Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
Now that things are starting to slow down a bit for the summer, why not use this extra time to get involved in some of our adult education efforts. In addition to Inquirers' 101, that meets on Tuesday evenings, we have The Bible Study, both Old and New Testaments, that meets on Thursday evenings, and St Thomas School every Saturday afternoon. We have a fabulous bookstore and a great library and there are even daily reading sessions on Discord. This is a good time of year to develop some holy habits that will carry you through the rest of the year when things move a bit faster.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, July 2 and Friday, July 4
Daily Services
Monday, June 30-Friday, July 4; Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (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 “Touching Heaven” by Father John Oliver. 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 July 1
Inquirer’s 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Thursday, July 3
The Bible Study, Old Testament Edition
Saturday, July 5
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, July 6 Fourth Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Youth 1pm
Financial Update
Thanks to the grace and mercy of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and to your generosity, we wrapped up May with a surplus of $280. We still have a really substantial surplus on the year, but we are also heading into the summer months when giving tends to slow down. Ironically enough, summer is also when some of our big annual bills come due. So please make sure that you are current in your contributions to the parish; you can check that information on Realm. If you're not especially tech proficient, our Faithful Finance Guy, Ray W., is always happy to help with that sort of thing. If you are up to date on your giving, please consider giving a bit more to help out those folks who are not able to contribute what they had planned.
Our Next Memorial Service
On Saturday, July 6th, we will offer a memorial for George T. Probably only a handful of you remember him, so please take a couple minutes to read his attached bio, in the email version of the newsletter, so that you can have a more personal connection to this departed brother in Christ when you pray for him. Memory Eternal!
Coming Up
On certain Sundays in July and August, we will be meeting in small groups to hear about next steps in our Building Program. Father Aidan is sending out email invitations to these sessions, so be watching for that note, and, if you don’t receive one in the next few weeks, just let him know, and he will get you into a group, because we want everyone to be able to participate in these meetings.
Our Arch Episcopal Vicar, Father Calinic Berger, would like all communities to do their best to participate in the feast days for the parishes in their deanery. Our mother parish, St Elias, will be celebrating their feast day on the weekend of July 19-20, so, on that Saturday evening, July 19, we will not have St Thomas School or Great Vespers at our parish. Instead, we will join our brothers and sisters at St Elias’ downtown location for Great Vespers at 5pm and refreshments afterwards.
Sunday, July 20, is the Feast of St Elias, so, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, we will have our Annual Blessing of Vehicles. That means just as we clean up our homes and apartments before they can blessed, we need to wash and polish our sedans, SUVs, trucks, and roadsters and have them in the parking lot on that Sunday morning so the clergy can bless them with Holy Water as we process around the property.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Sometimes, children and young people will twist several candles together to make one larger candle. This is not only wasteful, it is dangerous. The flame these composite candles produce can be substantial, and that creates all sorts of hazards for folks who are trying to light their own candles or who are simply walking past the candle trays. Parents, godparents, and all responsible adults should discourage this practice; our ushers have been instructed to remove these sorts of candles from the trays.
an unworthy priest
aidan