Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
July is here, and that means it's time to start our Capital Campaign Countdown.
On Saturday, August 31, we will begin one of the important components of the campaign, our three year pledge drive. We will kick off that effort on August 31, because that's the feast day of the holy woman who is the patroness of our campaign, St Eanswythe of Folkestone. Starting the evening of Friday, August 30, we will offer an All Night Vigil for St Eanswythe, and, during the vigil, we will have the saint's new reliquary on display. All of us will be invited to stop by during the vigil, reverence the reliquary, and place in the offering baskets a donation card which will record how much we intend to give to the campaign from September of this year through December of 2027.
Of course, you may have forgotten exactly how the overall campaign is going to work, or you may have joined our community in the last year or so and not be all that familiar with the project. That's why we've attached to the email version of this newsletter an updated copy of the Building Campaign Frequently Asked Questions--so we can all either refresh our memories or learn for the first time about this exciting and important effort.
To help us make the most of our Capital Campaign Countdown, over the next nine weeks, we will have all sorts of announcements and resources in The Happy Priest, and we will be running a series of articles written by various folks in our parish. The first article is by one of our priests, Father Aidan Wilcoxson; look for it later on in this newsletter.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, July 3, and Friday, July 5
Daily Services
Daily Vespers returns each day this week at 5pm; Orthros will return soon; thanks to everyone for their patience. Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading “The Ethics of Beauty”. 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, July 2
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Saturday, July 6
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, July 7
Second Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Tuesday, July 2
Festal Choir Rehearsal 7pm
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
St Thomas School
On Saturday, July 6, we will we have one of our popular Practical Saturday Classes. Polly T., one of our resident artists, will lead the discussion of icons and constructing and icon corner. She’ll talk about ideas and options when it comes to adorning your home with these images, and she’ll also be happy to answer any of your questions. This Saturday will be an In-Person Only Session, so plan on joining us in the Parish House at 4pm.
Financial Update
Thanks to your generosity and thanks to the faithfulness of the Most Holy Trinity, we ended May with a surplus of $222. That’s not nearly the surplus we’ve been posting for most months, but, during May, the parish staff received bonuses, and we also had to cover big repair bills for a number of items around the parish. Also, we still have a year to date surplus of $48,000, so, while we’re looking good heading into the summer months, we all need to check REALM to make sure that we’re up to date on our giving. If you need any help with that, all you have to do is ask one of our hard working Finance Folks—and, while you’re at it, thank them for all the many hours they donate to our community.
Upcoming Memorial Service
Our next memorial service will be for George T. The majority of you never had the opportunity to meet him, so please take a few minutes to read his bio, attached to the email version of this newsletter. He remains our brother in Christ, and needs our prayers.
Coming Up
On Sunday, July 21, we will have our Annual Blessing of Automobiles. That’s the Sunday closest to St Elias’ Day, and since St Elias ascended into heaven in a fiery chariot, we’re going to bless all of our cars and trucks on that Sunday. When we get our homes and apartments blessed, we always make sure they are picked up and cleaned up, and we should do the same thing for our vehicles. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy on the 21, we will process through the parking lots and bless each of the cars and trucks parked there, so let’s make sure that they are all sparkling and clean.
Our next Safety and Security Rehearsal will be for an active shooter event. It will be held on Sunday, July 28, and what we will do is pretty much exactly what we do during our Severe Weather Rehearsal: we will all get down on the floor for 15 seconds, and then we will exit the building in the ways that we normally do and proceed to the rally signs on either end of the property. The only thing that will be different about this rehearsal is that, at the beginning, one of the ushers will say, the word “Gun” in a loud voice, three times. However, we will announce the rehearsal and talk about it briefly before it happens, so it will not be a surprise. This sort of rehearsal may seem more dramatic than the other rehearsals we have throughout the year, but, statistically, we are much more likely to encounter a severe weather event or a medical emergency than an active shooter. Nevertheless, we want to be as prepared as possible for all eventualities, so if you have any questions, please check with our parish council chair or with one of our priests.
Church School Registration
It is time for church school registration for the 2024-25 school year!! As a reminder, children need to be at least 3 years of age by September 1, 2024 and potty trained to register for Level 1, 6 years of age to register for Level 2, and 9 years of age to register for Level 3. SOYO (youth) is for ages 13-18. If you have any questions about CGS (Levels 1-3), feel free to reach out to Sandi A. If you have any questions about SOYO, you can reach out to Father Aidan or Father Andrew. The new CGS calendar will be posted to our parish website shortly but please note that we have an exciting new change!! CGS will now be offered at its regular time (8:15 a.m.-9:30 a.m. Sunday morning) for the first three Sundays of each month. We are so pleased to be able to offer a third Sunday of church school to our children and look forward to spending more time with them. The link for church school registration is in the email version of the newsletter.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Let’s be sure and pick up after ourselves when we are done with fellowship hour. Please make sure that all your plates and silver ware and coffee cups make it back to the kitchen in the Long Fellowship Hall, and please put all napkins and food scraps in one of the trash cans. If you are sitting outside, be sure that you haven’t left anything on or under the picnic tables; if you are sitting inside, check the carpet and pick up any food or crumbs. If your children are not sitting with you, please make sure that they also clean up after themselves.
Capital Campaign Countdown Column
Whatever is obtained as a result of long and persistent prayer will remain.
-St John Climacus
That quotation comes from St John's famous book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent. That quotation is also going to be the theme for our three year pledge campaign.
I chose that theme for two reasons. First of all, it reminds us that, even though we're going to be raising money for the next 36 months, what is actually going to get us into that new temple is prayer. It's not that the financial side of things isn't important--it's extremely important; we are all going to have to give just as much as we possibly can. But what is going to be even more important is our on-going interaction with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So, if you do not yet have a copy of The Akathist for a New Temple, please pick one up from the bookstore as soon as possible--and use it, without fail, every single week. You can get together with other folks and offer the service; you can listen to the recording of the service that's available on Discord; you can read through one or two stanzas of the service each day throughout the week. But, as St John points out, we need to be persistent in this work, and we need to stick with it, no matter how long it takes.
The second reason I chose this theme is because it points us towards our goal. In a culture where most structures are only designed to last a few decades, we want to build a temple that will remain. We want to build a temple in which our grandchildren and great grandchildren and great great grandchildren can offer the Divine Services. That's why we're taking as long as we are to raise as much money as we can; that's why we're not rushing the project to get into a structure as quickly as possible. We're moving deliberately--and persistently--towards a temple that will be beautiful and holy and that will also still be here in 2424.
So please put that quotation from St John on your phone and magnetize it to your refrigerator; tape it up in your icon corner and write it on your heart, and please know that not only am I working right alongside you in those long and persistent prayers, but I'm really looking forward to the All Night Vigil on August 31 and to getting started, with all of you, on this next stage in our journey together.
an unworthy priest
aidan