gift for a priest

Cash works. When the priest comes to bless my house, etc... I give him money. Remember gas is over 3 dollars a gallon and priests do a lot of traveling visiting those in hospital, nursing homes, retirement communities, shut-ins, etc.... Maybe a gift card for gasoline would be a good idea.

And also I would give him an envelope with cash in it and some coffee/dessert at a house blessing. You said it spot-on in this post. It is always good to hand the priest money in an envelope for to help with his ministerial work!

Sure! Great ideas. I know a priest who uses all his \"gift\" envelopes for the poor. He keeps a special envelope in his office and when someone in need come to him he shares the love that he recieved with the person in need. Then the love expressed is doubled!

Wine. I have never come across a single Orthodox priest, bishop or monk who has refused a gift of a bottle (or three) of good wine. A bottle of good cognac would also hit the spot in many cases.

Please separate real gifts from offerings for services. Many jurisdictions do not allow their priest to accept offerings for services. And many parishes provide a car and parish gas card, or a car allowance plus gas for the car that is used for parish business. In Greek parishes, at least, your weekly offering pays the priest\'s gas and cellphone. If your parish doesn\'t do this, it should. These are bills the parish should be paying on a regular basis, and they should not come out of the priest\'s salary. Our parish wouldn\'t think of not covering these business expenses the same way we cover paper for the copier. Gifts are another matter entirely, and a lot more fun to think about!

I think a nice gift for a priest (in this case me :) ) might be some liturgical books for my personal library especially for younger/newer priests who haven\'t collected many volumes yet. I can provide a list :)

Memo to Fr. Athanasios\'s first parish: Please look at the Orthodox Circle forums before his nameday...

I would appreciate a list, Fr A. It would be a helpful thing to know what a priest might be looking for.

free golf

giggle. I\'m trying to picture Fr Joseph or Abbot Jonah playing golf. It\'s just too freaky to think about!

Free dance lessons! :) hehehehehe

if cash makes you or the priest uncomfortable, try a gift certificate instead. You can get them for almost any kind of store these days.

The gifts mentioned seem, mostly, to be gifts for \"a priest.\" I might point out that one gift, a piece of artwork, was for a priest specifically interested in the Byzantine empire. If the question is, \"How do you give an appropriate gift for a layperson?\", the right answer is probably, \"I don\'t know; what is this person like? What are that person\'s interests and responsibilities?\" And then give a gift, not for \"a priest\" or \"a layperson,\" but for the specific person. Just a thought...

Jonathan has made a very real point. I know a priest who would LOVE opera tickets for a weeknight, and a number of priests who couldn\'t think of anything more boring.

If you practice any handicrafts, give him something handmade. My parish has been hosting a Russian priest and his family for the past 9 months; he finally got an assignment and will be leaving us this week. As a going-away gift, my husband and I gave him and his matushka a Civil War reproduction quilt I made that they had admired. They loved it.