Administrative Guidelines

Administrative Guidelines to be followed by parish priests in the administration of Sacraments and Services are available on the Registry page, and may also be downloaded by clicking on the following:

• For the Mysteries of Baptism and Chrismation
• For the Mystery of Marriage
• Certificate of Freedom to Marry
• For Submitting a Petition for an Ecclesiastical Divorce
• For Filing Death Certificates and Celebrating Memorial Services
• Death Certificate
• For Preparing Transcripts of the Certificates for Various Mysteries

Pastoral Guidelines published by the Archdiocese for Marriages, Ecclesiastical Divorces, Baptisms, Funerals, and Memorial Services are available by clicking on the following:

• Pastoral guidelines for Baptisms
• Also see:
  Teleturgical Encyclical 14: Recognized Heterodox Baptisms
  Teleturgical Encyclical 16: The Return of Apostates
  Teleturgical Encyclical 18: Unrecognized Forms Used in Heterodox Baptisms
• Pastoral guidelines for Funerals and Memorial Services
• Also see:
  Teleturgical Encyclical 3: Funeral, Mnymosynon, and Trisagion Services
  Teleturgical Encyclical 10: The Celebration of Funeral, Mnymosynon, and Trisagion Services
  
• Pastoral guidelines for Marriages
• Also see:
  Teleturgical Encyclical 15: Interfaith Marriages
  
• Pastoral guidelines for Ecclesiastical Divorces
• Pastoral guidelines for Fasting in the Orthodox Church

Patristic Commentaries

The rubrics for the Divine Liturgy state that after the reading of the Holy Gospel the priest is to provide an explanation of the Sacred Scriptures, with pastoral guidance for their application to the lives of the faithful. Sermons delivered by Orthodox clergy are always grounded in, and based on, the patristic tradition of the Orthodox Church.

The following provide excellent English-language resources for preparing sermons according to this Sacred tradition:

1. New Advent
This is a Roman Catholic-maintained web site. The section on the Church Fathers, contains good-quality and faithful English translations of most of the letters, speeches and books from the earliest Christian centuries. The extensive section on Saint John Chrysostom will be most-useful to clergy preparing their homiles on the Scripture readings

2. The Writings of the Apostolic Fathers
This is the web page maintained by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. It parallels much of the material on the New Advent site; its most-critical deficiency is the lack of materials written by Saint John Chrysostom.

Theological Resources

Pastoral Resources

Clergy Compensation Guidelines

Parishes are required to compensate each full-time assigned clergyman in accordance with the annual guidelines developed by the Archdiocese Benefits Committee (APC) in consultation with the Archdiocese Presbyters Council (APC). Once approved, these guidelines are issued to each parish by the Archdiocese Chancellor's Office.

The Clergy Compensation Plan for 2009 is described in the following documents:

• Memorandum from the Archdiocese Chancellor's Office, dated June 15, 2008
• The Clergy Compensation Plan for 2009
• Funding for the Archdiocese Benefits Program - Year 2009

Each parish is obligated in accordance with the provisions of the Uniform Parish Regulations (UPR) to pay the following for each assigned clergyman:

• Clergyman's Salary, in accordance with the annual Archdiocesan guidelines
• The full amount of the Clergyman's FICA, which is 15.3% of the salary amount
• The annual clergy health insurance premium (payable in monthly installments)
• Annual cost of a parish-provided car, including insurance and maintenance
• Cost for the clergyman to attend (1) clergy retreats, (2) the biennial Metropolis Clergy-Laity Assembly, and (3) the biennial Archdiocese Clergy-Laity Congress

Each parish is also obligated in accordance with the UPR to pay the annual cost for the Archdiocese Benefits Program (ABP) for each assigned clergyman. The annual amount in 2009 is $5,700 payable via automatic electronic funds transfer (withdrawal) in the monthly amount of $475.

Note:The Parish monthly Benefits Contributions ($475 per month for 2009) are not priest-specific and are therefore not credited to the priest's individual account. Rather, they are credited to the general Benefits Fund, which, in addition to supporting the pension plan, provides the other important benefits included in the Archdiocese Benefits Program at no cost to the participant. This includes the Life Insurance Benefit, the Long Term Disability Benefit, and the Confidential Assistance Program, to name three.