St. Spyridon Parish News, Events, Activities and Announcements

This Sunday's Memorial

William (Billy) Nicholas Demos- 40 days

CDC and the County of San Diego Covid Mask Wearing Reminder

Just a reminder as the reported cases, etc. of the coronavirus continues to surge - the most updated and current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the county of San Diego recommend that those who are fully vaccinated wear a face covering while indoors.

For those who have not yet been vaccinated the CDC and County of San Diego still require those who are unvaccinated (for whatever reason) should continue to wear a mask while indoors, i.e. - inside the Sanctuary, in an attempt to help stop the spread of the (very contagious Delta) coronavirus. We are still following the "honor system" and respectfully ask that if you have not been fully vaccinated to wear your face covering while in the Sanctuary and fellowship hall.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration, understanding, and patience as we continue to safely navigate our way through this concerning time once again.

National Church Music Sunday - October 3rd

"We celebrate and honor all of our church musicians this year, once again under the dark cloud of the Covid pandemic just as we did last year.

Our faith is a faith of hope and of salvation for as the psalm states, we take refuge in our God and know He does offer His protection to us.

Despite the current conditions, we must “ever sing for joy” as the psalmist exhorts us to do. Even during the darkest days of the pandemic, our church musicians yearned for their return to singing in church. We certainly don’t know what our new “normal” will be. What we do know is that our church musicians are some of the most fervent, steadfast, dedicated, and faithful individuals in our parishes and this is what we celebrate today. These individuals will “ever sing for joy” and we are confident in the fact that God will continue to spread His protection over them. We give gratitude and sincere thanks to all of our church musicians."

Written by Nick Chimitris, National Chairman of the National Forum of Greek Orthodox Church Musicians.

OXI Dinner Dance & Greek School Fundraiser

October 23rd, 2021 at 6:00 pm in our Church Hall. Enjoy live music, 4-course dinner, cash bar and auction. Tickets are available at www.ahepa223.org/events or call Candice Kotinopoulos @ 619-663-7653.

Please see the OXI Glendi flyer in the "Inserts & Fliers" section.

Dance and Choral School Fundraiser

Do you like Soccer? St. Spyridon Dance and Choral School present Greek Night with the San Diego Loyal Soccer Club on Saturday, October 9th. The game will be at USD at 7:30 pm.

Help your Dance and Choral School rebuild their treasury and enjoy a night of fun. See the flyer for a link to order your tickets. For more information, contact Kathy Meck at 760-390-0101 or sprnodiva@aol.com.

Please see the Greek Night Soccer Club flyer in the "Inserts & Fliers" section.

Sign Up to Sponsor Fellowship and Coffee Hour

Weekly Fellowship Hour has resumed, but we need your help in providing the refreshments that we share during this time of fellowship. Please consider sponsoring with your friends and family. Let's keep it simple by providing cookies or donuts, fruit and juice. You can sign-up online at: https://bit.ly/3CXKbRw or contact Sofia Samouris at 619.518.4537. Thank you for your support!

Ancient Wisdom & Modern Coffee

Mark you calendars for our adult Sunday School classes (taught by Dn. Michael Kallas) that will meet October 10th and 24th, November 28th, December 5th and 26th. Please join us as we study the bible readings from the Gospel of Matthew heard on the Sundays during the Pentecost Season. We meet on the first floor of the Educational Building following the Diving Liturgy.

Sunday School has Started but it is Not too Late to Join Us

Sunday School meets immediately after Holy Communion each Sunday in the Education Building. Follow the signs to your classroom. If you haven’t registered your student for Sunday School yet, it is not too late! Registration form is available on the Church website stspyridon.org and in the Sunday School Classrooms. Looking to give back to our youth community? Volunteer now!

Please email Julie Dennis at sundayschool.stspyridon@gmail.com for more information.

Please see the Sunday School Registration Form in the "Inserts & Fliers" section.

Upcoming Memorials for October & November

Sunday, October 24 - Maria Giannos - 6 months

Sunday, October 24 - John Giannos - 15 years

Sunday, November 14 - Ted Huntalas - 5 years

Sunday, November 14 - Mary Samios - 26 years

College Connection

Attention College Students: St. Spyridon Philoptochos wants to keep you connected with your faith and home church. Send us your information so that we can stay in touch. Please email Erika Couris at ecouris70@gmail.com with your name, college address, and year of graduation.

Save the Date - Military Appreciation Sunday - November 7th

We wish to invite all of our military veterans for a special day of appreciation as we reveal our new, hand-stitched, Post-WWII Veterans Banner in the Church Hall on November 7, 2021.

All fellowship proceeds will benefit the Armed Services YMCA. For any questions contact Soula De La Riva at 760-521-0471 or soula.delariva@cox.net. We hope to see you all there!

St. John Anaheim 60^th Anniversary Gala

The parish of St. John the Baptist in Anaheim will be celebrating their community’s 60^th Anniversary with a Gala event on Saturday, November 20^th at the newly opened Westin Anaheim Resort. Additionally, Rev. Fr. John Kariotakis will be recognized at this event for his faithful service to St. John’s for 10 years and his near 40 years as a dedicated priest of the Orthodox Church, as he now enters into a blessed and well-deserved retirement. Tickets, reservations, and information can be found at stjohnanaheim.org/gala

Please see the St. John Anniversary Gala flyer in the "Inserts & Fliers" section.

Philoptochos Beautifully Decorated Icons for Veneration Inside the Church

Philoptochos invites you and your family to commemorate a special Feast Day by offering a donation towards the cost of a beautifully decorated icon which will be displayed in the church Narthex for all to venerate. This offering, a floral adornment around the blessed icon, is a perfect way to honor both your family member(s) as well as an important day in the life of the Church. Throughout the liturgical year there are many opportunities to select a decorated icon, so please reserve your dates now. A suggested donation of $75 is much appreciated. To reserve your date, please contact Soula at the office: 619-297-4165 or office@stspyridon.org. Thank you!

Stewardship Corner

We, the Stewardship Committee of Saint Spyridon, first and foremost, would once again like to say “thank you” for your continuing support of our stewardship ministry. As we near the end of 2021 we are on strong financial footing because of your generous stewardship giving.

So, again, THANK YOU!

And further, as we enter the month of October 2021, we all face the same political, economic and health issues which can roil us emotionally, spiritually, and physically: but, in this moment, our beloved church, St. Spyridon, continues to be a beacon of hope and an ark which shepherds us to calmer seas every day.

Thus, we are thankful and blessed to have one another communally and spiritually week in and week out. This is a precious and irreplaceable gift to each of us. You know this intuitively when you attend the divine services of the Church: little else provides the sense of peace and encouragement following the celebration of the morning Orthros, the Divine Liturgy, and time in fellowship with fellow members in our church hall.

The Stewardship Committee respectfully reminds you to once again take a moment to fulfill your pledged commitment for 2021 so we can continue to move forward in a strong financial position to meet the new year with all of its challenges and joys.

On behalf of the Parish Council, the Stewardship Committee once again says “thank you” and God bless you during this extraordinary time.

Sincerely and respectfully,

John T. Kalas, Stewardship Chair Father Andrew Scordalakis, Parish Priest

Required Armatus Youth Protection Training

This is a reminder for all Youth Workers of Saint Spyridon (Sunday School, Greek School, GOYA, Dance & Choral) to complete their required annual Archdiocese Youth Protection Training online.

An email has been sent to you directly with your login credentials. For any questions, contact the Parish Youth Safety Administrator, Soula De La Riva, at the church office - 619-297-4165 or office@stspyridon.org. Thank you for helping to keep our youth safe and protected!

Give Back 0.5% From “Amazon Smile” Foundation

We remind you to please participate in the AmazonSmile program. When you shop on Amazon, the AmazonSmile Foundation will give back 0.5% of your purchase price to St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church. That’s right, every eligible/registered purchase you or someone else makes at AmazonSmile 0.5% will be donated back to your parish!!!

It's quick and easy to register by visiting AmazonSmile (smile.amazon.com) and select “St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church” before you make your first purchase (be sure to select St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church - San Diego, California).

For more information about AmazonSmile, go to http://smile.amazon.com/about

We hope you’ll consider this easy way to support your beloved parish. Everyone is eligible to participate so tell your friends and relatives and spread the word about this wonderful opportunity.

Your Legacy and Your Church

...to whom much is given; from them much more is required (Luke 12:48).

Please remember to include your Saint Spyridon parish in your estate plan and bequest.

Inserts and Fliers

Online Parish Stewardship Giving

OXI Glendi

Greek Night Soccer Club

Dance & Choral School Fundraiser

St. John Anniversary Gala

PDF Sunday School Registration Form 2021/22

Archdiocese News

Visit of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the United States

09/29/2021

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America will welcome His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the United States for an official visit which will begin on October 23, 2021 and continue through November 3, 2021. The visit, originally scheduled for May 2020, was postponed due to the worldwide pandemic. This is the third official visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the United States.

https://www.goarch.org/-/2021-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-visit

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Fourth Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Luke 24:1-12

On the first day of the week, at early dawn, the women went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered in to the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles; but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home wondering at what had happened.

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Plagal Second Mode. Psalm 27.9,1.
O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance.
Verse: To you, O Lord, I have cried, O my God.

The reading is from St. Paul's Second Letter to the Corinthians 4:6-15.

Brethren, it is the God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Since we have the same spirit of faith as he had who wrote, "I believed, and so I spoke," we too believe, and so we speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

Gospel Reading

2nd Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 6:31-36

The Lord said, "As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful."

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Plagal Second Mode

The angelic powers appeared at your tomb, and those guarding it became as dead. Mary stood at your grave seeking your pure body. But you stripped the power of Hades, yet were not touched by corruption. You met the virgin and granted her life. O Lord, who

Apolytikion for Dionysios the Areopagite in the Fourth Mode

Since thou hadst been instructed in uprightness thoroughly and wast vigilant in all things, thou wast clothed with a good conscience as befitteth one holy. Thou didst draw from the Chosen Vessel ineffable mysteries; and having kept the Faith, thou didst finish a like course, O Hieromartyr Dionysios. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Second Mode

A protection of Christians unshamable, intercessor to our Holy Maker, unwavering, please reject not the prayerful cries of those who are in sin. Instead, come to us, for you are good; your loving help bring unto us, who are crying in faith to you: hasten to intercede and speed now to supplicate, as a protection for all time, Theotokos, for those who honor you.

Wisdom of the Fathers

The sign that thou lovest God, is this, that thou lovest thy fellow; and if thou hatest thy fellow, thy hatred is towards God. For it is blasphemy if thou prayest before God while thou art wroth. For thy heart also convicts thee, that in vain thou multipliest words: thy conscience rightly judges that in thy prayers thou profitest nought.

St. Ephraim the Syrian

ON ADMONITION AND REPENTANCE.

Let us then, bearing in mind all the things which have been said, show forth great love even towards our enemies; and let us ease away that ridiculous custom, to which many of the more thoughtless give way, waiting for those that meet them to address them first.

St. John Chrysostom

Homily 18 on Matthew 5, 4th Century

Every work which does not have love as its beginning and root is nothing.

St. John Chrysostom

Unknown, 4th century

He who truly wishes to believe in God must be lifted above himself, his mind, and even the whole world. For this reason, the value of faith is considered higher than the value of man. It is even higher than the value of the whole world. Therefore, the reward of faith should be higher than all of man's possessions along with the glories of this world. The reward of faith is God.

Fr. Matthew the Poor

Orthodox Prayer Life: The Interior Way, p. 74, 20th century

Saints and Feasts

October 03

Dionysios the Areopagite

This Saint was from Athens, a learned man, and a member of the famous judicial court of Mars Hill (in Greek Aeros Pagos, hence the name Areopagite (see Acts 17:19-34). When Saint Paul preached in Athens, he was one of the first there to believe in Christ, and, according to some, became the first bishop of that city. Others say -- and this may be more probable--that he was the second Bishop of Athens, after Saint Hierotheus, whom Dionysios calls his friend and teacher "after Paul" (On the Divine Names, 3:2). With Saint Hierotheus he was also present at the Dormition of the most holy Theotokos; the Doxasticon of the Aposticha for the service of the Dormition is partly taken from a passage in Chapter III of On the Divine Names. According to ancient tradition, he received a martyr's end (according to some, in Athens itself) about the year 96.

October 04

Hierotheus, Bishop of Athens

According to some, Hierotheus, like Saint Dionysius, was a member of the court of Mars Hill. Having first been instructed in the Faith of Christ by Paul, he became Bishop of Athens. He, in turn, initiated the divine Dionysius more perfectly into the mysteries of Christ; the latter, on his part, elaborated more clearly and distinctly Hierotheus' concise and summary teachings concerning the Faith. He too was brought miraculously by the power of the Holy Spirit to be present at the Dormition of the Theotokos, when, together with the sacred Apostles, he became a leader of the divine hymnody. "He was wholly transported, wholly outside himself and was so deeply absorbed in communion with the sacred things he celebrated in hymnology, that to all who heard him and saw him and knew him, and yet knew him not, he seemed to be inspired of God, a divine hymnographer," as Dionysius says (On the Divine Names, 3:2). Having lived in a manner pleasing to God, he reposed in the Lord.

October 05

Charitina the Martyr

Saint Charitina contested for Christ during the reign of Diocletian, in the year 290. The handmaid of a certain Claudius, she was betrayed as a Christian to Dometian, the Count, before whom she fearlessly confessed Christ. After suffering the most terrible tortures, including the uprooting of her teeth and nails, she gave up her soul into the hands of the Lord.

October 06

The Holy and Glorious Apostle Thomas

The name Thomas means, "twin." He was one of the Twelve, a Galilean by birth. Sophroneus (not the famous Patriarch of Jerusalem [7th Century, celebrated March 11], but a friend of Jerome's), quoted also by Jerome, says that Saint Thomas preached to the Parthians, Pesians, Medes, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and neighbouring nations. According to Heracleon, the Apostle died a natural death; according to other accounts, he was martyred at Meliapur His tomb was known by Saint John Chrysostom to be at Edessa in Syria, to which city his holy relics may have been translated from India in the fourth century.

October 07

Sergius & Bacchus the Great Martyrs of Syria

These holy Martyrs were Romans of high rank in the service of the Emperor Maximian, to whom it was reported that they did not take part in the festivals of the idols. When he called them into his presence, they confessed their Faith in the one God. He had them arrayed in women's clothes and paraded through the streets in mockery. They were afterwards scourged, from which Saint Bacchus died. This was about the year 296. Saint Sergius was then taken to Resapha in Syria, where he was tortured and beheaded. His tomb in Resapha became a very famous shrine, to which pilgrims came from as far away as Western Europe; Resapha was later renamed Sergiopolis in his honour.

October 08

Pelagia the Righteous

This Saint was a prominent actress of the city of Antioch, and a pagan, who lived a life of unrestrained prodigality and led many to perdition. Instructed and baptized by a certain bishop named Nonnus (Saint Nonnus is commemorated Nov. 10), she departed for the Mount of Olives near Jerusalem, where she lived as a recluse, feigning to be a eunuch called Pelagia. She lived in such holiness and repentance that within three or four years she was deemed worthy to repose in an odour of sanctity, in the middle of the fifth century. Her tomb on the Mount of Olives has been a place of pilgrimage ever since.

October 09

James the Apostle, son of Alphaeus

The holy Apostle James was one of the Twelve, and preached Christ to many nations, and finally suffered death by crucifixion.

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Sunday Services

Orthros/Matins: 8:30am

Divine Liturgy: 10:00am

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