Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
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 today, 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 this coming 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 plan on joining us in person if you’re within easy driving distance or with one of our online groups, if you’re in Killeen or Bastrop.
Our Substack, Come See Something Beautiful, is now live, so please share it with everyone you know in as many ways as you can. Here's a link: https://comeseesomethingbeautiful.substack.com
Fasting Days
Wednesday, September 10, and Friday, September 12
Daily Services
Monday, September 8-Friday, September 12; 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, September 9
The Inquirer’s Class 7pm
Saturday, September 13
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, September 14 The Feast of the Elevation of the Cross
Orthros 8am
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Since we forgot to do Travel and Other Blessings this past Sunday (hey, it was a busy week, we will do that on Sept 14)
Memorial Service
Our memorial service during Great Vespers on September 13th will be for Carol L. Some of you may recognize her name from the many books that she generously donated to our church library. Please take a few minutes to read about her bumpy journey to Orthodoxy, as well as her steadfast battle with cancer in the attachment in the email version of this newsletter. May her memory be eternal.
Coming Up
Our brothers and sisters at St Sophia in Dripping Springs will be celebrating their feast day on Wednesday, September 17. They will offer Great Vespers at 6pm on Tuesday, September 16, and, on the day of the feast, they will serve Orthros and Divine Liturgy at 10am followed by lunch. All of us are invited, so let’s do our best to support those folks in the Hill Country.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
We are very thankful for all the folks in our parish who have personal businesses; we are proud of each of them, and we applaud their initiative and their energy. However, we should not be passing out samples or making product presentations or conducting sales during Fellowship Hour or during any other event sponsored by our community. Children are welcome to solicit for their sports teams or for projects connected with school or scouting, but adults should not transact business while attending parish events or while on parish property.
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 Sharbel.
an unworthy priest
aidan