phone number?

2. Have you asked someone not affiliated with your parish to offer a bare knuckled review of your website? Ask them to find items that are unclear -- perhaps "insider only info" that may be off-putting to inquirers.

3. Do you have photos of smiling people liberally displayed on your site? If you have a page describing a class show people in the class --not just words. Do you invite people to join your choir? Show a photo of singing during liturgy. Coffee hour? Same thing. (If you can't find anyone smiling that can lead to other areas of focus!)

4. Have you removed images of people no longer affiliated with the parish?

5. Have you included photos of any recent baptisms or adult Chrismations? Project an image of growth and renewal. Surely someone is smiling then!

6. Is a button to access online donations easy to find? (If you haven't noticed most people do not carry cash. Some say checks will be virtually extinct by 2026.)

7. Is your services and events calendar up to date?(FYI: “Merry Christmas/Christ is Born 2017” is now out of date.)

8. Have you added info about important events for the next 4-5 months? Particularly those that would be of interest to inquirers? Do these events indicate a serious Christ centered church --or do they sound more like the Rotary club?

9. Do you have a link to Live Streaming of Services? Many parishes experiencing new faces find the visitors first checked things out via live stream.

10..Has your site gotten cluttered over the years? Do some winter clean-up.

Need further help? Just ask.

Parish Development Forum 2022

June 17 Online; Call for Speakers & Presentations

Now in its ninth year, the Parish Development Forum sponsored by the OCA's Archdiocese of Western Pennsylvania the Midwest Diocese and the Bulgarian Diocese, will be held on Friday June 17. Since the OCA will also hold its Triennial All American Council in 2022 (July 18-22) the date of the Forum is earlier than in previous years. And, since most parish travel budgets are earmarked for AAC travel, the Forum will once again be held online.

Theme

Building on the AAC theme of Becoming Vessels of Grace", the Forum will explore the theme "Parishes Becoming Vessels of Ministry".

The Forum planning team is hard at work identifying appropriate speakers, workshops and topics in areas such as:

• Diaconia: Renewing a ministry of service

• Living Your Vocation - Doctor, Lawyer, Butcher, Baker --and more.

• Educating the Parish for Ministry - Lifelong learning, growing a culture of learning, and developing educational ministries for Evangelism, Outreach, Parish educational programs.

If you know of a topic or possible valuable speaker that fits this theme please let us know.

AND mark your calendar!

Audit Guide

A parish auditor recently emailed us indicating he had discovered this document on Parish Audit guidelines and found it valuable. (It made our day!)

The Guide was initially prepared more than ten years ago for the Midwest Diocese. Do you have suggested updates and improvements? Let us know.

Let us know your feedback.

[email protected]. 513.518.5878