Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
This week, we not only celebrate the Great Feast of Theophany, but we also begin House Blessings. So, make sure you know which services you’ll be attending, and make sure to watch out for those House Blessing Announcement Emails.
Church School returns this coming Sunday, January 9. However, please note that we will be starting on the second Sunday of the month; that means children who attend class on the first and third Sunday of the month will not be in class until Sunday, January 16. Also, January has five Sundays, so we will be skipping Sunday, Jan 30, and resume our regular schedule of Sunday, February 6. If you have any questions, please get in touch with your child’s teacher.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wed, Jan 5, the Eve of Theophany is a strict fast day, and Friday, Jan 7, we are once again back to the regular fasting schedule (in which we go without meat, most kinds of fish, dairy, oil, wine, and hard liquor; if you need to modify the normal fasting schedule, please check with your spiritual father).
Daily Services
Monday, January 3 through Thursday,January 5: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm. (Please check the schedule of festal services. Also, there will be no daily vespers on Thursday, Jan 5, and no daily services on Friday, Jan 7, due to House Blessings. 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).
Seth Hart will be at the online chanter’s stand, offering the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours this week on ZOOM: 1st hour @ 6:45; 3rd hour @ 8:45; 6th hour @11:45; 9th hour @3:45. Please also check the schedule for the festal services, but see the emailed newsletter for the log in information:
Wednesday, Jan 5 The Eve of Theophany
Orthros 5am
Royal Hours 9am
Vesperal Liturgy of St Basil with First Blessing of Waters Noon Masks will be required at these services
Thursday, Jan 6 The Great Feast of Theophany
Orthros 5am
Divine Liturgy with Second Blessing of Waters 7am
Saturday, January 8
St Thomas School 4pm
Northern Reader’s Vespers 5:30pm 315 E Ave D Killeen
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, January 9
The Sunday Before After Theophany
Orthros 8am Between Orthros and the Divine Liturgy, John Cotton will be baptized; please arrive early to participate in this Holy Mystery
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Akathist to the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Cup Noon
St Thomas School
On Saturday, January 8, Father Andrew will lead the discussion of Chapter Eleven, in Volume IV, “The Divine Services from the Beginning of the Apostles’ Fast” https://theforerunner.squarespace.com/blog/2021/5/9/orthodox-christianity-vol-iii-ch-2.
In order to participate online, send an email to remote.meetings@theforerunner.org by this coming Thursday, January 6; you will also need to keep your camera on during the session.
Coming Up
You can find the 2022 Schedule for House Blessings at the conclusion of the emailed newsletter. Please check to make sure that your name appears on the schedule (if it doesn't, please get in touch with Father Aidan as soon as possible), and go ahead and put the date of your house blessing on your family calendar or your phone or whatever mechanism you use to record important appointments. We’ve planned this far ahead, because it is really difficult to reschedule house blessings at the last minute. We will have two priests to do the blessings next year, but we also have lots more people, so go ahead and write down your assigned date, watch for the confirmation email, and do your best to keep that day free.
If you are not yet on a Fellowship Hour Team, we could sure use your help! Just get in touch with Misty Wright, and she will get you set up with a fun group of people that you can serve with in the coming year.
Beginning January 11, Reader Matthew Groh (with assistance from Luke Cloud and Stephen Guerra) will hold a weekly class called Orthodoxy 101. The class will deal broadly with basic topics important to people who may be new to Orthodoxy and will allow extended time for questions and answers. This class is intended for anyone looking for a basic, foundational understanding of Orthodox faith and practice. It should be especially appropriate for inquirers and catechumens. The class would also be a good first step for someone trying to go deeper in their understanding of the Orthodox faith. The basic format will be to read for about 15-20 minutes on a pre-determined topic, followed by questions on that topic and/or other topics. It should not require extensive out-of-class study and the format of the class will hopefully lend itself to being something to which someone could invite interested friends. The first topic will be "The Orthodox Understanding of the Incarnation" and we will be reading from St. Athanasius' On the Incarnation. Orthodoxy 101 will be held each Tuesday at 7pm in the parish house and will last an hour. Online participation will also be available through the zoom link in the emailed newsletter.
Every year for close to twenty years, we participated in the Rally for Life on the fourth Saturday in January. However, given the increasing intensity surrounding the issue, as well as the on-going public health concerns, instead of gathering at the gates of the state capitol on that Saturday, we now gather in our temple, and, together, we will offer The Service for the Victims of Abortion. This coming year, that will happen on Friday, January 21; it will be a lot less public than the Rally for Life, but it will also be an opportunity for lots of folks who were never able to participate in the rally to join us as we pray for all children and all parents. By Orthodox standards, the service is pretty short, but we will start promptly at 7pm, and we will offer up to the Most Holy Trinity our prayers for those folks who are victims of the great moral evil of our age.
Camp St Raphael will be offering two one-week sessions this coming summer at it’s new location at Cross Point Camp in Kingston, OK: June 26th - July 2nd and July 3rd - July 9th. Staff applications will be available online in January and camper applications in February. You can check out the website www.campstraphael.org or contact CSR’s Executive Director Gayle Malone at Gayle@campstraphael.org.
Our 2022 Annual Meeting
Per the requirements of our Parish Constitution, we are announcing that our 2022 Annual Community Meeting will take place on Sunday February 13. Thanks to the hard work of all our council members, you have already received, via email, a Parish Announcement to which was attached the agenda and all the reports for the meeting. Please read through the reports carefully, and, if you have any questions, speak with Bessie Jacob, our Parish Council President, or Father Aidan. At the meeting in February, we will review the reports that are attached to this newsletter, and we will vote for the folks who will serve on the Parish Council.
The ballots for the council elections will be distributed, filled out, and collected at the beginning of the Annual Meeting. Our parish clergy will count the votes during the course of the meeting, and the election results will be announced at the conclusion of the meeting. As usual, there will not be any provision for online voting; if you will not be able to attend the meeting on Sunday, February 13, then you must make arrangements to get a paper ballot from Father Aidan, fill it out, and return it prior to him the actual meeting on February 13.
Per the requirements of our Parish Constitution, three members of the Parish Council will be cycling off at the end of 2021: Nick Crown, Demetry Zozulya, and Jerry Juliano. However, Jerry is eligible to run for a second term, and we also have three other folks who have agreed to run for the council, so the 2022 nominees for the council elections are: Elena Cabeza de Vaca, Sandi Andrew, Jerry Juliano, and Michael Cotton. Please thank Nick and Demetry for their service these past six years; please thank Jerry, Elena, Sandi, and Michael for their willingness to run for the council, and please start praying now about which of them you will vote for during the election on February 13.
Of course, you cannot go wrong with any of the candidates that have agreed to run for the council. However, our constitution also allows for nominations from the floor at the Annual Community Meeting. Nevertheless (and this is a very important Nevertheless), since our constitution also requires that everyone nominated be 1) over 18 years of age 2) a member of our parish for at least 12 months, 3) a regular participant in the Holy Mysteries of Confession and the Eucharist, and 4) a consistent financial contributor to our community, it’s extremely important to A) check with the person you wish to nominate and B) check with Father Aidan before making the actual nomination during the Annual Meeting. That way, we can avoid any awkward and embarrassing moments.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Every week, our offering bowl is full of checks that adults place there--and we are grateful for each and every one of those checks. But the bowl should also be rattling with the change and overflowing with the bills that children and young people place there--because that's how we are going to teach them about generosity and stewardship. So, parents and grandparents, if you aren't already doing so, please provide your children and young people with money that they can place in the offering bowl; it's an important part of their participation in the Divine Liturgy, and it's how they are going to learn about the joys of giving.
Attached to this edition of The Happy Priest is an announcement for an event that will be held this coming Saturday, January 8: The Saints Stephen and Lucia Theophany Feast for Young Adults: Join the group on Saturday January 8, 2022 for Vespers at 6pm, Dinner, Festive drinks, and games at 7pm.
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; our Webmaster is Seth Hart; our Keeper of Lists is Father Andrew Wilson; our Roving Reporter is Amy Pond, our favorite place to be on New Year’s Eve is Boise, Idaho, for the Annual Potato Drop, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.