Orthodox Biz Blog

Like a lot of other Orthodox Christians who spent time in a Greek parish, I've done my share of festival duty. Several years in the Gyros booth, a couple in the parish bookstore, one doing church tours - been there done that.

Opa!

But during the first weekend in February, 2008 in Ocala, Florida, I got to experience a Greekfest firsthand not as a member of the parish, but as a vendor. Things look very, very different when you're on the outside looking in.

A little background is probably in order. My primary company, Corfun.com, specializes in eFundraising and eCommerce. We have a few wholly-owned Webstores, and we often stock up on merchandise that we think will be good sellers. Sometimes, they just don't turn out that way.

In addition to putting slow-moving items on sale on the Web, promoting them via advertising, and putting them on eBay, we also work festivals. The festivals give us a chance to show our banner, meet people, get feedback on products, and also get rid of merchandise that didn't quite live up to our expectations.

The first weekend in February was our first Greekfest as a vendor. The church sponsoring the event was The Greek Orthodox Mission Church of Greater Ocala . Since I was a guest of this festival I wanted to provide some observations about it that might help other Greek parishes.

First of all, the size of the event was impressive. The mission parish has only 50 families, yet they were able to pull off a great event. This is a testament to both the hard work of the parish members and their ability to reach out to get volunteers who weren't even part of the mission. I met volunteers from as far away as Tallahassee who had shown up to Ocala to help out with this effort. I think the success of this event is a testament to what can be done by a small group of people who work together in unity, while reaching out to the broader community for help.

Further, the event was held at a Roman Catholic parish. The Greek Orthodox mission meets in their facility for Divine Liturgy, and gets to use the Catholic parish hall every year for the Greekfest. The parishioners of the Greek Mission had nothing but glowing things to report about their relationship to the Catholic parish which had given them so much support.

I know that we often end up in bitter debates with Roman Catholics over all kinds of Theological issues. These debates are good in that our differences are real, and they can't be glossed over. But looking at both the high-level talks on co-operation in Europe, and the local instances like this of Eucemenical co-operation, I sometimes wonder if we don't get too carried away with our debates on church history. There is a real need for co-operation in the here and now, and I applaud the Roman Catholic parish in Ocala for its help to the Greek Mission. I also hope that where needed, the Orthodox might return the favor.

Also, the organizers had both traditional Greek music and a guitar duo playing more contemporary fare. One member of the duo was of Greek descent, and there was a definite Greek influence to his playing, but it wasn't traditional bazouki music. That was awesome. Though I do like Greek music, the fact that the organizers had two stages and offered a choice was (in my opinion) a great idea.

The guidebook to the event also featured something that I'd never seen before. On the back of the guidebook was a list of all the Greekfests coming up in the state of Florida. One of the organizers had actually taken the time to call all of the Greek parishes in Florida and get the dates of their festivals.

I was blown away by that. We frequently talk about the critical need for co-operation between Orthodox jurisdictions, but (seriously) I'd be happy to start with co-operation within an Orthodox jurisdiction. The fact that a mission parish cared enough to actually publish a list of other parish Greek festivals is just fantastic. May this trend spread!

Finally, hanging out with the vendors was an eye-opening experience. Vendors at a festival are, mostly, non-Orthodox. The fact that I had a booth and was also Orthodox (but not part of the sponsoring parish) made me a rarity. The fact is that these vendors, many of whom are not part of any church, are grading their treatment by the parish as indicative of Orthodox Christianity as a whole.

I think that sometimes vendors are looked at as a nuisance by parishes. That wasn't the case with the Ocala mission whose members were very nice to all of us and seemed genuinely appreciative that we were there.

But, their behavior only served to remind me of the times when I'd helped at Greekfests and the vendors weren't treated nearly so nicely as they were in Ocala.

Vendors at a festival provide not only a significant source of revenue through booth rentals, but also help draw the crowds in year-after-year. Sure, everyone is interested in the Saganaki and the Greek dancing, but having quality merchandise to buy, and interesting exhibits to view, also add quite a bit.

Plus, vendors are people who know a lot of other people, given the fact that they travel widely. You may just be the only Orthodox Christians they come across in the course of a year. Do you want them saying good, neutral, or negative things about Christ and His Church?

Greekfests are a fun time, and a great opportunity for getting out in front of a diverse group of potential customers. We not only sold some merchandise, we also made some interesting contacts for business down the road. All-in-all, hats off to the Ocala Mission Parish and I look forward to doing this again at another festival!

For more pictures of the Ocala Greekfest, click here.

Glen Chancy is CIO for corfun.com and publisher of Orthodox Biz. You can contact him here .