Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Our next Safety and Security Rehearsal will be for an active shooter event. It will be held this coming 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, and, of course, that sense of drama has only been increased by recent events. So it’s important to remember that, 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.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, July 24, and Friday, July 26
Daily Services
There will not be any daily services this week as our parish clergy will be at the Annual Clergy Symposium; the daily services will return next week; 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 23
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Even Chanter Team 7pm
Wednesday, July 24
Saints and Sorbet 7pm Home of Nathalie M.
Thursday, July 25
Odd Chanter Team 7pm
Saturday, July 27
St Thomas School 4pm
Youth 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, July 28
5th Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Financial Update
Thanks to your generosity and the mercies of the Most Holy Trinity, we ended June with a surplus of just over $20,000. However, before we start to celebrate, it’s important to understand that the surplus was due to some special gifts we received for a specific project; in fact, based on our regular giving during June, we actually ended with a deficit of around $10,000. Of course, we still have an overall surplus on the year, and deficits are not at all uncommon during the summer months, but we all need to make sure we are caught up on our commitment to the parish, and, if we can do so, we should contribute a little more to help those who are not able to give as much as they had hoped.
St Thomas School
On Saturday, July 27, Polly T. will be leading the discussion of chapter nine of Volume V entitled, “Burial and Commemoration of the Dead”. 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, July 25, to reserve your spot.
Coming Up
Nathalie M. is hosting a women’s book study in her home. It is called Saints and Sorbets: Seven Holy Women, and the next session will be this coming Wednesday, July 24, at 7pm. Location details are in the email edition of the newsletter. This week the group will be talking about St. Kassiani, but everyone is invited to join the group to discuss and learn of and from these Seven Holy women’s lives including: St. Ia, St. Nino, St. Piama, St. Margaret, & St. Casilda de Toledo.
On Thursday, August 1, we will begin the Dormition Fast. During this Fast, which runs through Wednesday, August 14th , the eve of the great feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, we observe the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, fish, milk, cheese, eggs, wine and olive oil) Monday through Friday with a blessing for wine and olive oil on Saturday and Sunday, and for fish, wine and olive oil on the great feast of the Transfiguration on Tuesday, August 6th. If you need to modify the fast in any way, please check with your spiritual father.
During the Dormition Fast, we offer The Paraclesis to the Mother of God just about each week night between August 1 and August 13. That means, this year, there will be eight opportunities to participate in this lovely service, and that means all of us should be able to be present at least once during the fast. So please look at the website calendar and then look at your calendar and make plans to join us as we ask the Most Holy Theotokos for her intercessions.
Before the Feast of the Dormition on Thursday, August 15, the Archdiocese expects all of us to make our confession. In our parish, that Holy Mystery is offered on Saturday evenings after Great Vespers or just about any other time by special appointment.
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 edition of the newsletter.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
There are any number of reasons why people find themselves in the narthex and kitchen during liturgy. Some people have children that they need to calm; some people have coffee hour responsibilities; some people have social phobias; some people get tired. However, if you do end up in the narthex and kitchen during liturgy, we ask that you continue to participate in the service by remaining as quiet as possible. You can listen to the service over the sound system in those areas, so, even if you can't be in the nave you can still help us all maintain our focus during the liturgy.
Capital Campaign Countdown Column
Whatever is obtained as a result of long and persistent prayer will remain.
-St John Climacus
We are now just eight weeks away from our three year pledge campaign that will begin on the Feast of St Eanswythe, August 31. If you would like to learn more about the project, please read through the FAQ that is attached to this newsletter, but, to help us prepare for this historic effort, this week’s Countdown Column comes to us from our Music Director, Karen M.
"...the temple is not for man but for the Lord God."
- 1 Chronicles 29: 1
When I first came to St. John's back in 2007, the Divine Liturgy was still being held in the parish house, where the current Level 1 and 3 classrooms now are. The altar was where the bookstore is now. We were smaller in number - our entire Paschal Feast was held inside that original space! (Ask Fr. Aidan, Cynthia, or Katie Wilcoxson about the PJ the Dog / Paschal BBQ incident of 2009!)
Building the Long Hall felt like a Herculean feat for our smaller parish back then...because it was. But it was completed! One of my greatest memories once it was finally built and we started holding services inside is feeling so small and unworthy offering my prayers inside our beautiful, new, and spacious nave. And I believe that was a good place for my heart to be, and as King David tells us in the above verse who the temple belongs to.
The Preparation by David...and by Us
Now it's 2024 and we're kicking off the last phase of our Capital Campaign with the goal of building our final Temple here at St. John the Forerunner. We've been working towards the day we start worshipping in our new Temple for years now...building the Long Hall was Phase 1 of the Capital Campaign. And the last couple of years have continued in preparation - we've heard from our clergy about why it's so important to bathe this process in our prayers daily, and from our iconographers on why we should (and have!) started the process of what our iconography will be within the new Temple after it's built.
In 1 Chronicles 25 through 29 we see David gathering lots and lots of skilled people and lots and lots of resources in advance of building the Temple. In laymen's terms, the guy did a TON of prep work before construction on the Temple even occurred! This concept of massive preparation has been already laid out for us by King David himself.
"So the number of them...who were instructed in the songs of the Lord, all who were skillful, was two hundred and eighty-eight. And they cast lots for their duty, the small as well as the great, the teacher with the student."
- 1 Chronicles 25:7-8 (NKJV)
In his gathering of people needed for this important work, the first group mentioned by David after the priests (1 Chronicles 24) was the musicians (seen in Chapter 25). And from above, you can see that he brought LOTS of them: "...skilled...the small as well as the great...the teacher with the student."
The teacher with the student: musicians were learning and growing in their abilities to give their best to the Most Holy Trinity. There was reliance on teachers.
A Teacher for our St. John Musicians
With all of the above in mind, on July 1st our parish entered into an 18-month contract with Benedict and Talia Sheehan (aka Artefact Institute) to teach us how to be better musicians in preparation of entering into our new Temple built for the Lord God. (The Sheehan's came for a weekend in May 2023 to help us grow our skills as musicians and made a huge impact on our music program.) We knew they could continue to help us grow into more skilled musicians who are better prepared to serve in our new Temple, and that this work requires time and a focused effort. This is why the contract with Artefact was started now, before the Temple is built.
And since the role of parish musicians is to simply lead all the parishioners, we're in this together! Please keep singing along with us - hearing the whole community singing together is one of the most beautiful parts of our dear community.
Preparation is Part of the Story
We're all so excited about our future new Temple, but I'm also really excited about all the work we are doing at St. John's to prepare ourselves to worship the Lord God in the new space! I'm thankful to walk this journey with each of you. When we look back years from now and tell our story to future parishioners, I can't wait to tell this part of our story!
"Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest. Praise Him, all ye His angels; praise Him, all ye His hosts. Praise Him, O sun and moon; praise Him, all ye stars and light." - Psalm 148
- Karen M.
an unworthy priest
aidan