Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This coming Friday, January 26, we will offer The Service for the Victims of Abortion. 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 all children and parents and for 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 B. volunteers with the center, and she has provided us with a list of things they need. The list includes blankets, bottles, sippy cups, formula, potty training underwear, girls’ winter clothes and pajamas, sizes 12mo-5T, and board books. So please buy a number of those items and bring them with you to the service this Friday.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, January 24, and Friday, January 26
Daily Services
Monday, January 22—Friday, January 26: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (Due to Make-up House Blessings, there will not be any daily vespers on Tuesday, Jan 23, and there will not be any daily services at all on Thursday, January 25; please remember that if you plan on attending the in-person services, it’s always a good idea to check the day before and make sure the regular schedule will be observed).
Seth Hart and friends will be at the online chanter’s stand, offering the First, Third, Sixth, and Ninth Hours this week: 1st hour & 3rd hour: 8:30 a.m.; 6th hour & 9th hour: 3:30 p.m.
Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading “Wounded By Love: The Life and Wisdom of St Porphyrios”. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
Also, our online team will now be reading the Daily Synaxarion on Discord. Just look for this channel: #synaxarion
Tuesday, January 23
Orthodoxy 101 7pm This group will meet in The Long Hall; you can also access the group on Discord
Parish Council 7pm This group will meet in The Parish House
Thursday, January 24
The Bible Study, New Testament Edition 7pm You can access this group on Discord
Saturday, January 27
Youth Group 4pm
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, January 28
The Holy New Martyrs of Russia
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Finance Update
Thanks to the indescribable grace of the Most Holy Trinity, and thanks to your faithfulness, we ended 2023 with a budget surplus of $110,000. That’s a great way to start 2024, because in September we will begin our three year pledge campaign for our new temple. That means most of the surplus will be dedicated to that effort, either paying down our current mortgage or funding efforts related to the construction of the new facility. But before we plunge into that exciting and challenging work, let’s pause and offer our gratitude to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that we are blessed to be part of such an amazingly generous community.
St Thomas School
On Saturday, January 27, Father Andrew will be leading discussion the chapter six of Volume V entitled, “The Formation of the Weekly Cycle of Worship”. Online access is available on Discord; like to participate online, you still need to sign-up ahead of time. Just send an email to remote.meetings@theforerunner.org by Thursday, January 25, to reserve your spot.
Coming Up
On Friday, February 2, we will close out this Festal Season with the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord and Master in the Temple. On Thursday, February 1, we will offer Great Vespers at 7pm; on Friday, the day of the feast, we will serve Orthros at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am. Join us as we finish up the celebration we began back on December 25th!
Our 2024 Annual Community Meeting will be on Sunday, February 11. All the information for that meeting—the agenda, the reports, the candidates for parish council—can all be found in the email edition of this newsletter.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
When people need to return items that they have borrowed from someone else, they often bring those items with them to the divine services. However, if the person that you need to give the item to isn't at the service, please be sure and take the item home with you and try to make the connection another time; do not leave the item at the parish in the hopes that the person will eventually stumble across it. Here at St John's we try to assist and support folks in lots and lots of different ways, but we simply cannot be the drop off point for dishes, clothes, books, shoes, produce, shower gifts, toys, baby equipment, birthday presents, tools, movies, home school curricula--you get the idea.
an unworthy priest
aidan