Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This coming weekend is one of the most joyous of the year, Pentecost Weekend. On Saturday, June 19, we will offer the services for the Final Saturday of Souls for 2021. If you haven’t yet prayed for your departed friends and loved ones, please join us at 7:00 a.m. for Orthros and 9:00 a.m. for Divine Liturgy. Since it’s going to be the third Saturday of the month, we are asking everyone who attends those services to be sure and wear a mask.
The services will continue with Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday evening and then, on Sunday morning, we will have Orthros at 8:00 a.m. and Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. followed by a Model Fellowship Hour. We want everyone to know how to help out with this important aspect of community life. Finally, no later than 1:00 p.m., we will have one of the most beautiful services of the year, Kneeling Vespers.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, June 16, and Friday, June 18
Daily Services
Thursday, June 17 to Friday, June 18
Orthros 5am;
Vespers 5pm
There will be No Daily Services Monday through Wednesday of this week. 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.
Thursday, June 17
Service of Holy Unction for Gwyneth Brown at 7:00 p.m.
The Bible Study will return next week at its regularly scheduled time.
Saturday, June 19
The Saturday of Souls
Orthros at 7:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 9:00 a.m.
Everyone is welcome to attend these services, but, since they fall on the third Saturday of the month, we will require everyone to wear a mask.
Sunday, June 20
The Great Feast of Pentecost
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 lifeKneeling Vespers No Later Than 1:00 p.m.
St. Thomas School
On Saturday, June 19, Baker Galloway will continue leading the discussion of Chapter 7, The Iconographic Tradition in Byzantium, pgs. 115-134.
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, we had a Model Fellowship Hour this past Sunday and we will do it again this coming Sunday. However, right now, what we are looking for is team leaders. If you would like to be a team leader (we still need at least nine), please email Misty Wright, our hard-working kitchen manager
Church School
We are planning to have Church School during the fall of 2021 and the spring of 2022! We will begin the fall semester on Sunday, September 12, and it will run through Sunday, December 5. We will begin the Spring Semester on Sunday, January 9, and it will run through, Sunday, May 15.
However, this year, a number of things about our Church School program will be different and we will need your assistance in order to make everything work.
First of all, we need your prayers. We still need one teacher and one assistant and the parish house renovations are not yet complete. Please be praying that volunteers will be forthcoming, that the parish house flooring will be installed quickly, and that all the furniture and equipment will be in place soon. If, during your prayers, you are inspired to teach or assist or help with the renovation then, by all means, get in touch with Father Aidan and we will put you to work.
Second, we need your cooperation. If you are the parent of a child ages three through twelve, then we need you to click on this link https://forms.gle/XZ7dG9jgrGjwdRbg9and fill out a registration form for each of your children by Sunday, June 27. If you are the parent of a teenager, then we need you to join us for a meeting after Divine Liturgy on Sunday, June 27, so we can discuss plans for our youth during the coming year.
Finally, we need your understanding and patience. Because we now have so many children, we no longer have enough space for everyone to meet at the same time. That means that we will divide each of the three Levels of Church School (Level I, ages 3-6; Level II, ages 6-9; Level III, ages 9-12) in two. One group will meet on the first and third Sundays of the month, from 8:15 a.m. through 9:30 a.m. The other group will meet on the second and fourth Sundays of the month, from 8:15 a.m. through 9:30 a.m. Obviously, we want to keep all families together in one group and on the same Sundays, but we won’t know what the exact numbers will look like until all the registration forms are in—so please submit those forms as quickly as possible.
Also, speaking of patience and understanding, as you no doubt read in the recent letter about masking that was sent to the parish, our teachers will each set the masking policy for their own classroom. That means some classes may do things differently than other classes. Nevertheless, since our teachers work very hard, it is only fair to allow them to have the final say when it comes to the issue of masks. If you have questions about that approach, just check with Father Aidan.
Apart from serving the Divine Liturgy, educating our children and young people is the most important responsibility we have as Orthodox Christians. With your prayers, cooperation, patience, and understanding (and with the grace of the Most Holy Trinity), we will do a great job with Church School in the coming year.
Parish Feast Day
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 7:00 p.m., and with Orthros at 7:00 a.m. and Divine Liturgy at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, June 24th. Plan on joining us as we honor our patron and protector, the Holy Prophet, Forerunner, and Baptist John.
Feast of the Patriarchate
On Tuesday, June 29, we will celebrate the Feast of our Patriarchate, the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul. We will serve Great Vespers on Monday, June 28, at 7:00 p.m. (and that Monday will be the only day of the Apostle’s Fast this year) and then we will offer Orthros at 7:00 a.m. and Divine Liturgy at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 29th. Come honor the Princes of the Apostles and the Patrons and Protectors of our Patriarchate, the Great City of God, Antioch and All the East.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Our choir members and our chanters lead us during the divine services and it's important that we not distract them while they are engaged in this all-important work. So, during the services, please do not try to visit with folks who are in the choir or at the chanter's stand and please do not allow your children to wander into those areas. We should save that sort of interaction for Fellowship Hour.
—
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 Bernie White. When we take the ICPT (Inter-Cosmic Personality Test) our score is always PLFLF (Plato, Lear, fast “Layla”, Flintstones) and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.