Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America
Wichita Chancery, 1559 N. Woodlawn, Wichita, KS, 67208-2429
316-687-3169 (phone); 316-687-3327 (fax)
Welcome to the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, part of the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America. The Diocese of Wichita is led by His Grace Bishop Basil and includes 50 churches and missions in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming.
Click here for a directory of all the parishes in the Diocese of Wichita.
Click here to learn more about Bishop Basil.
To contact Bishop Basil electronically, email editor@antiochian.org with "Bishop Basil" in the subject line.
Assembly of Bishops Secretariat Meets at Antiochian Parish in Riverside
Assembly of Bishops SecretariatThe Secretariat of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America held its annual "face-to-face" meeting, January 24th and 25th, 2012. The hosts for this year's "face-to-face" meeting were Father Josiah Trenham and the congregation of St Andrew Church in Riverside, CA. An overview of the work accomplished at the Riverside meeting will be included in a soon-to-be issued media release which will report to the Church-at-large on the work of the Assembly during the past year.
The Secretariat, which also meets monthly via teleconference, consists of Bishop Basil (Secretary of the Assembly of Bishops), Archbishop Antony, Bishop Andonios, Bishop Maxim, Father Mark Arey, Father Nicholas Ceko, Father Josiah Trenham, Hierodeacon Benedict (Armitage), Protodeacon Peter Danilchick, and Messrs. Alexei Krindatch, Alex Machaskee, Eric Namee and Constantin Ursache.
DOWAMA Winter Camp + February 17-20, 2012
Winter Camp 2012 for the Diocese of Wichita will be held at Camp St. Raphael in Wagoner, Oklahoma from February 17-20. This year's theme will be Christ the Merciful Judge, and the camp will feature speaker George Hazaris, the youth director and pastoral assistant from the Greek Orthodox Church of Our Savior in Rye, New York.
Form & $100 registration (Chaperones/Advisors $70.00) payment is due by Tuesday, February 7th, 2012, and should be sent to:
St. George Orthodox Church – Attn: Paul Fuller
5311 Mercer Street
Houston, TX 77005
Click here to download a registration form (Word format). Please contact Paul Fuller at 502.592.9981 (cell) or paulf518@yahoo.com if you have any questions.
2012 DOWAMA Clergy Brotherhood Retreat
The deadline for registering for the 40th Annual St. Raphael DOWAMA Clergy Brotherhood Retreat - "ANTIOCH AND HER SPIRITUAL PATRIMONY" - is Friday, January 27th, when we must make a firm commitment for the number of rooms and meals with the Spiritual Life Center. Remember that the Retreat will be held February 14th through 17th, 2012 at the Spiritual Life Center in Wichita, Kansas. Attached hereto is a revised schedule for the Retreat. The guest speaker will be Monk Elia (Khalifeh) of the Archdiocese of Mount Lebanon, founder and director of the prestigious "Antioch Centre" in Oxford, England. You can check out the Centre's web site at www.AntiochCentre.net.
Please take a moment today to ask your parish's treasurer to send in your registration fee of $400 to reserve your room and meals for the Retreat. (1.) Make check payable to "DOWAMA Clergy Brotherhood," (2.) clearly earmark it with your name and the notation "Clergy Retreat," and (3.) mail it to our Clergy Brotherhood Treasurer so that it arrives to him before January 27th:
FATHER JOHN SALEM
St. Elijah Orthodox Christian Church
15000 North May
Oklahoma City, OK 73134
Ordination of Hierodeacon Benedict
Monk Benedict was ordained to the Holy Deaconate on January 1, 2012 at St. George Cathedral in Wichita, Kansas.
Antiochian Chaplain Fr. Stephan Close Reports From Afghanistan
Fr. Stephan CloseBishop Basil shares the letters of Fr. Stephan Close, Antiochian Chaplain and Lieutenant Colonel in the US Air Force recently assigned to Afghanistan.
Contact Fr. Stephan at frstphn@gmail.com, and Kh. Annette at annette_close@yahoo.com.
Entry 19, February 10
Your Grace and my Brothers in Christ: Sweeping the steps in a dusty desert is a metaphor for the priestly labor. Dust accumulates slowly, it is always there. It never amounts to much. Folks get used to it. Why bother sweeping? It will just be there again tomorrow - or in a few minutes. The one who sweeps gets the dirtiest. The sweeper is in the way of people who are busy and need to get by. Do I sweep for me or for them? Or is there a higher principle? When you sweep, it raises a cloud of dust; it looks pretty impressive; passers-by get irritated. If you sweep REALLY HARD, it raises a cloud of dust; and you can’t breathe. If you sweep REALLY HARD, it raises a cloud of dust; which then settles right back where it was. If you sweep REALLY HARD, it raises a cloud of dust and if the wind is blowing right it can be your neighbor’s problem. (Love your neighbor.) But if you sweep really gently, you can still breathe. If you sweep really gently, you can gather the dust and remove it. At the top of the stairs, it doesn’t seem like much. It is easy to sweep. By the time you get to the bottom it is a lot. By the time you get to the bottom, it is hard and you are tired and it would be easy to quit without finishing. The corner is the hardest part, the most dirt hides there the longest; sweeping isn’t effective, stabbing is required. It is hard to know when to quit; the sidewalk goes on and on. Remember me. Your brother, Stephan
