February 10, 2013
Thirty-third Sunday after Pentecost
St. Haralmpus
II Timothy 2:1-10: Through the example of the soldier, athlete and farmer, St. Paul reminds us that faithful ministry requires discipline, obedience, self-denial and struggle.
Matthew 25:14-30: From the Gospel of St Matthew we hear our Lord use a parable to describe how He will judge His servants. Our faithful use of His gifts will result in greater blessing when His Kingdom comes in its fullness.
Troparion of the Resurrection: Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad; for the Lord hath done a mighty act with his own arm. He hath trampled down death and become the First-born from the dead. He hath delivered us from the depths of hades, granting the world the Great Mercy.
Troparion of St. Haralampos: An unshaken pillar of the Church of Christ God art thou, an ever-resplendent lamp, O Haralampus most wise, which shineth throughout the earth; in martyric contest thou hast shined on the whole world, and thou hast dispelled the moonless night of the idols. Now boldly intercede thou with Christ that we may all be saved.
Troparion of the Chains of St. Peter: O Holy Apostle, Peter, thou dost preside over the Apostles by the precious chains which thou didst bear. We venerate them with faith and beseech thee that by thine intercessions we be granted the great mercy.
Kontakion of the Theotokos: O undisputed intercessor of Christians, O mediatrix, who is unrejected by the Creator, turn not away from the voice of our petitions though we be sinners; come to us in time, who cry to thee in faith, for thou art good. Hasten to us with intercessions, O Theotokos, who didst ever intercede for those who honor thee.
CALENDAR
Sunday, February 10 (Thirty-third Sunday after Pentecost)
8:50 a.m. -- Orthros
9:00 a.m. -- Christian Education
10:00 a.m. -- Divine Liturgy
12:00 p.m. -- Pot Luck Meal
5:30 p.m. -- Youth Group
Monday, February 11 (Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste)
Office Closed -- Father John's Day Off
Tuesday, February 12
6:00 a.m. -- Daily Orthros
Wednesday, February 13
6:30 p.m. -- Daily Vespers
7:30 p.m. -- Choir Practice
Thursday, February 14
6:00 a.m. -- Daily Orthros
Friday, February 15
6:00 a.m. -- Daily Orthros
Saturday, February 16
5:45 p.m. -- Ninth Hour Prayers followed by Great Vespers
Sunday, February 17 (Sunday of the Canaanite Woman)
8:50 a.m. -- Orthros
9:00 a.m. -- Christian Education
10:00 a.m. -- Divine Liturgy
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
Eucharist Bread …was offered by the Woods for the Divine Liturgy this morning.
Eucharist Bread and Coffee Hour Schedule:
Eucharist Bread Coffee Hour
February 10 Wood POT LUCK MEAL
set-up: Jones/Stewart/Habeeb
February 17 R. Root Morris/Katool/Willingham
February 24 Henderson Meadows/Lasseter/Greene
Schedule for Epistle Readers – Page numbers refer to the Apostolos (book of the Epistles) located on the front pew. Please be sure to use this book when you read.
Reader Reading Page#
February 10 Phillip Lasseter II Tim. 2:1-10 328
February 17 Tom Willingham II Cor. 6:16-18, 7:1 173
February 24 Tom Skirtech II Cor. 4:6-15 163
Please remember Fr. Joseph and Kh. Joanna Bittle, and their daughter Abigail, in your prayers.
Please continue to pray for the health of His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN.
Please be reminded of the following:
Be very careful with the Blessed Bread when you take it after communion. Because this bread has been blessed, we should take care not to let crumbs fall on the floor. Parents, especially, please help your children to choose a small piece and treat it carefully.
Also, at the end of the liturgy, maintain a prayerful disposition during the veneration of the cross as the prayers of thanksgiving after communion are still underway. Please exchange your greetings with each other in the Fellowship Hall during Coffee Hour.
Please remember the following in your prayers: Steve, Sheryl and Stephen Chamblee; Amy and Brantley Oliver; Aidan Milnor, the Milnor family; Sam and Lamia Dabit and Sammie; Georgia Buchanan, George Johns (Georgia's grandson) and his family; Mary Greene (Lee and Kh. Sharon's sister); Fr. Stephen Tewfik; Sh. Gail Shannon; Dn. Sidney and Sh. Mary Elliot.
Please be reminded that the Sacristy/Vestry which is adjacent to and behind the altar in our church is considered by the Orthodox Church to be part of the Sanctuary (Altar area) and should not be entered without the blessing of the priest for a specific purpose. If you need to speak with a member of the clergy while they are in the Sanctuary, please ask them to come to you in the nave.
House Blessings! A sign-up sheet is available in the Fellowship Hall to sign up for your house blessing. Please schedule these as soon as possible. Everyone should have their home blessed. However, the responsibility for scheduling lies with individuals and not Father John. No house blessings will be done once Great Lent starts (March 18th this year).
Quarterly Schedule Update:
1) We will not be having the Saturday of the Souls Liturgy as originally scheduled on Saturday morning, March 9th. We will instead celebrate this liturgy at a later date that is still to be determined.
2) Due to the Julian Dabit's baptism to be held on Sunday March 10th, we will not have our regularly scheduled Pot Luck Meal. Instead we have a simple Coffee Hour between the Divine Liturgy and the baptism.
Congratulations and Many Years! to Cliff and Anna Kathryn Stewart (as well as grandparents Ken and Anastasia Jones) on the birth of Mary Alice (8lbs. 15oz.) last Sunday morning. Mother and daughter are at home and doing well.
Congratulations to Nimr and Mona Fahmy on the recent birth of their grandson, Simon (Hany and Julie's third son)!
Parish Creative Arts Festival: The Christian Education classes will have a festival to work on their entries for this year's Creative Arts Festival on Saturday morning, February 23rd from 9:30-12:00. There will be teaching about this year's conference theme and then time to work on the projects themselves. A Pizza lunch will be provided afterwards. Please make plans now for your children to attend.
Directory Update: Dale Cooper has a new address:
572 Robinhood Road
Jackson, MS 39206
Ancient Faith Radio: Ian Jones recently gave a talk at the St. Ambrose Society (a student pro-life group at St. Vladimir's Seminary). It is available on Ancient Faith Radio at the following link: http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/svsvoices/st. ambrose society
Calendar Items:
* The Men of the parish meet for lunch and fellowship on the first Thursday of the month.
* Deanery Youth Retreat is scheduled for February 15-17, 2013. More details later.
* Parish Creative Arts Festival Workshop is scheduled for Saturday morning, February 23rd 9:30-12:00.
* We will not be having Great Vespers on Saturday evening, March 9th, as all the clergy will be in Memphis for a wedding.
* Julian Dabit will be baptized on Sunday afternoon, March 10th at 12:30 p.m.
* The Youth Group will be hosting their annual Cheesefare Fundraising Luncheon on Sunday, March 17th .
* This year the Sunday of Orthodoxy Vespers will be hosted by St. George Orthodox Church in Vicksburg on Sunday evening, March 24th.
The Deanery Youth Retreat is scheduled for next weekend at Roosevelt State Park. Sister Magdalene has had to cancel her plans to be here due to her sister's critical illness in Australia. Fr. John Henderson will lead the retreat instead. More details will be available at a later date.
Pledge Letters were mailed earlier. Please fill these out and return them to office as soon as possible. Your pledges make it possible to plan a budget for the coming fiscal year.
Fasting Discipline for February
The traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dairy, wine or oil) is observed on the remaining Wednesdays and Fridays of the month.
Major Commemorations for February
February 10 Hieromartyr Haralampos
February 11 Blaise, Bishop of Sebaste
February 24 The Forerunner (1st and 2nd Discoveries)
Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee
When you host Coffee Hour or the meal for a Feast, please make sure that the oven, warmer, and coffee maker are turned off afterwards. On several occasions in the past, the cleaning ladies have found the oven still on when they came in to clean later during the week.
Happy Anniversaries in February:
February 7 --- Ben and Meghan Brock (#4!)
-- Jeffrey and Anca Bassinger (#4!)
February 18 -- David and Lou Turner (#7!)
February 21 -- Michael and Amy Surratt (#15!)
February 25 -- Daniel and Elizabeth Root (#7!)
Happy Birthdays in February:
February 5 -- Andrei Anicescu
February 11 -- Cassie Freundt
-- Zoe Freundt
-- Demetrius Zouboukos
February 13 -- Clyde Ellis
February 15 -- Mary Guy Lockhart
February 17 -- Anthony Zouboukos
February 18 -- Tom Willingham
February 22 -- Kh. Sharon Meadows
February 24 -- Nimr Fahmy
February 28 -- Cole Parker (#8!)
Parish Life Conference 2013: This year St. Basil Orthodox Church in Metairie, LA will be hosting the Parish Life Conference for our Diocese on June 13-16. His Grace, Bishop JOHN Abdallah will be the speaker. There will also be a special presentation by Fr. Philip Rogers on keeping our children in the church. Parents are especially encouraged to hear his presentation. Please mark your calendars now and make plans to attend.
Coffee Hour guidelines have been posted on the refrigerator in the kitchen. These list the items to be set out for Fasting and Non-fasting Coffee Hours along with guidelines for setting out the food and for storage afterwards. Please be sure that the power switch on the dishwasher is turned off when you are through with clean-up.
Building Fund: As we proceed with the plans for the approval by the City of Madison and Metropolitan PHILIP for our addition/renovation, we are reviewing our Building Fund. We currently have over $150,000 in the fund and are regularly adding to it. The Parish Council has decided to apply cash donations from the Sunday offering to the Building Fund – UNLESS it is specified or otherwise apparent that these are intended as a regular tithe/donation. Of course, other donations by check, etc., specified for the Building Fund are always welcome! So feel free to chip in a little (or lot!) extra as you are able. With God's grace, we look forward to this next phase of our building program and beyond to the next phase of building a new main church building/temple.
Quotable: "What secret hides behind the readiness of the Galilean fishermen to abandon everything and follow Jesus at first encounter? Why, on the other hand, did the rich young man, who also heard Christ's 'Come and follow me', not abandon everything for him but 'went away sorrowful' (Matt. 19:21-2)? Is it perhaps because the fishermen were poor, while the young man 'had great possessions'? The former had nothing other than God, while the latter had 'treasure on earth'."
The Mystery of Faith by Metropolitan HILARION Alfeyev
Worship: Sunday, February 17, 2013 (Sunday of the Canaanite Woman)
Scripture: II Corinthians 6:16-18, 7:1; Matthew 15:21-28
Celebrant: Father John
Epistle Reader: Tom Willingham
Prosphora: R. Root
Coffee Hour: Morris/Katool/Willingham