On Saturday, June 23, with the blessings of His Beatitude Archbishop Chrysostomos of Athens, and His Eminence Metropolitan Pavlos of America, the inaugural meeting of the Metropolitan Council of the Holy Metropolis of America occurred at the Cathedral of St. Markella in Astoria, Queens. In attendance were the delegates and proxies representing all of our Holy Churches and Holy Monasteries. The meeting began in the morning soon after Divine Liturgy and continued into the early evening. Many issues were discussed and much work was accomplished.
To everyone's joy it was realized that all the items on the agenda were raised and discussed thoroughly, though no final decisions were made. Below you will find the agenda of the meeting.* Final wording and decisions on all documents related to all the issues on the agenda is being left to several committees that have were assigned to this specific task.
The above mentioned committees have been mandated to gather all the input offered by the delegates at the meeting, and to gather further input from any other concerned members of the Holy Metropolis. These documents will be presented at the next meeting of the Metropolitan Council where final changes will be made before they will be accepted and signed by all members of the Metropolitan Council. It will be these finalized documents that will be sent to the Metropolitan and the Locum Tenens for approval. It was decided to convene the next meeting of the Metropolitan Council at the Church of St. Nectarios in Ecorse, Michigan on Saturday, October 27.
A list of the committees that were nominated and accepted follows below:
Provisional Executive Committee of the Metropolitan Council
Ex-Officio: Bishop Christodoulos
Executive Administrator: Thomas Bezas
Financial Administrator: Fr. Theodore Giannakopoulos
Executive Secretary: Fr. Michael Hallford
The Metropolitan Council's Committee on Regulations
Fr. Thomas Marretta
Dr. Lazarus Gehring
Eugenios Sdobnev
The Metropolitan Council's Committee for the Regulation of the Central Fund
Fr. Christos Pittos
Constantine Lagen
Leonidas Pittos
The Metropolitan Council's Parish Contribution Funding Plan Committee
Nicholas Votzakis
Fr. Mark Burachek
Fr. Kleanthis Korkotas
Agenda Item, Subject
1 Adoption of Agenda
2 Report on the State of the Metropolis
a. Locum Tenancy
b. Metropolitan Coordinating Committee
c. Romiosini
d. Parish Financial Summary
3 Report on the Health of Metropolitan Pavlos
4 Adoption of Uniform Parish Registry of Baptisms and Marriages
5 Consider Proposed Draft of Special Regulation of Metropolitan Council
a. Comment/Discussion
b. Proposed Amendments
c. Approval
d. Appointment of Committee
6 Consider Proposed Draft of Special Regulation of Central Fund
a. Comment/Discussion
b. Proposed Amendments
c. Approval
d. Appointment of Committee
7 Consider Proposed Financial Plan for Metropolis
a. Parish Contribution Modeling
b. Comment/Discussion
c. Proposed Amendments
d. Approval
8 Draft Budget for 2007/2008
a. Comment/Discussion
b. Proposed Amendments
c. Approval
9 Consider Date for Clergy Conference
10 Adoption of Final Resolutions
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