Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
We continue to offer the Divine Liturgy each Wednesday morning. On those days, Orthros will begin at 4am; Divine Liturgy will begin between 5:30am and 6am, depending on how long Orthros runs that particular morning. There will not be any sort of Fellowship Hour or coffee, since most of us will be heading out to work, but our St Eanswythe Reliquary will be on display each Wednesday morning, and it’s a great time to pray for our temple and for anything else that we want to bring before the Most Holy Trinity.
Fasting Days
Wednesday, October 8, and Friday, October 10
Daily Services
Monday, October 6-Friday, October 10; Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm; Divine Liturgy Wednesday, October 1 at 6am (it’s always a good idea to check the day before and make sure nothing has come up to change the regular schedule). However, Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading Unseen Warfare by St. Theophan the Recluse. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
In addition to the daily Synaxarion readings posted in the #synaxarion channel on Discord, the online team is now posting daily Bible Readings that will allow you to read through the Bible in a year. These readings are posted in the #bible-365 channel.
Tuesday, October 7
The Inquirer’s Class 7pm
Wednesday, October 8
The Fall Theological Seminar 7pm
Saturday, October 11
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, October 12 Sunday of 7th Ecumenical Council
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Bible Study, Old Testament Edition 1pm
This Week’s Memorial Service
On Saturday, October 11th, at the conclusion of Great Vespers we will be praying for Schema Nun Elizabeth, who spent her final years as a nun at the Nativity Monastery in Kemp. Known as Catherine M. during her 10 years as a parishioner at St. John, she forged many deep and lasting relationships, and is remembered by friends for her endless curiosity, her thirst for learning and meaning, her sense of humor, and her love of reading and discussion. As did Carol L., she donated a large part of her book collection to our parish library, and though she never had children herself, left money to St. John's which was used to help build our beautiful playground. May her memory be eternal.
Coming Up
This past month, you should have received our Annual Stewardship Letter. If that did not show up in your email box, it is attached to this week’s newsletter, along with a simplified copy of our parish budget. Our goal is to get everyone to make a commitment on Realm by October 31. That way, the parish council can make any necessary adjustments before we head into the New Year. If you have trouble accessing Realm or if you have any finance related questions, just ask our Finance Guy, Ray W.
The Fall Theological Seminar continues each Wednesday night at 7pm through November 12. Dr H. is leading the discussion of David Ford’s book Women and Men in Early Christianity; the group is covering one chapter each week, and there are watch parties (they call them watch groups, but they’re actually watch parties) in Killeen and Bastrop. Of course, the coolest way to participate is to show up at the parish house, so pick up a copy of the book at Christ the Lightgiver, and get in on the fun.
Sandi A. is very close to becoming the only active, fully accredited Orthodox Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Trainer in this country. One of the things that she needs our help with is finishing up the materials for the different classrooms. So please mark your calendars and put a note in your phones and reserve, Sunday, October 26, and Sunday, December 14. On those days, Sandi will have all sorts of projects for all sorts of skill levels all laid out. We will just need to show up and go to work, so let’s help Sandi—and our parish—achieve this important goal.
Rigel T. is planning something new for our Fall Festival. In addition to the annual Variety Show (a.k.a Talent Show), we will be doing an artist and artisan market. We have approval from the parish council to sell things, so all artists and artisans are welcome to apply for a booth. If you have a child who is prolific in some art or craft, we invite them to join in as well. The number of booths is limited, so please submit your application by October 25. If you would like to do something for the variety show, you can get details and sign up with the link in the email version of the newsletter. Here is the agenda for the festivities: 3:00–5:30 pm Arts & Crafts Market 4:00–5:30 pm Variety Show 6:00–7:00 pm Vespers (all welcome) 7:00–9:00 pm Live music (Family Band), food & drinks, icon drawing with Baker Galloway. Rigel is also recruiting volunteers to help with setup, teardown.
Our Substack, Come See Something Beautiful, is now live, so please share it with everyone you know in as many ways as you can--and, of course, every last bit of any money raised goes to the temple. Here's a link: https://comeseesomethingbeautiful.substack.com
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
This week, on the Monday Afternoon Cleaning Sweep, we collected a belt, three non-matching children’s socks, a toy metal car, three plastic water bottles, six string cheese wrappers, eight paper plates, and parts of at least ten candy wrappers. We need to take better care of the five acres that have been entrusted to us by the Most Holy Trinity.
This Week’s Recommended Baby Name
Since we have so many babies, all of us at One Take Productions thought it would be helpful if we highlighted a saints’ name each week to help with the process of name selection. So, straight out of the Synaxarion, this week’s Certified Orthodox Baby Name is Hewald.
an unworthy priest
aidan