Wrap-Up & Resources from the 2023 Diocesan Pastoral Conference in KY

Dear fathers and friends,

Christ is in our midst! It was a great joy to welcome so many of you to Kentucky for the 2023 Pastoral Conference. (I am told we had a record crowd for a February Pastoral Conference!) I personally appreciated the kind words many of you had for our efforts to make the conference spiritually profitable and socially enjoyable–and I passed on your thanks to the faithful here who worked so dilligently.

We wanted to follow up the conference with recap of some highlights of the conference, plus a sharing out of photos and memories from the various days of the conference. You can view our original website information for the conference here. Photos from each of the events outlined below are in the photo album at the bottom of this page:

On Monday and Tuesday, diocesan leadership met in the form of the Bishop’s Council (deans plus diocesan officers) and of the Diocesan Council (deans, plus diocesan officers, and lay delegates for each deanery) with His Eminence (KY Col.) Archbishop Alexander presiding and His Grace Bishop Gerasim taking part, as well.
On Tuesday evening, about half of all our diocesan clergy went on two differen Bourbon Tours. We were honored to have His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon and His Grace Bishop Gerasim join the second tour.
Late Tuesday evening, his Beatitude, His Eminence, and his Grace were honored guests at a Clergy Family Reception in our hotel, the Embassy Suites at Lexington Green. The matushki shared lunch with Metropolitan Tikhon and Bishop Gerasim on Wednesday.
On Wednesday morning, we began a Clergy Enrichment Day that included the following talks:
- His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon: “Spiritual Practices for Priestly Health”
  - PDF Text of His Beatitude’s Talk
- Archpriest Basil Biberdorf: “So You Think You Want To Quit?”
  - audio and slides for the “Priestly Survival Guide”
- Priest David Galloway: “Becoming Orthodox In Spite of the Internet”
  - audio and slides for Orthodox Internet Orientation
- Archpriest Alexander Fecanin: “Priest as Catechist & Teacher”
  - audio for Fr. Alexander’s presentation and outline of catechesis program (image on right)
  - audio for panel discussion on catechism (with Frs. Joseph Lucas, Theophan Buck, Ambrose Arrington, Nikolai Miletkov, and Photius Avant–with Fr. Basil Biberdorf moderating)
- Archpriest Marcus Burch: “Priest the Vision-Caster for the Parish”
  - audio
On Wednesday evening, we welcomed the clergy of the diocese and His Beatitude to Vespers at St. Athanasius Orthodox Parish in Nicholasville [YouTube recording here]
On Thursday morning, His Beatitude presided at the Primatial Liturgy at St. Athanasius [YouTube recording here]
After brunch, the clergy enjoyed a closed-door meeting with Metropolitan Tikhon, Archbishop Alexander, and Bishop Gerasim, who offered their candid thoughts on a variety of topics affecting the clergy specifically and church life more broadly. Most of the clergy departed on Thursday afternoon.