Worcester Reaches Out With Nurses

OLDEST PARISH FINDS WAYS TO STAY NEW

It's the Diocese's oldest parish, but in Worcester the future is the focus.

In 2002-2003 the Armenian Church of our Saviour had 12 months of celebration marking the 50th anniversary of its current building, which replaced the building that began the Armenian Church in America in 1891.

During its 50th anniversary year, the parish launched a $250,000 fund drive. Even in today's troubled economic times, the parishioners have risen to the challenge, and the money raised will be used to help repair and improve various parts of the beautiful sanctuary, church hall, and expansive Sunday School classroom facility.

But the needs of the parish are more than financial, and the parish feels more pressure to succeed and thrive than most.

"The most needed commodity is time, more than money," said the parish priest, Fr. Aved Terzian. "We as a parish have a greater challenge. We are the oldest community as a parish, and with that comes great responsibility because you have a history.

NEW WAYS AND IDEAS

Indeed, the parish is stepping up to meet more than the financial needs of the church.  "One of the responsibilities of the parish council is to find new ways to support the church. We can't say this is the way we have done it for 40 years. We have to try new things," Mazmanian said. "We have to change. If we don't, we're going to lose our ability to be a parish."

One way the parish has stayed on the cutting edge is by making the building wireless. Fr. Terzian or any other parish leader can carry a laptop computer almost anywhere in the building and be connected to their computer system, without the need of wires. That saves time and energy, which can be funneled into programming or ministries.

NURSING COMMUNITY

The parish also recently started a new program using nurses to reach out to sick parishioners.  "We tried to figure out how we can bring the church and God to shut-ins and those who are not able to come to our sanctuary to worship," Mazmanian said. "Now the nurses in our parish can meet with these people, not on a medial aspect but a spiritual aspect."

The nurses serve as a vital link to prayer, the Armenian faith, and our culture to the shut ins. Their background also means they are able to see thing, medially or psychologically, that a regular visitor wouldn't notice. And since the nurses know of the variety of government and non-profit programs for the elderly and sick, if they notice a problem they can find help.

Using nurses to conduct visits to the sick also frees Fr. Terzian up to do other work for the church, while making the nurses feel a sense of pride and ownership in the work of the parish.

So far about 17 nurses are part of the program and the parish would like to find funds to pay a coordinator to expand the program. Fr. Terzian said using nurses, instead of other lay leaders, makes the outreach effort successful.  "Some people are afraid to make a visitation to someone who is ill," he said. "The nurses are more experienced and have seen a lot of things. They can deal with it all very well."

HONORING THE PAST

While the nursing outreach program is a new idea, its goals are as old as the parish: To build a sense of Christian community.  "Being an older parish, we have these relationships established. We don't want to neglect those people who are ill," Fr. Terzian said. "They have been movers and shakers in the past, who are now our grandmothers and grandfathers. And maybe now they are not able to come to church and be a part of it. But they can still be a part of us. When you are in a family, you have to be there."

It's a family the church continues to build with new programs, like the nursing outreach program, and old standbys, such as the annual fall bazaar. And it is a family that parishioners are glad to call their own.

"I come for the community. Church bonds everybody together," said Bizer Simonian, a parishioner since the 1950s, as she dished out Armenian delicacies during this fall's bazaar. "Family is important and this church is a family for us. Some people who go to other churches might not know anybody. But we come and see our family every week."