Fall Midwest Diocesan Meeting – Flint, MI
October 28-30 marked the annual Fall meeting of the Midwest Diocese of the Antiochian Archdiocese. This year’s meeting was held at St. George Church in Flint, MI, under the capable leadership of the V. Rev. Fr. Joseph Abud. Highlighting the event was the presence of our Diocese’s new Bishop-Elect Anthony Michaels, the current pastor of St. John Chrysostom Church in Fort Wayne, IN.
While these meeting are generally geared for the organizations of the Diocese to meet to discuss the progress of their annual activities this year’s Fall meeting carried the excitement that soon we will not only have a new Bishop, but a Bishop whose warmth, enthusiasm, education and pastoral concern will inspire the energy and structures of the Antiochian Midwest Diocese.
Bishop-Elect Anthony spoke to the priests in attendance, the delegates, the youth and the young adults, and he delivered the homily at Sunday’s Divine Liturgy. Among many topics he spoke about he started his talk to the priests with the duties and responsibilities of the Auxiliary Bishop; and to the entire delegation he emphasized not only the importance of our unity in Christ within our local churches but also with our Hierarchs (Bishops) and between sister churches across the entire Diocese, this face of our Church being significant in showing the world around us the Truth, wholeness and stability that God Himself has given through His One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
(Click Here) Exerpt from Fr. Anthony’s talk with the Priests
Another highlight of the weekend was the service project organized by Khouryia Leslie Abud for the Diocesan Teen SOYO to work at a local Soup Kitchen sponsored by Catholic Charities. About 80 teens traveled to one of Flint’s impoverished areas to help organize a clothing give away scheduled for the following week and to help serve dinner to Soup Kitchen clients. The Teens energetically finished their work a little early and was treated to an excellent talk on the history of poverty in the Flint area given by the Soup Kitchen coordinator. It was an edifying afternoon which then ended with the celebration of Great Vespers back at St. George and preparations for dinner and an evening of joyful fellowship.
As a side note, Bishop-Elect Anthony and his good friend Fr. Patrick Kinder took an brief opportunity to sing a couple of their old songs from their days as KERYGMA: Best Friends, That Old Black Bible, and pretty much everyone’s old favorite, Coming Home. Please click to hear Fr. Anthony and KERYGMA [including Fr. Michael (Alan) Shanbour] sing Coming Home: Coming Home (For more KERYGMA songs visit http://www.conciliarpress.com and see The Best of KERYGMA available on Compact Disc.)
Thank you Fr. Joe & Leslie, and to your entire parish for hosting such a beautiful weekend. Thank you Fr. Anthony for the great encouragement you’ve given us to embrace our lives in Christ and the greater Church more and more fully. God be with you in your preparations for consecration to the Holy Episcopate.