St. Sophia's website is updated: Asking for your reviews

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CDB1718

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The biggest change I made was the Resources page. I still have a lot of corrections to make, articles to add, pictures to take…

What do you want to see on an Eastern Catholic parish website? How can I improve ours?

My current priority list:
Profiles of our clergy
A picture of the outside of our church
A walk through the liturgy
Links to other UGCC church websites
Pictures and explanations of our main icons
Fix the blog postings on Parish Life so they’re paged and integrated with Facebook and Google Plus

What say you?
stsophiaukrainian.cc/resources/welcomeintro/
 
**More terms:

Narthex **- foyer of church.

Ripidion* - fan (or exapteria*)**

kadilnitsa - censer (Greek: Θυμιατο ‘Thymiato’; Church Slavonic: Кадилница)

Vestments
**
Stihar or Sticharion (Slavonic: стихарь, Greek στιχάριον)** – A long vestment worn by all clergy and altar servers.

Orar or Orarion (Slavonic: Орарь, orar, Greek ὀράριον) – A long narrow strip of cloth worn by deacons (left shoulder to ankle, front and back).

Epitrachelion (Greek ἐπιτραχήλιον, “over the neck”) – Cloth worn by priests and bishops, sewn together in the front.

Epimanikia (Greek ἐπιμανίκια) – Cuffs with laces worn by the bishop and priest over the sticharion, and below by deacons.

Poyas or Zone (Slavonic: Поясъ, poyas – belt, Greek ζώνη) – A cloth belt worn by priests and bishops over the epitrachelion

Phelonion (Greek φαιλόνιον or φελόνιον) – A large conical sleeveless garment worn by priests over all other vestments, with the front partly cut away to free the hands.

Pectoral cross – A large cross is worn around the neck by all bishops, but not necessarily by all priests.
**

Sakkos (Greek σάκκος) – The sakkos or Imperial dalmatic is worn by the Bishop, in place of the phelonion. This is a tunic reaching below the knees with wide sleeves and a distinctive pattern of trim and always buttoned up the sides.

Palitsa or Epigonation (Slavonic палица, “club”, Greek ἐπιγονάτιον “over the knee”) – A stiff diamond-shaped cloth that hangs on the right side of the body; it is suspended by one corner from a strap drawn over the left shoulder is worn by all bishops, and as an award for priests.

Omophorion (Greek ὠμοφόριον) – The eparchial vestment is a wide cloth band draped about the shoulders in a characteristic manner. It corresponds to the Latin pallium.

Mitre (Greek Μίτρα) – The Byzantine mitre is worn by all bishops It is a crown surmounted by a cross, is bulbous and adorned with icons.
 
Thanks! I have an article on vestments that hasn’t been published yet. I’ll make sure each of those is in there.

I think I remember you being the one with the updated chart of the churches I saw in another thread. If I’m remembering correctly, may I use it? If I may, please let me how you would like us to credit you.
 
ConstantineTG said:
Try and make a better one than St. Elias 😉
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St. Elias is very helpful! We’re a mission parish and they provided us with the CDs and music we need, which was very generous, then welcomed us to use any content from their website saying we have the same mission. I can’t sing their praises enough!

I went through their website and put every page into Evernote. I’m going through that and reorganizing it then re-formatting it so I can post them on our resources page. Most of what’s up there now came from them.

When I get ours stable, I want to create a wordpress template and widget that any UGCC church can use that will have the resources built in.
 
CDB1718 said:
St. Elias is very helpful! We’re a mission parish and they provided us with the CDs and music we need …
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Now if we could start using that music in our Divine Liturgy! :D:byzsoc:

Great job on the website.
 
CDB1718 said:
Thanks! I have an article on vestments that hasn’t been published yet. I’ll make sure each of those is in there.

I think I remember you being the one with the updated chart of the churches I saw in another thread. If I’m remembering correctly, may I use it? If I may, please let me how you would like us to credit you.
Click to expand...
Use it freely, you don’t need to credit me. I was able to assemble it from the CCEO, some other charts, and some history references.
 
CDB1718 said:
The biggest change I made was the Resources page. I still have a lot of corrections to make, articles to add, pictures to take…

What do you want to see on an Eastern Catholic parish website? How can I improve ours?

My current priority list:
Profiles of our clergy
A picture of the outside of our church
A walk through the liturgy
Links to other UGCC church websites
Pictures and explanations of our main icons
Fix the blog postings on Parish Life so they’re paged and integrated with Facebook and Google Plus

What say you?
stsophiaukrainian.cc/resources/welcomeintro/
Click to expand...
Hi, I attend St Sophia. I live in Frisco! I would like to say you have a nice website and have done a great job. I must express to you the emotion and reasons why we attend service at St Sophia when we can. First, I attend as an adult because I like to see the other view of the theology–such as the feast of the immaculate conception and the feast of the Conception of St Anne or the theophany and the epiphany. Further, attending St Sophia is a beautiful experience because it is not only a beautiful church, liturgy and congregation, but also because it allows me to see similarities and differences in my faith. It brings out the key points of our faith and shows how the customs, cultures, traditions and perspectives shape our expression of faith.

With that in mind, I do not actually attend for myself. My attendance for myself was meant only for the purpose of the experience, interaction, and in essence the homily of key masses during this christmas. But what kept me coming back was my daughter who is 9. She really has taken an interest in liturgy at St Sophia. Probably because the liturgy of St John C. is so much more interactive and I think that it is more work for her to attend the mass. As a priest once said, the more work you put into mass, the more you get from it. Further my daughter loves the environment of the congregation itself. She really likes it when folks walk up to her after church and show her things, talk to her, and pray with her. The other RC’s in the church are particularly good about knowing what to explain to her. I honestly learned that engaging children after service is really really appreciated by the children. I never really talked to the kids before because it seemed creepy but I now learned from my daughter that the children yearn to learn. Even if they look shy! So I have taken more interest in talking to children, with their parents in witness even if for a minute.

I did look up some details on why RC’s attend Ukrainian Greek Catholic Mass and I was surprised by how many used similar reasoning as myself–the children love it.

I attend mass with her and afterwards we pray in the tabernacle for adoration at St Francis so my daughter was particularly comfortable with solemnity and spirituality. In St Sophia the small size of the church allows for a personal experience that is shared more closely and with more solemnity. Further, Father Pavlo is very good about bringing the children up to the front pew and address and engaging them in mass. My own childhood priest when I was 9 did much the same thing. When done correctly with reverence and the right intention, this interaction and involvement bears great fruit. We even were bless to have Father bless our home for the Theophany. I really enjoyed it because it clearly helped us put Christ into our Christmas this year.

I’m not sure how long my daughter will feel called to attend St Sophia but I feel it is my duty to nurture her experience and share with her the calling she feels.

I hope this witness will help you put together your site. I do enjoy the homily in mass, and while a written transcript is never the same, the ability to communicate the message along with the gospel reading is particularly helpful for some Catholics who need to read and reread what they have heard. Oh, and I would recommend a calendar that goes out at least a month ahead for mass and feast and vesper dates and times. That will allow better planning and minimize confusion. Like during the bulletin for Theophany it wasn’t clear there would be mass on Sunday.
 
CDB1718 said:
St. Elias is very helpful! We’re a mission parish and they provided us with the CDs and music we need, which was very generous, then welcomed us to use any content from their website saying we have the same mission. I can’t sing their praises enough!

I went through their website and put every page into Evernote. I’m going through that and reorganizing it then re-formatting it so I can post them on our resources page. Most of what’s up there now came from them.

When I get ours stable, I want to create a wordpress template and widget that any UGCC church can use that will have the resources built in.
Click to expand...
Here’s my request, a dynamic Divine Liturgy which when you enter a date will give you the full Liturgy text for that day including the Tropars, Readings and all the other variable parts.

No other site has that.
 
Very nice. When I began to go to the Byz church, as a Latin Mass Catholic, I particularly wondered about the icons a lot, so that’s a good thing to explain I think, and also the meaning of words/prayers in the DL like anaphora, and “tone” such and such.

Thanks. I like the DL very much, especially that profession of belief before communion. I thought it was a good prayer the RC could have used to impress on people the Real Presence, but alas.
 
couponfit said:
Hi, I attend St Sophia. I live in Frisco! I would like to say you have a nice website and have done a great job. I must express to you the emotion and reasons why we attend service at St Sophia when we can…

I hope this witness will help you put together your site. I do enjoy the homily in mass, and while a written transcript is never the same, the ability to communicate the message along with the gospel reading is particularly helpful for some Catholics who need to read and reread what they have heard. Oh, and I would recommend a calendar that goes out at least a month ahead for mass and feast and vesper dates and times. That will allow better planning and minimize confusion. Like during the bulletin for Theophany it wasn’t clear there would be mass on Sunday.
Click to expand...
Hello! Thank you for sharing this! May I post it on the blog? We’re happy to have you as long as the Lord wills it!

Your daughter intrinsically identifies with one of the greatest strengths we have, which is our beautiful Liturgy. Our body, mind, and soul all align in active worship.

We will soon have inquiry sessions with the deacon and catechesis programs with Father, so I hope we feed your interest this year, too! People have asked for us to podcast Father’s homilies. We either need a donation of a wireless microphone and digital recorder or about $300 to be able to purchase it. Father’s given the OK if we can get the tech side taken care of to make it happen.

I’ll let Father know about the calendar request. I hope to see you tomorrow!
 
ConstantineTG said:
Here’s my request, a dynamic Divine Liturgy which when you enter a date will give you the full Liturgy text for that day including the Tropars, Readings and all the other variable parts.

No other site has that.
Click to expand...
That’s on my wish list, too! I’m a couple books shy of being able to make it happen. Our deacon gave me a contact who can help with getting the liturgical calendar for future years, but I can’t start that project before I get this one completed. If you’d like to get a group of people together who can all pitch in, it would be nice to be able to do that for 2013. I’d include it in the website template, too.
 
pollycarp said:
Very nice. When I began to go to the Byz church, as a Latin Mass Catholic, I particularly wondered about the icons a lot, so that’s a good thing to explain I think, and also the meaning of words/prayers in the DL like anaphora, and “tone” such and such.

Thanks. I like the DL very much, especially that profession of belief before communion. I thought it was a good prayer the RC could have used to impress on people the Real Presence, but alas.
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Thank you!

I think the articles I have from St. Elias’ site cover all those topics except tone. I’ll add that to the list.

I am not artistically inclined, so I’m needing someone who is to help me with the iconography articles. I hope to post them within 2 weeks.
 
CDB1718 said:
That’s on my wish list, too! I’m a couple books shy of being able to make it happen. Our deacon gave me a contact who can help with getting the liturgical calendar for future years, but I can’t start that project before I get this one completed. If you’d like to get a group of people together who can all pitch in, it would be nice to be able to do that for 2013. I’d include it in the website template, too.
Click to expand...
I can help a bit. Let me know what you need.
 
CDB1718 said:
The biggest change I made was the Resources page. I still have a lot of corrections to make, articles to add, pictures to take…

What do you want to see on an Eastern Catholic parish website? How can I improve ours?

My current priority list:
Profiles of our clergy
A picture of the outside of our church
A walk through the liturgy
Links to other UGCC church websites
Pictures and explanations of our main icons
Fix the blog postings on Parish Life so they’re paged and integrated with Facebook and Google Plus

What say you?
stsophiaukrainian.cc/resources/welcomeintro/
Click to expand...
Just wanted to say… I want to be Eastern Catholic even more now…answered a few questions, bookmarked the page!😃
 
Keep up the great work on this impressive website. It has quickly become one of my favorites! 🙂

God’s choicest blessings to you and your family!
 
Thank you for the feedback so far.

The project to be able to publish the full cycle of feasts and readings will require a lot of planning and coordination. Most people who are interested in a Ukrainian cycle have a Ukrainian church nearby who will have it for them. I understand that there are people like Constantine who have no local church who are trying to start missions who could benefit from it. We’ll have to get the cycle for the next decade at least to make the project worthwhile. Then will need to pull hymns, readings and rubrics all into one package, which will require getting some permissions. There’s one that’s already available for download by the Byzantines that has most of that, which is good enough for someone who has nothing. When I get the website done and the template site complete, I’ll be able to focus on that.

If you want to help speed up the process, there are two main things I need for the resources. The first is ready-to-post content and the second is some tech advising.
  1. I am going to include a section on what we believe. God, Jesus, afterlife, sin… I have the Ukrainian catechism and will order the English one when it is available. There’s a lot out there on what we do but not much on what we believe. If anyone knows of articles on topics like this or in the areas I already have, please recommend them to me and I’ll ask the author if we can use them with attribution.
  2. A priority is to be able to package the Resources page into a widget that can be used on any Ukrainian Catholic website. It will be installed already on the template website I’ll offer.
A. I don’t know how to make a widget or if there’s a better method available to do the same thing. If anyone does know how or knows how I can learn, please point me in the right direction.
B. I’m re-thinking the inclusion of parish-specific content on the resources page like pictures of our church and our clergy’s bios because they’ll have to be removed from the finished version. I’m thinking of moving them to our parish life blog. Some examples of churches of any religion that have good resource sections would be helpful to compare options on how to do it.
 
What a beautiful iconostasis! Do you know how your parish acquired it, and its icons?
 
dcointin said:
What a beautiful iconostasis! Do you know how your parish acquired it, and its icons?
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I do! The same man did both the iconostas and the icons in it. He is a Dallas-native who is now living in Austin. I posted an article about him under the Iconography section. stsophiaukrainian.cc/resources/iconographer/

The church’s Sisterhood worked for a decade to be able to save enough to commission it. It’s a real testament to the work they’ve accomplished and continue to accomplish through the Lord’s grace.

I have draft posts made for each of the main icons. I know the bare minimum about the red, blue, and green colors. The deacon’s door having deacons or angels. I don’t know enough to fill a whole post about each. My priest and deacon yesterday both gave me some ideas on places to look, so I hope to have those posts completed and published in the next couple weeks.
 
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