by Fr. Jonathan H. Cholcher
The goal of the parish is to contribute to the salvation of souls. Because there is a correlation between salvation and spiritual health, a parish is “successful” if it is conducive to spiritual health.
- How much the people love God: how well they keep Christ’s commandments, and how strong their faith, prayer, humility, and reverence are;
- How much the people love their neighbors: in the degree of unity in the parish so that “one soul is seen in many bodies” (St. Basil the Great), and in the degree of genuine, selfless love they have for one another, visitors, and the rest of the world;
- How skilled the Bishop and Parish Priest are in guiding souls: inspiring them to love God, helping them to maintain brotherly love (especially in conflicts), selflessly developing their unique personhood, encouraging voluntary obedience instead of enforcing discipline, and, in general, teaching through example, words, and experience to purify their hearts of passions, and ultimately guiding them in prayer of the heart to illumination and perfection;
- To what degree the Bishop and Parish Priest have earned the love, trust, and respect of parish members – not merely because of position and title but because of behavior as persons, who as “good shepherds” (Jn. 10:11) lay down their lives for the sheep through sacrificial love requiring spiritual and psychological health to tend to their parishioners needs;
- How well members of the parish are progressing in their struggle against the chief passions (deadly sins: pride, vainglory, lust, greed, gluttony, anger, despair, tedium, envy) as well as other passions, such as gossiping, laziness, judging, love of power, lying, unwillingness to repent, remembrance of wrongs, cliquishness, attachment to worldly things, and lack of meekness, self-reproach, genuineness, and seriousness;
- How much parishioners and visitors are helped spiritually and physically by the parish because of its location, appearance, cleanliness, and organization;
- How much equality exists as members of the same body showing the same respect and care for the least of members and visitors alike as for the greatest and richest;
- How well the parish preserves Orthodox Tradition including dogmatic beliefs, the theory and practice of the spiritual life, the liturgical cycle, and artistic expressions.
[Adapted from The Angelic Life, by Hieromonk Ephraim, (Ouzinkie, Alaska: St. Nilus Skete, 2021)]
