The Orthodox Parish as Community: "A Communion of Essence, Will, & Activity"

By Fr. Thaddaeus Hardenbrook

What is a parish? What does the word 'parish' mean historically? How should one be established? What should it feel like? Believe it or not, these are not common or well-answered questions.

Within Orthodox Christian literature, there exists a void of study and articulation regarding the authentic historical and theological understanding of the parish as a communion of persons whose personal sanctification creates a unity of essence, will, and activity in the image of the Holy Trinity. Without this understanding, parish communities cannot with full deliberateness and consciousness pursue the fullness of their salvific purpose as theandric arenas for love of neighbor unto socio-cultural sanctification.

This void of study and articulation is rooted in two identifiable historical factors: 1) Parish communities developed in such a completely natural and synergistic manner with the historic family and secular social community that no need existed for its documentation; and 2) After 1500 years of stable synergy, the Industrial Revolution and the so-called Age of Enlightenment systematically destroyed the natural family and socio-cultural community thereby robbing the parish of a healthy societal context and potentially reducing it to a remnant parochial structure easily supplanted by various false communal identities.
This study submits that only in the rediscovery, redefining, and actual practice of the parish community's true essence in the image of the Holy Trinity, and its inherent need to manifest Trinitarian attributes (i.e. persons in true communion, proximity, and unconditional love), can the parish community experience the union of its will and activity in fulfillment of its true purpose, character, and identity. An experience deeply necessary in North American Orthodox Christianity today.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0C6W15L1H
• ISBN13: 9798396775886
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"