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Transparency is a modern call for society, and is currently becoming a challenge for the Church. Despite several practical efforts at making the Church more transparent, the question regarding what kind of transparency the Church should apply as a principle seems still to be largely unanswered. In this article, we propose a path of transparent processes, solutions and decisions in the Church that could be put into practice by dioceses, parishes, schools, etc. This article has two objectives. First, we explore the various concepts of transparency in current research. In this part, we stress that although transparency is commonly requested as a necessary policy for organizations, it is a multidimensional concept not easy to put into practice. Second, we suggest that operational transparency, which is an application of the principle of transparency mostly regarding marketing ideas, could be useful for the Church. Certainly, the utility of operational transparency should respect the spiritual mission and the unique focus of the government of the ecclesial institution; the Church cannot be considered a regular business enterprise, although it has a business side. In every step, we relate transparency to stewardship as, in our opinion; they are two dimensions of the same reality.

The current stage of development of our state is characterized by a return to the Christian worldview after many years of forced atheism. Therefore, in many cities and villages of Ukraine, temples and monasteries are being revived, religious buildings and monuments are being intensively repaired, reconstructed and built, and places of pilgrimage are being arranged, and so on. At the same time, there are significant socio-economic changes, in particular, new market conditions, land, medical and educational reforms, decentralization of public administration, etc. These facts emphasize the high spiritual and material dynamism of today's life. Its complexity is increasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the armed conflict with Russia and other common points. In addition, everyone usually has personal problems. The Orthodox Christian religion has always proclaimed love for one's neighbor as a great moral value. Various human activities, including the above, are characterized by the widespread use of information technologies. In many cases, one of the foundations of which is computer graphics. The advantage of geometric models compared to analytical ones is their simplicity, clarity, ease of use. The development of new mathematical tools, which are aimed at the effective practical implementation of spiritual activities among the population, is a godly task. On this basis, the selected topic can be considered quite relevant. The main purpose of this publication is to highlight the proposed methodology for the automated reproduction of organizational cluster structures in Orthodoxy. The obtained scientific applied achievements represent a developed approach to modeling church management and related religious territorial Christian communities in the form of dioceses and parishes. On the basis of the given strategy new complex geometrical models for optimization of activity of orthodox churches are constructed. This concerns the more rational placement of temples and chapels, the definition of the proper boundaries of parishes and dioceses, the determination of the need for their unification or liquidation, the establishment of new ones, and so on. The paper outlines the prospects for the necessary further research., Сучасний етап розвитку нашої держави характеризується поверненням до християнського світогляду після довгих років примусового атеїзму. Тому в багатьох містах і селах України відроджуються храми та монастирі, інтенсивно ремонтуються, реконструюються й будуються належні культові споруди та пам’ятники, облаштовуються місця паломництва тощо. Також мають місце значні суспільно-економічні зміни, зокрема, нові ринкові умови, проведення земельної, медичної та освітньої реформи, децентралізації державного управління і т. д. Указані факти підкреслюють високу духовно-матеріальну динамічність нинішнього життя. Його складність збільшується внаслідок пандемії COVID-19, збройного конфлікту з Росією та інших загальних моментів. Крім того, в кожного, зазвичай, існують й особисті проблеми. Православна християнська релігія завжди проголошувала як велику моральну цінність любов до ближнього. Сьогодні для різноманітної діяльності людини, в тому числі й зазначеної вище, притаманне широке використання інформаційних технологій. У багатьох випадках однією з основ яких є комп’ютерна графіка. Перевага геометричних моделей порівняно з аналітичними полягає в їх простоті, наочності, зручності застосування. Розробляння нових математичних засобів, які спрямовані на ефективну практичну реалізацію духовних заходів серед населення, є богоугодною справою. На цій підставі обрану тематику можна вважати доволі актуальною. Головна мета даної публікації полягає у висвітленні запропонованої методики автоматизованого відтворення організаційних кластерних структур у православ’ї. Отримані наукові прикладні здобутки становить напрацьований підхід до моделювання церковного управління й пов’язаних із ним релігійних територіальних християнських громад у вигляді єпархій та парафій. На базі наведеної стратегії побудовано нові комплексні геометричні моделі для оптимізації діяльності православної церкви. Це стосується більш раціонального розміщення храмів і каплиць, дефініції належних границь парафій та єпархій, визначення потреби їх об’єднання або ліквідації, заснування нових тощо. У роботі окреслено перспективи проведення необхідних подальших наукових досліджень.

Whether you want to or not, strategies are formed. Increased awareness of strategic choices increases the chances that one arrives where one intends to. This is probably an important reason why some local churches work to develop and implement strategies. At the same time, the discussion in this article shows that there is very little research literature that provides a guide to how strategic leadership can be done in a good way in a local church. In this article, it is argued that the strategic leadership ideas developed in businesses can be used in the local church, taking into account the church’s peculiarities. The church’s theological-spiritual dimension must provide guidelines on how strategy processes should be designed and on the content of strategy. At the same time, strategic leadership can help support and develop the theological dimension of the church; an emphasis on strategy development would probably support the work of choosing a direction for a church, and this effort would probably contribute to creating progress in realizing the content of the strategy. Such an interaction can contribute to church development by making the church more able to be and do to what it is called to be and do. In the article, I try to apply the current knowledge base to formulate some assumptions about how the strategy process and content can be designed in the local church. Among other things, biblical material, revelation and the testing of its accuracy, time to listen to God, spiritual gifts, theological reflection, and prayer are of importance to strategic leadership in the church. These are very foreign elements in the general strategy literature but are still important for the church. If one is to be able to give better and more concrete advice on strategic leadership in local churches, it is necessary to examine in more detail how such work takes place today and how it can support the church’s theological-spiritual identity and development. Furthermore, closer theological studies are needed to discuss how the theological-spiritual dimension should influence strategic leadership in the local church.

Rapid growth in the field of management science in recent decades has resulted in a plethora of resources for leadership and management in the Church. How should ecclesiologists respond to this trend? This essay highlights the importance of a theologically-grounded approach to managing church organisations. In particular, it examines a foundational document in the Catholic tradition from the Second Vatican Council, Lumen Gentium, to draw implications for evaluating church organisations. Most studies on Lumen Gentium have focused on one or other aspect of its multiply-rich content. This analysis, however, on the recent 50th anniversary of the document’s promulgation in November 1964, recaps its overall message through a triple hermeneutics of author, text and receiver and brings this message into dialogue with the modern-day challenge of managing church organisations. It will be proposed that the real fruitfulness of these organisations depends on the extent to which they manifest the Church’s nature and mission as a sacrament of salvation for the world. The implications of this are then translated into a framework for evaluating church organisations.

The history of beginnings and functioning of the diocesan council in Saratov eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church, one of the largest in Volga region, is represented in this article basing upon discovered sources. Basic biographical facts about the members of the council is given; most important decisions of the council, the history of the show trial against the council’s members, the issue of transfer of aff airs to bishop’s offi ce in 1920 are also discussed.

This thesis examines the regional part of the Church of Sweden. Existing as a Lutheran evangelical church since the declaration in Uppsala in 1593, the Church of Sweden became completely separate from the state in the year 2000. Apart from a small piece of legislation by the Swedish parliament, the now former state controlled church were to act on their own. This development can be seen as a result of several decades of discussions. The author is raising the question about the roll and function of bishops and dioceses in the Church of Sweden. By using original non-theological concepts such as isomorphism and management, the ecclesiological function of the Church of Sweden is presented. The terminology of management from business and economics has influenced the economic language of the church. In several cases the Church of Sweden has been subject to isomorphic impacts in bureaucratic and economical matters. The impression is that the development has partly been reduced from the regions or the dioceses. The author also presents a keyword for meta-ecclesiology; the church as such.

D.Litt. et Phil. The whole world, including Africa and South-Africa, is moving in transitional phases between premodern, modern and post modernistic tendencies. In Southern-Africa we see the coexistence of at least these three worldviews. On the one hand we witness signs of Pre-modernism, as well as an increase in Modernistic tendencies. On the other hand we experience a strong growth and emphasis on the so called Postmodernism (Compare Gibbs 2001:30, Hendriks 2004:16; Niemandt 2007:25-28). Post modernism, also called Post colonialism in the African context, is basically an attempt to make sense of what is happening in the current period (Powell 1998:17). It endeavours to reconceptualize the way the world is experienced and explained (Boje 1996:2). Post modernism can also be summarized as an increasing awareness that the last say has not been said on anything. That there will always be yet another perspective about life and about God (Niemandt 2007:47-48). The world-wide realities of cultural shifts coupled with the transitions between the traditional-, modern- and post modern worldviews, have implications for leadership in general. In various institutions, including commercial, educational, medical and religious circles, leaders are facing growing challenges of ever changing ways of living, thinking and doing. The collective impact of all these changes in thought and culture, information tegnology, the advent of globalization, as well as the plurality of race and religion, has displaced the historical role of the church and its leaders (Gibbs 2001:19). It also contributes to the marginalization of the church as an institution (Regele 1995: 182). One of the consequences of this, is that the nature of leadership in the church also has to change. Congregational leaders experience a disintegration of culture and traditional values in the daily operation of their congregations and many do not know how to adress the resulting changing demands on their leadership (McLaren 2003:141). The point of departure in this study is that in order to develop a better notion of the demands that the current time frame places upon congregational leaders and to support them as leaders, it would be valuable to listen in an explorative way to their practical experiences. From their experience, it should be possible to observe certian phenomena and tendencies and to develop potential strategies to support them in addressing the demands placed upon them as leaders in the local assemblies. Consequently this study followed a qualitative, explorative, descriptive, contextual and phenomenological research design (Compare Brink 1996:11; Maxwell 1996:59). The research was done by conducting seven semi structured focus groups in which fifty congregational leaders participated. The research took place in two phases: In phase one congregational leaders’ experience of the demands of the current time frame were explored and described. Phase two was conducted in two steps: In step one a conceptual framework was derived from the results of phase one. In step two, strategies based on this conceptual framework were described. The researcher made use of Tesch’s method of data analyses (Creswell 1994:155-156). Word for word transcriptions of the focus group interviews were used for the data analyses, which was verified by an independent coder. As this is a phenomenological investigation, it was not directed by literature. A literature study to confirm the results of the research and the experience of congregational leaders about the demands of current times, was done later in the study. The data analyses exposed a main theme and six sub-themes relating to the experience of congregational leaders about the demands of current times on them as leaders. Their main experience was that fast changes over a broad spectrum of society, places great pressure on the internal and external capacities of congregational leaders. Many of these leaders experience ever increasing emotional exhaustion and distress, because of present-day demands. This leads to them experiencing dejection, loneliness and guilt.

In this mini-dissertation the researcher tried to find a solution for an effective process in the discovery of service and placement of volunteers in the local congregation. The mini-dissertation explains how the placement of volunteers by way of a database can be managed more effectively. A literature study has been done and the researcher has explored the topic to show what the role of a database is in the process of volunteers’ discovery of service in a local congregation. Dr. L.P. Maré Prof. H. Viviers

Historically, the Church has responded cautiously to the implementation of new technology. Considering the upheavals that past technological developments have brought about, the Church's response is understandable. Recent renewal of the arts in Christian worship has led many churches to reevaluate their stance concerning the accompanying technology. As a result, scores of churches are seeking ways to implement the latest technological developments into their church's existing worship programs. This dissertation is an investigation into the utilization of worship arts technology by Baptist churches. In addition, this study examines the relationship of key church characteristics (i.e., denominational affiliation, organizational age, church size, church growth, church income, and worship style) to the utilization of worship arts technology. A questionnaire was sent to all of the individual expressions of Baptist faith within the geographical area of the study. The data were analyzed using descriptive and correlative statistical techniques. The degree of relationship between the use of worship arts technology and the key church characteristics was established based on the results of these analyses. The findings demonstrated that the churches' denominational affiliation, organizational age, per capita financial contributions, and worship style had little relationship to the use of worship arts technology. However, the relationship of membership size, attendance size, membership growth, and attendance growth was considerably greater. Furthermore, the results showed a significant increase in the use of worship arts technology when churches included the fine arts disciplines of music, drama, and visual art in their worship programs.

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