Any ordained clergy member

As it states :
Ordained Clergy Person (OCP)

In addition to the powers and duties of a Licensed Clergy Person, an Ordained Clergy Person may act as a Confidant under clerical seal and may conduct an ordination ceremony for another Ordained Clergy Person with the authorization of the Council (or the Council's designee). An Ordained Clergy Person is expected to regularly contribute to the Temple's sermon calendar and to engage in clerical outreach in accordance with policies set by the Synod and the Clergy. An Ordained Clergy Person is specifically expected to reach out to and build rapport with those in the Temple without Teaching Masters, and to lend support and counsel to other members of the Clergy. An Ordained Clergy Person is authorized to use the honorific "Reverend" and to append the clerical suffix "OCP" to his/her name.



Main focus is : an Ordained Clergy Person may act as a Confidant under clerical seal

Any Ordained clergy who would like access to the contact the clergy may request to do so. This is open to all and any willing ordained clergy member willing to take the confidant oath and serve there as part of their own ministry. Any questions hit me directly or on my emails. Force be with y’all as we serve and share with our Temple.

Legally, we are allowed to receive confession and/or give counsel to someone; but psychologically and spiritually, how do we make sure someone is grounded well enough to accomplish this without contributing to psychological and/or spiritual harm?

Also, I’d like to see the sermon-requirement dropped. I personally feel that it can take away from growth, and mandating that curbs one’s (at least mine) personal ministry.

If not, we should spell out “set policies”; preferably in the Bylaws.

If the sermon requirements are dropped- what other expectation or responsibility does the clergy really have? What visible service do we use to gauge anything as far as service to the Temple and to the very place that grants those privlages? Real questions. There has to be some type of requirement for granting titles and positions right ? Not for the sake of titles but that's just a character thing I think right? Clergy/ sermons-they go together r right ? sermon leaders- message givers- story tellers- places for encouragement - empathy - symphony- where else can they get that central idea and can see the common theme used and expressed together with others by example -besides one on one?

The way it's set up now - the way I have been doing it -not that it cant be changed or adjusted at anytime, because it can...
Is as follows:
Contact clergy email gets a new messages from a member in the Temple sharing a bit more personal information than they would normally share on the forum, in confidence.
Our goal, for this process, is to have any willing participant engage and encourage said individual in their path. Everyone who is taking confessions, should be sending a reply. So the idea is for 1 request to receive numerous versions of encouragement and spiritual guidance according to their faith and our faith.
This is the member, reaching out to us, the Clergy, for specific spiritual guidance. It is recommended to always drop the disclaimer "we are not professionals, we encourage you to seek outside care if needed," whatever applies...and reassure them that the conversation is confidential nothing will be shared unless....cite laws, if need be

How to react/respond:
Truthfully it takes practice....making those types of connections takes practice. What kind of encouragement would you give if someone was sick? What kind of encouragement would you give someone who was going through divorce? Separation? Death? A dog really ate the kids homework...we're at the Vet now kind of real life situations....
I am always available for real life training. Offering encouragement is not hard, but being empathetic takes practice. I personally took a John's Hopkins course in Psychological First Aid from Coursera that was very informative and I definitely recommend it, it helps with this type of outreach and ministry. (If you know of any others please let me know)
Most of the time it's about making real connections with people. Knowing that someone is there and listening is usually help in and of itself.
But pretty much that is the process we have right now. We average about 4 or 5 messages a month, but it fluxes from time to time, from sermon to sermon, from movie to movie, from world event to world event.

Hope this offers some clarity on the situation

In my best Yoda impression while twiddling my fingers like Mr. Burns "Interested, Are We?"

It is a good question. I hope other folks answer this too.

Perhaps leading something live like opening a digital hall, or hosting a “sutra service” or reading from Lore.

Or better yet, hosting offline things of a similar nature.

Certainly, sermon-writing and jabber-jawing is not the only answer.

I'm not ordained, but...
I attended a temple service with my family the other day. There is a "head rabbi" who usually provides sermons at services there. Sermons from other rabbis or clergy are exceedingly rare, and this has been the norm at many Jewish temples for a long time. I can't speak to the practices of other religious organizations, but in the Jewish tradition, other rabbis are able to lead services, provide prayers and blessings, and oversee the rituals which the head rabbi is not present for (in which case there is usually no sermon).
I support dropping the sermon requirement. We have a wonderful liturgical book in the library here at TOTJO, so why not lead a weekly service wherein blessings and prayers are given, maybe following a short meditation guided by a member of the clergy? Discord provides us with a voice chat or text chat (mics are not necessary to listen to voice chat) from which a weekly service could be lead. This would give the clergy a visible presence within the Temple, provide members of the clergy with an alternative to writing sermons, and (I think) would encourage greater community involvement.
Are any members of the clergy interested in leading or attending a weekly service? By having a rotating schedule of volunteers, it shouldn't be too overbearing on anyone, and it doesn't prevent anyone from presenting a sermon if they want to.