Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Stewardship Visits begin this coming Sunday, October 6! This is how we figure out what our budget needs to be for the coming year, so read through the schedule (and the attached proposed budget) and show up for your appointed time with the Finance Folks.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, October 2, and Friday, October 4
Daily Services
Monday, September 30-Friday, October 4:
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 2
Fall Theological Seminar 7pm We will be discussing Chapters 5-6, pages 41-50
Thursday, October 3
Choir Practice 7pm
Saturday, October 5
St Thomas School 4pm DeAnne Maisano will be leading the discussion on Chapter 5 The Nativity Cycle
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, October 6
Third Sunday of St Luke
Othros 8am
St Thomas School 8:15
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Stewardship Visits Noon If your name is Zozuyla, Zozulya Wright, Wood, Whalen, Willman Wilson, Wilcoxson, Wilcoxson, Vaughn, Treckman, Thurston, Thurner, Taylor, Stewart, Speckhard, Snodgrass, Shynkar, Seidler, Sanchez, Ruse, Roehrig, Roblenski, Poe, Peacock, Parsons, Nelson, Nicholas, Morgan then, after you reverence the cross and get your Fellowship Hour Food, you need to hurry over to the parish house to meet with the Finance Folks.
This Week at St. Thomas School
Chapter 8: The Nativity Cycle
We are all born without clothes and we all die without taking them with us. That natural cycle is a fact. In this chapter, the Nativity cycle emphasizes what the Eternal Word put on for our salvation, human flesh, and what we must put on, Christ Himself, so that we can die with Him and live with Him.
How should we live and plan our lives? The Nativity cycle offers us an answer that includes doing something in time but also stepping outside of created time and into the ages created by the Holy Trinity since the beginning.
What happened in the Old Testament isn’t so different than what has happened in the New Testament except that the Incarnation of the Son of God has now come into and conquered the world and recreated it, He now rules all things, and He has fulfilled the will of God the Father. During the Nativity Cycle, the Menaion and liturgical texts of the services highlight some Orthodox themes and the mystery of baptism.
Jesus Christ is taken care of by his Mother, the Most-Holy Theotokos, and they flee from the slaughter of children in Bethlehem by the evil king, Herod. We too look for refuge, nurturing, and protection from the Mother of God. We are already persecuted in the world and we already are in danger for following Christ.
Jesus Christ fulfilled the Law and freed us from curse on us. He teaches us how to fulfill the Law through Him.
St. John the Forerunner baptized Christ in the Jordan. The waters of the deep are sanctified with his divine energies and we are cleansed from sin through our baptism in Christ.
Jesus Christ was circumcised as a child on the eighth day. We put off our old ways through baptism and we enter into relationship with Christ and His Church.
Just as Jesus Christ remembered and fulfilled what the prophets and Old Testament righteous have taught about Him. We too follow Christ and take the prophets as our saints too, we find our family and genealogy in Christ, as the Apostle Matthew has written it down.
The Righteous Simeon held the Creator in his hands. We hold him within our bodies and carry him with us everywhere.
The Righteous Simeon proclaimed that Jesus Christ will go down into Hades to tell the good news to Adam. Likewise, we die in Christ and go out to tell everyone of the gospel to free them from enslavement to sin and captivity by death.
In glorification, Moses saw “back parts of God” and Simeon beheld Jesus Christ face to face. So too we are able to see Christ glorified as the true Light of the world.
These are all true and real in the Orthodox Church, not because they are nice philosophies or were compiled correctly. They are verified because they were experienced and witnessed by humankind, and we can still experience these realities in the Orthodox Church today.
The Feast of Theophany is another part of the Nativity cycle and it originated in the East. It was known in early times as “the day of lights.” The phrase refers to “enlightenment” (not the New Age idea) and another phrase we confess every Sunday, “Light from Light” in the Symbol of Faith. The baptism and theophany of Jesus Christ also reveals to us the true Light as three Lights who have come into the world to save us, and so the Feast of Theophany contains an important trinitarian teaching. The final feast in the Nativity cycle is the Meeting of the Lord that ends in February and liturgical texts follow the four gospel readings. What would anyone expect if God came into the world? Mercy, peace, forgiveness of sins, light, miracles, healing, spiritual cleansing, revelation of truth, and salvation from death. Join us this Saturday at 4:00 p.m. to learn more about the liturgical details of the Nativity Cycle.
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.
Our mother parish, St Elias in downtown Austin, is hosting a screening of ‘Parallel Love: The Story of a Band Called Luxury’. The film follows the path of Luxury, a band from small-town Georgia, who, on the cusp of success, suffer a devastating touring wreck with long-term consequences. In the intervening years, they continue to make records and three members of the band become Eastern Orthodox priests. Through interviews and archival footage, ‘Parallel Love’ tells the gripping and poignant story of Luxury and documents the making of a new record, now as priests.
When? Thursday, October 10, 2019 at 7:30 PM
Where? Austin Public • 1143 Northwestern Ave, Austin, TXSuggested donation: $10
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
On those Sundays when Church School is in session, let’s remember that this is an opportunity for all the parents to participate in Orthros or offer some private prayers or catch up on some spiritual reading. The common room in the parish house is available for those who prefer not to be in Orthros, but, when we are in that room, we need to be as quiet as possible with our personal devotions, and we need to remember that Fellowship Hour does not start until after the Divine Liturgy has ended.
If you haven’t already, please start talking with the folks that you will invite to our Open House Weekend—and as you have those conversations, please remember that I am praying for each of you.
an unworthy priest
aidan