Brothers and Sisters,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord.
This coming weekend is going to be one of the most important of the year for our parish community. We will have a special speaker at St Thomas School; we will offer the All Night Vigil for St Eanswythe, the Patroness of our Building Program; we will premiere our new substack, “Come See Something Beautiful”, and we will begin the New Liturgical Year. All the details are in this week’s newsletter, so please read through the entire issue, and join us as often as you can this weekend.
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
Wednesday, August 27, and Friday, August 29
Daily Services
Monday, August 25-Friday, August 29; 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 26
The Inquirer’s Class 7pm
Parish Council 7pm
Saturday, August 23
St Thomas School 4pm Jordan Daniel Wood
Sunday, August 31th All-Night Vigil for St Eanswythe
Vigil 5:30am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Great Vespers for The Indiction No Later Than 1pm
Monday, September 1 The Feast of the Indiction
Orthros 4am
Divine Liturgy 6am
Financial Update
We ended July with a $41.00 deficit, but, thanks to the grace of the Most Holy Trinity and your generosity, we still have a generous surplus for the year, and we have reached 54 % of our budget goals. Late summer is always a financial challenge for our parish, not only because our income slows a bit, but also because we have several large annual bills--like insurance--that come due during that time. So please check on Realm and make sure you are up to date on your contributions, and, if you are, please consider giving a bit more to help out those who have not been able to give as much as they had planned. If you have questions about Realm or the budget, please ask our Finance Guy, Ray W., or Father Aidan.
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
There will be a lot going on this coming weekend. 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, we will have a wonderful opportunity to pray with our patroness for 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.
Monday, September 8, is the Feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God, the parish feast day for our sister community St Mary’s Romanian Orthodox parish here in Cedar Park. Since the folks at St Mary’s are not yet in their new temple, all services for the feast will be held at St Elias’ North Campus facility. Great Vespers will be on Sunday, September 7, at 5pm; Divine Liturgy will be served Monday morning, September 8, at 9am. Please plan on supporting our friends at St Mary’s on their feast day.
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
When you are out in the narthex, please remember that the doors separating the nave and the narthex are far from sound-proof. So, if your child is being especially noisy or if you need to speak with someone about a matter that just can't wait, you may need to move into the kitchen or out on to the porch. Also, please remember that since it's possible to see all the way from one end of the building to the other, even when you are out in the narthex, you should be focused on what is happening in the nave. So, for example, if the priest turns around from the altar to give a blessing, you should be ready to respond appropriately; you shouldn't be visiting with friends or talking on your phone.
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 Tydfil.
an unworthy priest
aidan