“For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.” – 1Corinthians 3:9
On Sunday 21 February 2016, a forum of the Church Body was convened in the Edgarian hall with some 30 participants representing the various parts of the Church including: the diaconate, the ladies auxiliary (ACLA), ancillary body, choirs (Loosavorich, Vartanants and Karasoun Mangounk), Sunday school and youth committee (ACYA).
The purpose of the forum was to establish the importance of each part of the Church Body working harmoniously together with each other and the Church Council; to collaborate and share information, concerns and issues that impact effective service in the church; and to dialogue on how we can nurture life in the church to strengthen relations with one another and our parishioners.
The forum began with prayer by Reverend Father Avetis Hambardzumyan and a welcome address by Church Council Chairman, Mr Bedros Zorlu. The introduction of the forum highlighted the equal and important role of each part of the Body in creating church life and the call for each member of the Body to bring their gifts and talents to the service of the church in accordance with St Paul’s teaching in Romans 12:4-6.With a focus on God and the Church, our service model should focus on: love and respect for one another, caring and sharing, communicating and serving with humility. Only with these functions in place can we build stronger, unified relations.
Next all groups represented presented an oral report about their service and shared concerns and constructive suggestions on how to improve functionality among the groups to work more cohesively and effectively with one another. The need to improve communication was the key issue that permeated by the groups and the second concern was how to bring in new community members to join our groups.
The forum concluded with the Church Council taking on board all the discussions and reports prepared in advance by the various church groups that were amalgamated and presented in a handout and PowerPoint presentation. The responsibility now rests with the Church Council to review the issues, act on the points raised in the short-term and consider the proposals of each group in its upcoming Strategy Planning Meeting in March.
The afternoon concluded with a closing prayer and address by Father Avetis Hambardzumyan as he thanked all who participated, addressed some of the points discussed and encouraged everyone to continue their service to the Church with devoted hearts.
