Brothers and Sisters,
This coming weekend, Saturday, June 11 to Sunday, June 12, is Pentecost Weekend. We will have the final Saturday of Souls and a new version of Soup & Saints on Saturday, June 11, and then, on Sunday, June 12, we will celebrate Orthros at 8:00 a.m. We will serve the Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. We will enjoy our Pentecost Picnic (bring food!) during Fellowship Hour and, no later than 1:00 p.m. We will serve Great Vespers with the Kneeling Prayers. Please plan on joining us for all those services and activities.
Calling All Catechumens (and anyone who’s thinking about becoming a catechumen) and Sponsors! Visit our new webpage Catechumen Conversations - a new program that we are introducing for our catechumens (and their sponsors). Please read through and, if you have any questions, contact Father Andrew Wilson.
OUR CALENDAR
Fasting Days
Wednesday, June 8, and Friday, June 10
Daily Services
Monday, June 6 to Friday, June 19
Orthros 5am
Vespers 5pm
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 is continuing to read the Hours 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, June 7
Orthodoxy 101 at 7pm in the Parish House.
The topic will be the Orthodox Understanding of Salvation.
Please see the emailed newsletter for login information.
Thursday, June 9
The Bible Study 7pm
Topic: St. John the Forerunner - Bible Study
Please see the emailed newsletter for login information.
Saturday, June 11
Saturday of Souls
Orthros at 6:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 8:00 a.m.
St. Thomas School at 4:00 p.m.
Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m.
Soup & Saints at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 12
The Great and Holy Feast of Pentecost
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Pentecost Picnic at Noon
Kneeling Vespers No later than 1:00 p.m.
ST THOMAS SCHOOL
On Saturday, June 11 Gabe Martini will lead the discussion of Chapter Seven, in Volume One, “Orthodoxy in Russia”. In order to participate online, send an email to remote.meetings@theforerunner.org by this coming Thursday, June 9; you will also need to keep your camera on during the session.
Church School Registration
During the month of June, we would like to get all of the children and young people registered who will be attending Church School in the fall. Classes will begin in September and will meet at 8:15 a.m. on the first and third Sundays of each month. The youth will meet at 12:30 p.m. on the first and third Sundays of the month.
Here is a link that you can use for registration: https://forms.gle/1kMZFje2a4cDE8jdA.
Please fill out a form for each child or young person that will be participating. Your child’s teacher will be contacting you in August but, in the meantime, if you have any questions, please get in touch with either Sandi Andrews or Father Aidan Wilcoxson.
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.
Soup and Saints
On the evening of Saturday, June 11th, we will be reviving 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 1st 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.
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.
Apostle’s Fast
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
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.
St. Constantine school presentation
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.
WHAT’S NEXT?
St. Eanswythe of Folkstone knows, and so does St John the Forerunner….
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
Many of us change our phone numbers and our email addresses on a regular basis. However, if we forget to update our parish community on those changes, folks are going to have a difficult time getting a hold of us—and, in an emergency, that can be a big problem. So, this week, please go to the membership page on our new website and check to make sure that all your contact information is current. If you discover that you need to make any changes, please send that information to Father Andrew Wilson. You should also make sure that you have the correct contact information for our clergy entered into your phone.
THINGS THAT MAKE PRIESTS HAPPY
Celebrating the Feast of the Ascension; driving to the parish and passing a llama that was eating grass in someone’s front yard (it was tall and white); learning that Matt and Valerie G. have expensive taste in doors (and wondering if they have similar tastes in llamas); noticing that Seth H.’s hair is getting more and more elaborate (and wondering if you can do that with a llama’s hair); having Gwyneth B. back with the Bread and Bell Servers (her dog, Milo, is as big as a llama); admiring Joshua Y’s and Zoey D’s graduation photos (but, I’ll have to admit, I was wondering why there weren’t any llamas in either picture); watching a sparrow fluff out its feathers after the rain (and thinking the llama probably got pretty wet, too).
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 Webmasters are Lily Halsey and Seth Hart. Our Keeper of Lists is Father Andrew Wilson. Our Roving Reporter is Buck Williams. We are a proud corporate sponsor of The Latacuna Llamas’ Neck Wrestling Team, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.