Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Our Open House Weekend is now just two weeks away. Please plan on joining us as often as you can on Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20, and please plan on bringing a guest or several guests with you to one of the services or events.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, October 9, and Friday, October 11
Daily Services
Monday, October 7-Friday, October 11:
Orthros 5am;
Vespers 5pm
(Due to Father Aidan’s teaching schedule, starting this Tuesday evening, September 24, he will not be able to serve Daily Vespers on Tuesday and Thursday evening until mid-December; the services will simply be read privately. Also, please don’t forget that since life in our parish community can be pretty busy, sometimes the starting times for the daily services has to be shifted. So, if you know ahead of time that you will be attending a particular service, it’s always a good idea to send Father Aidan a note at fraidan@austin.rr.com to confirm when the service will actually begin.)
Wednesday, October 9
Fall Theological Seminar 7pm at the parish house, at Michael and Linda Brown’s house in Georgetown, or at Tony and Heather Chandler’s house in Harker Heights. We will be discussing Chapters 7-8, pgs 63-78
Saturday, October 12
St Thomas School 4pm Hubert Bays will be leading the discussion on Chapter 9, pgs 295-314, Divine Services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until Great Saturday
Great Vespers with the Jesus Prayer 6pm
Sunday, October 13
Sunday of the 7th Ecumenical Council
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Akathist to the Mother of God Noon
Stewarship Visits Noon If your name is Wood, Whalen, Willman Wilson, Wilcoxson, Wilcoxson, Vaughn, Treckman, Thurston, Taylor, Speckhard, Ruse, Roehrig, Roblenski, Peacock, Parsons, Nelson, Morgan, Moralez, Mirabella, McClary, Martini, Martin, Maisano, Lewis, Latta, Krenek, King, Khoury, Kelly, Juliano, Juliano, Juliano, Jones, Jacob, Helton, Howell, Hatfield, Haskins, Hart, Harding, Hardin, Hampton, Halsey, Groh, Grandalski, Grandalski, Grandalski, please meet with us over in the parish house right after you pick up your food for Fellowship Hour.
This Week at St. Thomas School
Chapter 9: Divine Services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until Great Saturday
This chapter can be summarized with Metropolitan’s own words that “the Savior’s death and resurrection put an end to hell’s power over the human race.” Because of that conquest in Jesus Christ, the cyclical destruction of human lives, the sheer waste of life that we see and have read about, is returned to life in the body. God creates us new from “a field strewn with bones,” as he says. How should we respond to such a sweeping statement about reality? We are given the example of how the Publican and the Pharisee approach God in their outward and inner postures of prayer, which may be the decisive point in preventing wars and violence. It’s no coincidence that the foundation for getting ready for Great Lent and the rest of the liturgical services hinges on this scene of a great sinner and a morally superior man at prayer.
There are lot of liturgical verses that we chant during the divine services from the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee until Great Saturday and Metropolitan Hilarion presents us with these verses on every page. If we reflect a little, there are many new sounds and tunes that the world plays. We hear people in their cars listening to familiar songs to start the day. Blaring music keeps us motivated to stay in coffee shops and to buy clothes in department stores. A song on the radio recalls some special moments. We could ask ourselves, what’s really worth singing about? Metropolitan Hilarion highlights stichera from major services that form the sections, which includes: Preparation for Great Lent, The Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, The Divine Services of the First Week of Great Lent and The Great Canon of Repentance, Sundays of Great Lent, The Annunciation of the Most-Holy Theotokos, Lazarus Saturday and the Entry of the Lord into Jerusalem, and Holy Week.
Metropolitan Hilarion helps us see the big picture in worship with these divine services so that we do not lose sight of what’s important to sing about and who are worthy of all praise in preparation for our own death and resurrection. Come and see how the Orthodox Church has some of the most beautiful and true verses. The theological topics are rich for meditation. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
Coming Up
Stewardship Visits have begun. These visits are the key to our Annual Budget Campaign. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s process:
Look over the proposed budget that is attached to this newsletter. Then, on your assigned Sunday (see the schedule that’s printed below), show up at the presentation the Finance Committee will make in the common room of the parish house. At that presentation, the Finance Folks will highlight certain aspects of the budget and answer any questions you might have; they will also pass out the 2020 Commitment Cards.
You can fill the card out and give it to one of the Finance Folks after the presentation. You can fill the card out and place it in the Offering Bowl. You can fill the card out and give it to the priest. But we need you to be as specific as you can because we actually plan off of the information that you will put on that card. Also, this year, we are asking everyone to write their contact information on the card, so that we can make sure that our membership roster is up to date (street address; email address; phone numbers).
Once we receive the card, you will receive a thank you note via email. In the past, the priest has written all of those notes by hand, but he has developed a tremor in his right hand (nothing to worry about; he’s just getting old), so his hand writing has deteriorated. However, he will be sending you the thank you note via email. The purpose of the note is three-fold: to thank you for your generosity to our community, to confirm that we have recorded your commitment accurately, and to share with you the new sign-in information for the membership section of the website, which now changes each year.
If you miss your assigned presentation, you are welcome to attend one of the other sessions or one of the make-up sessions (again, check the schedule below). Nevertheless, we need all commitment cards to be returned by Sunday, November 17; that way the Finance Folks can adjust the budget in any way that might be needed. And when it comes to getting those cards returned, we are pretty relentless: In fact, we will send you a very polite and very discrete email each week until you turn in the card or until you say, “Go away. Leave me alone.”
Of course, we want everyone to fill out a card because having a card on file means you will continue to be an official member of St John’s. As an official member, you will continue to receive this amazing weekly newsletter, you will have ongoing access to the membership section of the website, and you will be eligible to vote in the Annual Community Meeting which happens each February.
Four times a year, the Finance Folks will send you a quarterly statement of your giving, and you will receive an annual statement at the end of the year. If you have questions about the budget or your statements, you can always ask the priest or any of the Finance Folks, but no one will ever, under any circumstances, pressure you about your giving.
Our next Open House Weekend, which will be on Saturday, October 19, and Sunday, October 20. Our speaker at St Thomas School on October 19 will be Dr. Mark Cherry; Mark is a member of St. Elias and a professor of philosophy and ethics at St. Edwards University. He will be talking at 4pm about the intersection of faith and politics—which is what we are also talking about in our Fall Theological Seminar—and, since that is sure to be of interest to lots and lots of folks, we are hoping that you will invite your friends and family members to join us for his talk or for one of the services throughout that weekend.
Of course, with each of our Open House Weekends, we not only invite a guest to an event or a service, but we also attend all of the services and events on Saturday and Sunday. That means we commit to showing up at St Thomas School and Great Vespers on Saturday, and Orthros, Church School, Divine Liturgy, and Fellowship Hour on Sunday because we want to make a good impression on folks; we want them to see Holy Orthodoxy at its best.
To help publicize the weekend, attached to this newsletter is a flyer that you can send to your friends and family and neighbors and co-workers; there is also a version that can be used on social media. To be sure, the best way to encourage folks to join us on October 19-20 is to speak to them in person, but we also want to reach as many people as we can, so go ahead and share the flyer with all your contacts.
For the past three years, Baker Galloway has been studying with world-renowned iconographer Aidan Hart in the Prince’s Program for The Traditional Arts in Great Britain. Baker will finish the program this fall, and, on Sunday, October 27, he will share with us the icons and images that he produced over the last three years. The display will be over at the parish house, and we will all be able to view it during Fellowship Hour, so watch this newsletter for more details.
We will be celebrating the Feast of St Raphael of Brooklyn on Saturday, November 2. We will serve Orthros at 7am and Divine Liturgy at 9am on that morning. St Raphael’s icon is on display in our nave; that image also holds a relic of this Syrian saint who was the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated in North America. St Raphael is also known as The Good Shepherd of the Lost Sheep in America, so there is no better saint to intercede for our friends and loved ones who are not yet part of the Church or who have fallen away from the Church. Plan on joining us to add your prayers to those of this holy hierarch.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
When the priest is processing through the nave during the Great Entrance, everyone is welcome to touch his vestments as an act of prayer. However, please do not grab hold of the vestments as this could cause an accident. Parents and grandparents, please be sure that your children understand that they are to simply hold out their hand and touch the vestments rather than try to hold on to them.
Please remember that our 2020 Commitment Cards are due on Sunday, November 17th. You can place them in the offering bowl or give them directly to Father Aidan. Also, please remember to use that card to update your contact information; that will help us keep our membership roster as accurate as possible.
an unworthy priest
aidan