Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
St. Thomas School meets every Saturday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. It is one of the most effective Orthodox Adult Education Programs in the country. In this program, we use a five volume series of books called The Orthodox Church and now the group is just beginning to work through Volume Two—so this is a great time to join in! All of the volumes are on sale at Christ the Lightgiver Bookstore. So, start the fall off right, pick up Volume Two and join us this coming Saturday.
Fasting Days
Wednesday, August 17, and Friday, August 19
Daily Services
Monday, August 15 to Friday, August 19
Orthros 5am
Vespers 5pm
Be sure to check the schedule for the festal 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 and stream them to Zoom. The schedule is below:
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.
Monday, August 15 The Feast of the Dormition
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am
Tuesday, August 16
Orthodoxy 101 7pm The group will begin discussing the primary differences between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism
Please see the login details in the emailed version of the newsletter to join Zoom meeting
Wednesday, August 17
Akathist for The Departed 7pm The service will be offered for Nathan B.’s sister; everyone is welcome to attend.
Thursday, August 18
The Bible Study 7pm
Topic: St. John the Forerunner - Bible Study
Please see the login details in the emailed version of the newsletter to join Zoom meeting
Saturday, August 20
St. Thomas School at 4:00 p.m.
Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, August 21
The 10th Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros at 8:00 a.m.
Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m.
Fellowship Hour at Noon
ST THOMAS SCHOOL
On Saturday, August 20, Father Deacon Michael Coleman will lead the discussion of Chapter Two in Volume Two, “The Holy Scriptures and The Orthodox Church”. In order to participate online, send an email to remote.meetings@theforerunner.org by this coming Thursday, August 18. You will also need to keep your camera on during the session.
Amazon Smile
It’s something we all use, so why not also use it to make some extra money for our parish? Amazon will donate .05% of every purchase you make to St John’s! What a deal! Here’s the link you can use to get it all set up: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/community/donate-to-charity-every-time-you-shop-through-amazonsmile
COMING UP
Several weeks ago, we all received an announcement about The 2022 Fall Theological Seminar. In case you missed that announcement, a copy of it is attached to this edition of The Happy Priest. During this year’s seminar, we will be talking about What’s Next in our building program and in the life of our parish community. This will be one of the most important things we have ever done at St John’s, and we want to hear from everyone during this process, so please go ahead and reserve your Wednesday evenings this fall, beginning on August 31 and running through November 9. We begin the new Church Year with three feasts.
On Thursday, September 1, we will celebrate The Feast of the Indiction, which marks the start of the liturgical calendar. On Wednesday, August 31, we will offer Great Vespers at 6pm; on Thursday, September 1, we will serve Orthros at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am.
On Thursday, September 8, we will celebrate The Nativity of the Mother of God. Great Vespers will be served on Wednesday, September 7 at 6pm, and, on Thursday, September 8, Orthros will be at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am.
On Wednesday, September 14, we will celebrate the Elevation of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross. Great Vespers will be at 7pm on Tuesday, September 13; on the Wednesday, Orthros will be at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am. Please plan on joining us for each of these celebrations as we begin the new Church Year together.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
This year’s Fall Theological Seminar is going to be a very important time in the life of our parish, so we’ve been using this space to provide you with some ideas on how to maximize your participation. In that connection, it might be helpful to know that, at the end of the seminar, in late November, the text of all the presentations will be available at Christ the Lightgiver Bookstore for the price of what it costs to make the copies. So, even if you do end up missing one Wednesday night (though we really hope you’re there as often as you can be), you won’t miss out on the information that is shared.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Celebrating 44 years with the woman I love; listening to Seth H., Luke C., Karen M., and Joe W. sing the Lamentations for the Mother of God; hearing about Stephen G.’s Bee Coach; revealing ushering secrets to Hannah D.; offering the Paraclesis; practicing with the Burial Society; noticing the rogue sunflower and the yellow gourds in the beds over by the new parking lot.
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 Father Deacon Gerasimos Juliano; our Webmasters are Lily Halsey and Seth Hart; our Keeper of Lists is Father Andrew Wilson; our Roving Reporter is Rupert Psmith; in our corporate cafeteria, the Lemon Icebox Pie is only available on odd-numbered Thursdays, and our Spiritual Advisor is Elder Galaction of the Holy Mountain.