Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
We’ve wrapped up the presentations about Next Steps in our Building Program. In case you did not make it to one of the sessions—or in case you’d like to review the material—the presentation text is attached to the email version edition of the newsletter.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, August 20, and Friday, August 22
Daily Services
Monday, August 11-Friday, August 15; Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (be sure and check the schedule for the festal services; 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 From Object to Icon by Andrew Williams. 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, August 19
The Inquirer’s Class 7pm
Thursday, August 21
The Bible Study, New Testament Edition 7pm
Saturday, August 23
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, August 24th 11th Sunday of St Matthew
Orthros 8am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Our Next Memorial Service
Our upcoming memorial service on August 23rd will be for Robert & Audray R., whom many of you may remember as the distinguished and dapper older couple who sat in the back by the nave doors. You can read their colorful memorial biography on our parish Discord; they had quite a history together! May their memories be eternal.
Church School Registration
Please note: Beginning this year, our Archdiocese is requiring all children who participate in Church School to register ahead of time. So, please read the following announcement carefully, and let us know if you have any questions.
It is time for church school registration for the 2025-26 school year!! As a reminder, children need to be at least 3 years of age by September 1, 2025 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 and like last year, CGS will 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 would like to encourage you to register your child if you have any intention of them participating at all in the upcoming school year as it assists us tremendously with our planning. Please note that the first day of church school will be Sunday, September 7th. Look for the link for all church school registration on Discord.
Coming Up
Jeffrey and Caryn Macdonald are Orthodox missionaries that we support in Albania. They will be speaking about their work after Fellowship Hour this coming Sunday, August 24. Join them over in the Parish House at 12:45 to learn more about what they do to support the Church in that traditional Orthodox country.
The last weekend of this month will be an important time in the life of our parish. On Saturday, August 30, St Thomas School will be sponsoring a really interesting speaker, Dr. Jordan Daniel Wood, who will be talking to us about St Maximos the Confessor; that session will be on Saturday afternoon at 4pm. Very early the next morning, Sunday, August 31, we will celebrate an All Night Vigil for the Patroness of our Building Program, St Eanswythe of Folkestone. The vigil will begin at 5:30am on Sunday and conclude with our regular 10am Divine Liturgy. During that time, our relic of St Eanswythe will be on display, and our new Substack, “Come See Something Beautiful” will go live. So we will be able to learn more about the Faith, and we will have a wonderful opportunity to pray about our new temple, and we will start sharing our plans for the temple with lots and lots of other people.
Monday, September 1, is the Feast of the Indiction, the beginning of the Liturgical Year. We will offer Great Vespers for the feast no later than 1pm on Sunday, August 31, and, on that Monday, we will serve Orthros at 4am and Divine Liturgy at 6am. Let’s all start the New Ecclesiastical Year together by attending the Divine Services.
The Fall Theological Seminar begins on Wednesday, September 10. This year, the study will be led by Dr Mengyu H., and we will be reading Women and Men in Early Christianity by David Ford. Copies are available in the bookstore, so go ahead and pick one up.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
Let’s be sure and leave the chairs and the benches for folks who are older and for folks who have physical limitations. Children and young people should always sit on the floor or stand. We never know who is going to come through the door of the nave, so even if it appears that there are vacant chairs or benches, children and young people should remain sitting on the floor or standing.
This Week’s Potential 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 Myron.
an unworthy priest
aidan