Notes from the workshop.
Why we build the way we do, the typikon, the register, the catechumenate, and the small decisions that make software feel like it belongs in a parish.
Choosing parish software: questions for your council
Choosing parish software? The questions a priest and council should ask about fit, cost, data ownership, security, support, and how to leave.
The parish in every pocket: what a member app really does
A parish member app puts the directory, giving, ministries, calendar and prayers in every parishioner's pocket — under your parish's own name.
Tracking catechumens from the back of the church to the font
Tracking catechumens from first visit to inquirer to reception — a gentle way to shepherd each person to the font without losing anyone.
Switching parish software without losing your records
Switching parish software without losing data: how to import from Breeze, ACS, or spreadsheets and keep households and sacramental history intact.
The Orthodox memorial cycle: remembering the departed by name
The Orthodox memorial cycle keeps the third, ninth, and fortieth days and the annual memorial — so a parish remembers the reposed by name.
Orthodox parish membership records that keep a household whole
Orthodox parish membership records that keep households, baptismal names, and namedays together — a living directory, not another spreadsheet.
Is our parish data safe? A plain guide to parish data security
Parish data security in plain language: isolation, encryption, who can see what, sealed pastoral records, and why your parish owns its own data.
New calendar and old calendar: how parish software should keep either faithfully
The new calendar and old calendar shape a parish's saints, tone, readings, and fast. Here is how good software should keep either one faithfully.
When parishioners drift away: noticing with love
When parishioners drift away, it happens quietly. Here are gentle, loving ways a parish notices a family it hasn't seen — care, not surveillance.
Fund accounting for a parish, explained without the jargon
Fund accounting for a parish, explained plainly — why a checkbook isn't enough, and how to keep books a treasurer can hand an auditor.
Orthodox namedays: remembering each person by their patron saint
Orthodox namedays let a parish greet each person on their patron saint's feast — and never miss a nameday again.
Why we built Symphonia for the typikon, not the org chart
Generic church software models a nonprofit with a mailing list. A parish is something older and stranger than that — and the software should know the difference.
An Orthodox alternative to Breeze and Planning Center
Looking for an Orthodox alternative to Breeze, Planning Center, or Realm? Why parishes outgrow them, fairly told, and what a parish-native system changes.
Online giving for an Orthodox parish, without losing the point
Online giving for an Orthodox parish — funds that settle to the parish, giving that posts to the books itself, stewardship kept whole.
What is a living typikon? Software that computes the shape of the day
A living typikon computes the day's service, readings, tone, fast, and commemorations from the rubrics — a prepared starting point your priest confirms.
The sacramental register is meant to outlive us
The sacramental register a parish keeps for generations — permanent records linked to person, household, and godparents, sealed where needed.
Building parish community: how belonging actually grows
Building parish community is slow, human work — shared meals, ministries to join, newcomers welcomed. Here is how software can quietly support it.
Orthodox church management software: what a parish actually needs
Orthodox church management software should know what a parish is — a received calendar, a sacramental register, and real fund accounting, in one system.