Week of January 26

Brothers and Sisters,

Greetings in the Name of the Lord.

Abortion is the great evil of our time, and each year, in January, we offer The Service for the Victims of Abortion. The victims include not only the unborn children who have died, but the men and women who are participant in those deaths, the siblings who never had a chance to meet their sisters and brothers, and our entire culture that has been denied the perspectives and insights and contributions of those we did not allow to be born. In addition to praying for all those folks, we will also be collecting supplies (Baby hygiene products; Diapers size 4, 5, 6; Baby healthcare kits; Sippy cups; Wide neck baby bottles; Baby outfits size 3-6 months) for the Wilco Women’s Center (formerly the Williamson County Pregnancy Center). Please join us at 7pm this coming Friday, January 30.

On Saturday, January 31, we will have our first St Sergius Lecture of 2026. The speaker is Father Maximos Constans, a well-known Patristics scholar who teaches at The University of Austin, will be talking about his new translation of the spiritual classic Unseen Warfare. Everyone is welcome to attend. The lecture will begin at 10am.

On Monday, February 2, we will wrap up this forty day festal season with The Feast of the Presentation of our Lord and Master in the Temple. We will serve Great Vespers on Sunday, February 1, no later than 1pm, and then, on the day of the feast, we will offer Orthros at 5am and Divine Liturgy at 7am. Please join us as we bring this joyous season to a conclusion.

Fasting Days

Wednesday, January 28, and Friday, January 29

Daily Services

Monday, January 26-Friday, January 29: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (please note that 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 Hymns of Paradise by St Ephrem the Syrian. 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, January 27

  • The Inquirer’s Class 7pm

  • Parish Council Meeting 7pm

Friday, January 30

  • Service for the Victims of Abortion 7pm

Saturday, January 31

  • St Sergius Lecture 10am Fr Maximos Costas 

  • St Thomas School 4pm

  • Great Vespers 6pm

Sunday, February 1 Sunday of The Publican & The Pharisee

  • Orthros 8am

  • Church School 8:15am

  • Divine Liturgy 10am

  • Fellowship Hour Noon

  • Great Vespers for the Feast of the Presentation (no later than) 1pm

Monday, February 2 The Feast of the Presentation

  • Orthros 5am

  • Divine Liturgy 7am

Finance Update

Thanks to the mercy of the Most Holy Trinity and to your faithfulness, we ended 2025 with a surplus of just over $74,000. Unless there are pressing facility expenses, all of that will go either to savings or to our Building Fund. Of course, we are now wrapping up the first month of 2026, so we all need to take a look at Realm and make sure that we current on our commitments for the new year. If you have question about anything having to do with Realm or your commitment, please get in touch with our Finance Guy, Ray W.

Coming Up

The reports for our Annual Meeting on Sunday, February 8, have been available for almost two months now. If you haven’t yet, please go ahead and read through them this week so you will be informed and up to date going into our Annual Meeting. (You can find the reports in the announcement channel on Discord.)

The Triodion begins this coming Sunday, February 1, and, on Monday, February 23, we will begin Great Lent. So, these next few weeks are going to be a good time to prepare for that season of spiritual striving: we can make our plans for fasting; we can look at the website calendar and decide which services we’re going to attend; we can figure out when we will participate in the Mystery of Holy Confession; we can pick up a book for spiritual reading from Christ the Lightgiver.

Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy

Our ushers are responsible for managing the flow of people in and out of the nave and for keeping things quiet in the kitchen and the narthex. If you arrive late for the service, or if you need step out of the nave for some reason, please remember that they will ask you to wait in the narthex or the kitchen during baptisms, during any of the entrances or scripture lessons, during the homily, and during communion. Please respect their role and follow their directions.

an unworthy priest

aidan