Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Christ is Risen!
We will be celebrating the Feast of the Ascension this coming Wednesday, June 9, and Thursday, June 10. We will offer Great Vespers at 7pm on the 9th, and, on the 10th, the day of the feast, we will serve Orthros at 7am and Divine Liturgy at 9am. Please join us during the services of this beautiful and triumphant feast.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, June 9, and Friday, June 11
Daily Services
Monday, June 7 to Friday, June 1
Orthros 5am;
Vespers 5pm
(But please be sure and check the schedule for the festal services.) If you plan on attending the daily services, it’s generally a good idea to check the day before to make sure that the service will be offered; sometimes pastoral situations require a change of plans, and the service cannot be offered on that particular day.
The Hours
This week, Seth Hart will be back at the online chanter’s stand, offering the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours every day on ZOOM.
Schedule:
Monday to Friday
First Hour at 6:45 a.m.
Third Hour: 8:45 a.m.
Sixth Hour: 12:00 p.m.
Ninth Hour: 2:45 p.m.
See the emailed newsletter for login info.
Wednesday, June 9
Great Vespers for The Ascension 7pm
Thursday, June 12
Orthros 7am
Divine Liturgy 9am
Bible Study at 7:00 pm
See the emailed newsletter for login details.
Saturday, June 12
St. Thomas School at 4:00 p.m.
Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 13
The Sunday of The Holy Fathers
Orthros at 8:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.
Model Fellowship Hour Noon
Be sure and hang around so you can learn how to be a part of this important aspect of parish lifeAkathist to the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Cup Noon
This is for folks who struggle with addictions and for folks who love folks who struggles with addictions.
See the emailed newsletter for login details.
St. Thomas School
This coming Saturday, June 12, Baker Galloway will be leading the discussion of Chapter 6, Early Church Painting.
The following link will provide a summary of the material that will be covered: Chapter 6, Early Church Painting.
See the emailed newsletter for Zoom details.
Fellowship Hour
In Orthodox communities, in America, a fellowship hour is a time after Liturgy, where coffee and a small meal are served in order to facilitate visitation among parishioners. Different communities do this differently, but, at St. John’s, a person in charge of the kitchen divides and oversees groups of parishioners who will serve the meal on a rotating basis. A team consists of a team leader and several families who come together to make a small meal, serve and then clean the kitchen in preparation for the following week. The kitchen manager, for lack of a better term, organizes the teams and prepares a schedule for service for the year. The team leaders work with their teams to come up with a simple meal and decide who will make what for that week. Ideally, this should be done at least two weeks in advance and with as small a financial outlay as possible for the team members.
Since so many of our folks have not even participated in a Fellowship Hour, due to the public health crisis, on Sunday, June 13, and Sunday, June 20, we will have Model Fellowship Hours, so everyone can see how it’s done and experience it first-hand. Some of our Fellowship Hour veterans will be making it all happen, so plan on sticking around after the Divine Liturgy.
Our parish works best with at least 12 teams. Ideally, every family in the parish should be able to participate in Fellowship hour; as serving is an excellent way to get to know fellow parishioners. But, right now, what we are looking for is team leaders. As soon as we have enough team leaders, we will have a meeting to answer any further questions. If you would like to be on a team but do not feel able to serve as a leader, please look for a signup sheet which is now in the Narthex. If you would like to be a team leader, please email Misty Wright, our hard-working kitchen manager.
Coming Up
Pentecost Weekend and the Last Saturday of Souls
This year, Pentecost Weekend falls on Saturday, June 19, and Sunday, June 20. Saturday, June 19, is the final Saturday of Souls for 2021, so, if you were unable to make any of the Lenten Saturdays of Souls, please be sure and join us for Orthros at 7:00 a.m. and Divine Liturgy at 9:00 a.m. Please be sure and also write the names of those that you wish to commemorate in the commemoration book that’s available in the narthex. The services for the weekend then continue with Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m. that evening, and, the following morning with Orthros at 8:00 a.m. and Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. We will finish up the weekend with our Pentecost Picnic during Fellowship Hour and the lovely service of Kneeling Vespers which will start no later than 1:00 p.m.
Feast of St. John the Forerunner
This year, our parish feast day falls on Thursday, June 24. We will be celebrating the Nativity of the Forerunner with Great Vespers on Wednesday, June 23, at 7pm, and with Orthros at 7am and Divine Liturgy at 9am on Thursday the 24th. Plan on joining us as we honor our patron and protector, the Holy Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John.
Church School
We are registering for Church School in the fall! If you have a child or a young person who is Church School age, you will soon receive an email which will provide you with an outline of our plan for the fall and a registration form to fill out for each child or young person. If you don’t receive that information soon, just contact Father Aidan, and he will get you set up and connected.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
When we offer a weekday Divine Liturgy, there are typically no ushers available to serve. However, just because those friendly guys aren’t at the doors, the rules for entering the nave still apply. So, we need to remember and wait in the narthex during either one of the entrances, while the scripture lessons are being read, during the homily, and during the Holy Eucharist.
—
An unworthy priest,
Aidan
The Happy Priest is a publication of Life At A Dead Run Media, which is a subsidiary of One Take Productions. Our IT Guy is Jerry Juliano (“Go, Jerry, Go!”); our Webmaster is Seth Hart; our Keeper of Lists is Father Deacon Andrew Wilson; our Roving Reporter is Margaret Jordan; when we mambo (and, boy, do we mambo), we always put on Miguel and His Mighty Mambo Men, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.