Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Thursday, June 2 is the Feast of the Ascension. We will serve Great Vespers on
Wednesday, June 1 at 7pm, and
on the day of the feast, June 2, we will serve Orthros at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am.
Please join us as we celebrate the entrance of our Lord and Master into the Kingdom of Heaven.
OUR CALENDAR
Fasting Days
Wednesday, June 1, and Friday, June 3
Daily Services
Monday, May 30 to Friday, June 3
Orthros 5am
Vespers 5pm
Be sure and check the schedule for the festal services 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
Seth Hart will be at the online chanter’s stand, offering the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours this week on ZOOM.
First Hour, 6:45 a.m.
Third Hour, 8:45 a.m.
Sixth Hour, 11:45 a.m.
Ninth Hour, 3:45 p.m.
Please see the emailed newsletter for login information.
Tuesday, May 31
Orthodoxy 101 at 7pm The topic will the Orthodox Understanding of Salvation. Please see the emailed newsletter for login information.
Wednesday, June 1
Great Vespers for the Ascension
Topic: Pascha Book Study 2022
Please see the emailed newsletter for login information.
Thursday, June 2 The Feast of the Ascension
Orthros 5am
Divine Liturgy 7am
The Bible Study 7pm
Topic: St. John the Forerunner - Bible Study
Please see the emailed newsletter for login information.
Saturday, June 4
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, June 5
The Sunday of The Holy Fathers
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Northern Typika with Communion 10am 315 E Ave D Killeen
Fellowship Hour at Noon
Diaper Shower for Brittany W at Noon
Since this is the first Sunday of the month, it is Blessing Sunday, so if you’re going to be traveling during June or if you have icons, prayer ropes, and crosses to be blessed, just show up at the chanter’s stand after liturgy for those prayers. But, starting this month, the first Sunday of the month will also be Claim Your Stuff Sunday; that means you need to check the Lost and Found Box in the kitchen because it will all go to Goodwill after Fellowship Hour is over.
ST THOMAS SCHOOL
On Saturday, June 4 Matt Groh will lead the discussion of Chapter Six, pgs 121-140 in Volume One, “Late Byzantium” 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, May 19; you will also need to keep your camera on during the session.
COMING UP
Saturday, June 11 is the last Saturday of Souls of the year. There will be coffee and snacks available after Liturgy and the Burial Society will be on hand to help parishioners finalize their end-of-life paperwork.
Members of the legal team will be on hand to:
Answer Questions
Serve as Signing Witnesses
Notarize Documents
Copy, Seal, and File Everything in a Locked Cabinet
Get your paperwork packet today- it’s available in our Church bookstore. Fill it out ahead of time, then come get it signed, notarized, copied, and filed (for FREE) all while enjoying a cup of coffee and fellowship with friends. Also, a representative from the Cedar Park Cemetery will be on hand to provide information and answer questions about burial plots available just down the street from St. John’s.
Pentecost Weekend
The weekend of June 11-12 is Pentecost Weekend.
We will have the final Saturday of Souls on Saturday, June 11, and on
Saturday evening, June 11th, we will be reviving “Soup and Saints”, an old St. John tradition. We will gather in the parish house directly after Vespers, listen to the life of a Saint enjoy a simple soup, and then discuss afterward. For this 1 st revival Joe Wright (Reader Patrick) will be reading the Martyrdom of the Chinese Martyrs during the Boxer Rebellion, written by St. Nikolai Velimirovic. We plan on serving a simple Chinese vegetable soup, so please let Joe know you are planning on coming; that way, we can be sure there is enough soup for everyone. and
Sunday, June 12, we will
Celebrate Orthros at 8am;
Serve the Divine Liturgy at 10am;
Enjoy our Pentecost Picnic (bring food) during Fellowship Hour, and,
Serve Great Vespers with the Kneeling Prayers, no later than 1pm
Please plan on joining us for all those services and activities.
The Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America’s Parish Life Conference
The Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America’s Parish Life Conference will be hosted by St George Cathedral in Wichita, Kansas, from June 15th through 18th. Jerry Juliano will be ordained to the Holy Diaconate at the closing liturgy for the conference. Hotel reservations may be made at Reservations: Hyatt Regency https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/WICRW/G-GECA.
June 13-19, the week after Pentecost is fast-free (Wha-Hoo!), but on
Monday, June 20, we begin the Apostle’s Fast. This short fasting season runs through the Feast of Sts Peter and Paul on Wednesday, June 29.
Tuesday, June 28
Great Vespers at 7pm on Tuesday, June 28
Wednesday, June 29
Orthros at 5am and
Divine Liturgy at 7am
During this short fasting season, we observe the traditional fasting discipline on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, with a blessing for fish, wine and olive oil on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Our parish feast day, The Nativity of the Forerunner is on Friday, June 24. We will serve
Orthros at 6am and
Divine Liturgy at 8am
Thursday, June 23, we will serve
Great Vespers at 7pm.
Come join us as we thank our patron and protector for his intercessions.
Have you been praying for a local, quality Orthodox school for your children to attend? Have you looked into how to start one, but didn't know where to start? Save the date! On Saturday, July 9th, a team from the Saint Constantine School in Houston (an Orthodox school with a classical curriculum) will be coming to Saint John the Forerunner church to explain their established process that could be used to start a classical, Orthodox school in our area. If you would like more information about this project, get in touch with Julie Chien.
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.
THINGS THAT MAKE PRIESTS HAPPY
Congratulating Khouria Xenia, Stephen G, and Jared H on their new jobs and Becky T on her retirement; offering the services for Bede of Jarrow; learning, from Father Andrew, that you can sing all of Emily Dickinson’s poems to the tune of “Yellow Rose of Texas” (And the scary part? It’s true—“Because I could not stop for Death/He kindly stopped for me”); explaining to Felicia and James and John and Anna J that, yes, they will really have to start calling their dad Father Deacon Dad and, no, they can’t bring any banners, air horns, cowbells, or whistles to the ordination service; checking out the new logo on the door of Christ the Lightgiver Bookstore; showing up in Corey Dawson’s dreams as Bugs Bunny; watching a really big lizard who was watching himself in the glass next to the front door on the porch of the Long Hall.
An unworthy priest,
aidan
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