Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Our Annual Community Meeting is less than a month away! It will be held immediately after the Divine Liturgy on Sunday, February 12. In addition to electing two new parish council members, we will also be voting on our Building Program proposals and several amendments to our Parish Constitution. Since those proposals and those amendments have been available for the last two months, we won’t be discussing any of them in the meeting itself; we will simply vote on those measures. So, please be sure and look over the Building Program proposals and the constitutional amendments (there’s a link to all that in this newsletter), and, if you have any questions, get in touch with Father Aidan or Bessie Jacob, our Parish Council President.
Our Calendar
Fasting
Wednesday, January 18, and Friday, January 20
Daily Services
Monday, January 16 - Friday, January 20
Orthros 5am
No daily Vespers on Monday, January 16 or
No daily services on Friday, January 20 because of House Blessings.
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. The schedule is below:
1st hour: 6:45 a.m.
3rd hour: 8:45 a.m.
6th hour: 11:45 a.m.
9th hour: 3:45 p.m.
The login information is available in the emailed version of the newsletter.
St. John Trapeza Readings
Fr. Andrew, Seth Heart, and Matthew Groh continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are currently reading Guiding to a Blessed End: Andrew of Caesarea and his Apocalypse Commentary in the Ancient Church, by Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou.
The schedule is as follows: Monday to Friday at 12:00 p.m.
If you would like to listen in, use the link to join the Telegram group shared in the emailed version of the newsletter.
Tuesday, January 17
Orthodoxy 101
Orthodoxy 101 at 7:00 p.m.
Topic: Orthodoxy 101
Please see the emailed version of the newsletter for login information.
Saturday, January 21
Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 22 The 15th Sunday of St. Luke
Orthros 8am
Between Orthros and the Liturgy, Sam K. and Brandon, Cara, and Kennedy M. will be made
catechumens, Nehemiah C. will be baptized, Jared and Mengyu H., Isabella Z., and
Jeron, Valerie, Ember, Annalise, and Hartley P. will be baptized and chrismated. Please arrive early
to participate in these Holy Mysteries
Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Membership Update
Beth M. is an Orthodox Christian who has joined our parish. Beth attended services here
previously when she was visiting her children and grandchildren, but now she has moved her
permanently (from Michigan). Please let Beth know that we are thankful to have her at St John’s.
St. Thomas School
On Saturday, January 21, the St Thomas School Faculty will have a meeting at 4pm, so there will not be any class this week. However, St Thomas sessions will resume at 4pm on Saturday, January 29.
coming up
Building Program Next Steps
We continue to talk about the next steps in our building program, and we want to hear from everyone. Of course, you can also talk to Baker Galloway, Mike Brown, Will Hampton, or Father Aidan Wilcoxson in person or contact any of those folks via email.
Service for the Victims of Abortion
On Friday, January 27, we will offer The Service for the Victims of Abortion. By Orthodox standards, the service is pretty short, but we will start promptly at 7:00 p.m. and we will offer up to the Most Holy Trinity our prayers for all children, parents, and those folks who are victims of the great moral evil of our age. We will also be collecting supplies for Bastrop Pregnancy Resource Center (www.bastropprc.org). Lindsey Bell volunteers with the center and she has provided us with a list of things they need. The list includes Baby Monitors, Pacifiers, Books for babies age 2 and under, Books for moms on pregnancy and baby care, space heaters, and baby washcloths. So please buy a number of those items and bring them with you to the service on the 27th.
St. Emmelia Orthodox Homeschool Conference
Registration is now open for the 2023 Saint Emmelia Orthodox Homeschool Conference, which will be held Thursday, January 26, to Sunday, January 29th, at St. Elias Orthodox Church, North Campus. The conference will feature practical homeschooling advice, spiritual encouragement, and fellowship. The keynote speaker is Fr. Turbo Qualls. Workshop leaders include Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Adam Lockridge, Matt Bianco, Hiedi White, and Katrina Kern. Children’s workshops will include iconography and chanting. If you are interested in volunteering for childcare, food service, or other opportunities, please contact our own Anna Comer.
Registration is available at https://www.saintemmelia.com/south-2023.
Scholarships/financial assistance is available by contacting St. Emmelia Ministries at saintemmeliaministries@gmail.com.
Annual Community Meeting
The Annual Community Meeting will take place on Sunday, February, 12, after Divine Liturgy. During the meeting we will have a lot of business to take care. So, in order to prepare for that meeting and to keep the length of the meeting to a minimum, it is important that everyone read through the Annual Meeting Document before attending the meeting.
You can view that information at the link provided in the emailed version of The Happy Priest.
Please take a moment to read through and familiarize yourselves with agenda and please read through all the reports.
OUR MOMENT OF GRACE AND COURTESY
The playground is one of the most lovely features on our property. However, it has always been our custom to stay off the playground while the Divine Liturgy is being offered. If very young children need to get outside and move around a bit, then there is plenty of room to do that without accessing the playground. Let’s keep that special area as a blessing that we partake of after the Divine Liturgy has concluded.
Things That Make Priests Happy
Every year, we give out awards during The House Blessing Season, so, see the emailed version of the newsletter for Round Two of The 2023 Housies. Stay tuned for the next round of awards in next week’s issue of The Happy Priest!
an unworthy priest,
aidan