St. Demetrios Church ~ Stewardship 2008

"Let us commit ourselves and one another and

our whole life to Christ our God."

GIVE A GIFT TO CHRIST THIS CHRISTMAS

After you read the following story, think about what you would like to give Christ as a gift on His birthday.

Your gift should be something that your family can participate in by offering their time, talents, and treasure.
Three Wise Men, led by a star, went to
worship the Baby of Bethlehem, and
gave Him, as gifts, gold, frankincense,
and myrrh. They say there was another
Wise Man, called Artaban. He was to
meet the Three Wise Men in Babylon
and then start together the journey to
find and worship the Newborn Baby.
Artaban sold all his possessions, bought three jewels, a sapphire, a ruby, and a pearl, to present to the Baby, and he set out to join the other three Wise Men. On his way, Artaban saw an unknown injured man, and stopped to help him. To do this, he had to sell his sapphire.
Because of this, he was delayed. So
when he reached Babylon, he found that
the other three Men had already
departed. He set out alone again. But,
when he arrived in Bethlehem, he found
that the three Wise Men had come and
gone, and that Joseph of Nazareth and
his family had fled to Egypt.
"I will leave immediately for Egypt to
worship the new King," exclaimed
Artaban. But, at this point, a solider
came to slay a woman's child on orders
from Herod. Artaban gave the soldier his ruby and the infant's life was saved. He then hurried to Egypt, where he wandered in vain, searching for the
King. Old and weary, after 33 years,
Artaban finds himself in Jerusalem.
Then he learns that a so-called King of
Israel was to be crucified that very day.
There upon he determines to ransom
Him with his pearl.But, on his way to Golgotha, Artaban was stopped by a young girl who was being dragged off by two brutal soldiers. He gave them his last jewel, the pearl, to the soldiers to save her, instead.
When a little later, Jesus was dying on
the cross, Artaban realized that he could neither ransom Him nor pay tribute to Him, as it was too late and as he did not have any jewels left. Artaban collapsed from sorrow, but when he was lying face down he heard a soft voice, saying: "I was hungry and thirsty and you gave me food and drink; I was naked and sick and you clothed me and visited me."
"Not so, my King," protested Artaban.
"Thirty-three years I have looked for
You, but I have never seen Your Face,
not served You, my Lord." But the voice
replied: "Whatever you have done unto
one of the least of these my brothers,
you have done it to me."
Taken from Lovely Little Stories by
Metropolitan G. Polizoides.

2008 Stewardship Presentation by

Mr. Dean Coclin, Chairman, Stewardship Committee

St. Demetrios Church, Stewardship Sunday, December 2, 2007

Father Nick, Father Athanasios, Fellow Stewards, and Guests,

Welcome to Stewardship Sunday!

I thought I would start off today by telling you a little story.

A while back, I had applied for membership in an organization. While filling out the application form, there was a question which asked, “What other organizations do you belong to?” and a small space in which to write a response. There was very little width available to write anything so I just squeezed in “ST D, Weston”, short for St. Demetrios Weston. That was all I could fit.

When it came time to be interviewed by the membership chairman, I was asked about my answer.

“So”, he said, “What is this ST D, Weston? Is it a golf club?”

No, I said with a chuckle, it’s not a golf club.

“Is it a tennis club?” No, it’s not a tennis club.

“A social club?” No, it’s not really a social club.

“A dinner club?” No, not that either.

“A dance club, a card club, a philanthropic mission, some type of school…” and he went on and on with guesses.

Finally I stopped him and said, “No, listen, it’s none of those, but in reality it’s all of those, and more”.

Now he was really confused. Out of guesses, he finally said, “OK, I give up, what is it?”

I said, “You see, ST D Weston, is the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Weston. It’s a place where I go for my spiritual healing and renewal”

“Ah!” he said. “But what I don’t understand is how can it be all the things I just mentioned?”

“Well, we have golf tournaments, dances, social events, dinners, we have various schools, missions and we perform philanthropic acts. So in a way, we are all of the things you asked me about.”

“Wow, it must be expensive to be a member of this church”, he said. “How much are the dues?”

“Here’s the best part: we have no dues”

“How can that be? How can the organization survive?” he asked.

We survive on a system called Stewardship.

“So how much is this Stewardship?” he asked.

It’s what you want to give, I replied

“Really? But there must be a minimum, right?”

Nope, there are no minimums and no maximums. We urge people to give from the heart; to take into account their personal financial situations and to search their souls to decide how much to make their Stewardship Pledge.

“Isn’t that really just another word for dues?” he asked.

Not at all. It’s a system of giving of our time, talents and treasures which all together compose our commitment to God and our church. Sure, the Church needs funds to operate, pay its expenses and perform its ministries. But if all we received from our parishioners was money, we would definitely not be successful. Without volunteers that can cook, make crafts, sing, teach, play piano, work in soup kitchens, etc, what would we be? We have some tremendous organizations in our parish. They’ve become that way because of volunteers and commitments of time, talents and treasures.

Now he was impressed and he started wondering how he could utilize Stewardship in his organization. But I told him it wouldn’t work. Stewardship is all about a commitment to God, and if God was not the central part of the organization, then it would not be successful.

Stewardship may surprise those outside of our church, but it’s something that’s been around for a long time for the Orthodox faithful and it has clearly been successful at our Parish and others.

The word Stewardship has had different meanings over time. Most recently, it has been associated with ecological concern (for example, a Steward of the environment, meaning a caretaker). The English word is a translation of the Greek word, ikonomia. The ikonomos was one that “took care of the house”. The English definition is “the conducting, supervising or managing of something, especially, the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.

The care of the church has been entrusted to us, all of us. It’s our responsibility, through Stewardship, to see that it is well taken care of.

Our theme for Stewardship this year is:

Let us commit ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.

Now I know you have heard this phrase before. That’s because in the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom which we just participated in, this phrase is recited 6 times at different parts of the liturgy!

So as all of us leave here today, let us commit ourselves to our Stewardship program; the caretaking of our church, our parish, and all the activities which make St. Demetrios a great place for spiritual renewal.

Thank you for your continued support of the St. Demetrios Church. It makes my job that much easier. I hope you will stay for today’s brunch and I look forward to seeing you there.