Calling All Youth Choir Members
Calling all GOYANS! Calling all Youth in 7th -12th grades! We hope you will join us for the GOYA 2022 Kick Off Event! Meet us this Saturday, September 24th at 4 pm at La Jolla Shores! Please RSVP here http://evite.me/vuxERNT6hV
For more information, email the Youth Ministries Director: at youthministries@stspyridon.org or call/text 619-940-5167. Be sure to follow us on Instagram! @st.spyridon_goya to stay up to date on all the events for this year!
Ancient Wisdom & Modern Coffee - This Sunday
Join us for our Adult Sunday School class (taught by Dn. Michael Kallas, MA, MDiv). We will be studying the Sunday Gospel Readings to learn how to hear scripture. There will be class this Sunday, September 25th, and October 16th and 30th. We meet downstairs in the Education Building.
Philoptochos Save the Date - Sunday, October 2nd
Philoptochos invites you to our annual Munchies, Mimosas, & More on Sunday, October 2nd in the fellowship hall, immediately following the Divine Liturgy. We can't wait to share with you what we have planned for the coming year!
Membership Chairs:
Melanie Anastopulos (619)218-9778, melanieanastopulos@gmail.com
Kelly Samouris (619)871-4702, nyckelly@cox.net
See the attached flyer in the Inserts & Fliers section below.
Dance Groups Are Forming Now!
Dance Practices start on October 2nd - Register now on the St. Spyridon website, www.stspyridon.org. It is going to be a fun year to join our Dance and Choral School! If you are interested in teaching or joining the Dance and Choral Board, email youthministries@stspyridon.org
Practice Schedule Starting 10/2/22:
Primary Group (Kinder - 3rd grade) - 12:30 pm – 1:00 pm
Junior Group (4th - 5th grade) - 1:00 pm – 1:30 pm
Middle School (6th - 8th) and High School (9th-12th) Groups - 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
See the attached flyer in the Inserts & Fliers section below.
San Diego Loyal Greek Night - October 9th @ 3:00 PM
Please join the Dance and Choral School for Greek Night on October 9th at 3:00 PM with the San Diego Loyal Soccer Team VS. New Mexico United. Buy your tickets here: https://sdloyal.spinzo.com/san-diego-loyal-vs-new-mexico-united-2022-10-09-GPXVX?group=greek-night-stspyridon-7b67
For questions, contact Kathy Meck at: 760-390-0101 or sprndiva@aol.com.
See the attached flyer in the Inserts & Fliers section below.
OXI Dinner Dance - Reserve Now!
4th Annual OXI Day Dinner Dance on October 29, 2022. AHEPA Chapter 223 San Diego is sponsoring an evening of live music, taverna-style mezedes, dinner and dancing, at the Church Hall beginning at 6:00 pm. Benefitting our Greek Language School. Tickets are $65/person. For reservations contact Christoforos Savvides at 619-709-6067 or sdgreekevents@yahoo.com. Sold out last year. Reserve now.
See the attached flyer in the Inserts & Fliers section below.
Upcoming Memorials for October
Sunday, October 2nd - Fr. Elias Velonis - 40 days
Sunday, October 23rd - Georgia Afendoules - 1 year
Sunday Fellowship Sponsors are Needed
Many of the Sundays in October and November are available. Please consider sponsoring with your friends and family. Let's keep it simple by providing cookies or donuts, fruit, and juice. To reserve your date contact Anne Zouvas at (619) 248-6644. Thank you for supporting this long-standing tradition of our church!
Philoptochos Decorated Feast Day Icons
Philoptochos invites you and your family to commemorate a special Feast Day by offering a donation towards a beautifully decorated icon which will be displayed in the Narthex for all to venerate. A suggested donation of $75 payable to the Greek Orthodox Ladies Philoptochos Society is much appreciated.
To reserve your date, contact the office: (619) 297-4165, office@stspyridon.org.
Icons Currently Available for the Month of October:
October 18th - St. Luke the Evangelist
October 23rd - St. James the Apostle;
October 26th - St. Demetrios the Myrrh-Streamer
The Metropolis of San Francisco Stewardship Ministry Continues the Series - “Equipping and Enriching Parish Life”
Please join us on any or all of the Monday evenings: October 17, November 21, and December 19 at 5:00 p.m. Pacific, for a special presentation on “Revitalizing Parish Health & Achieving Operational Excellence: Examining Six Critical Areas of Parish Life.”
Over the past two years, our world has shifted. And while our Orthodox theology, worship, and ethos remain intact, many parishes have struggled to adopt – or define - the “new normal” for parish life and ministry involvement. To assist our parishes in their journeys, during this segment, our speakers will:
• Explore the new context and shifting landscape facing our parishes in the post-pandemic world (and “carry-over” opportunities that our parishes were already encountering).
• Identify the six most critical areas of parish life which are vital to revitalizing Parish Health and optimizing Operational Effectiveness.
• Share new tools and an emerging Orthodox ministry dedicated to helping parishes achieve transformational change.
For more information, please email metropolis@sanfran.goarch.org or call 415-753-3075.
See the attached flyer in the Inserts & Fliers section below.
Read the September 2022 Shepherd Online Version
https://www.theshepherdnews.com/
Kids' Corner for Children Under Age 3
Located in the Education Building downstairs. Every Sunday after receiving Holy Communion, kids (age 3 and under) and parents can come and play, meet new friends and hang out with old friends! Toys for kids and coffee for parents are provided!
Give Back 0.5% From the “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.
downstairs
Register Below https://forms.gle/a9eeUYv49ZcNFeA76
Started September 18th
Philoptochos Munchies, Mimosas, & More Letter
Practices Start on October 2nd
October 9th @ 3 PM
October 17th @ 5 PM, PDT November 21st @ 5 PM, PDT December 19th @ 5 PM, PDT
Saturday, October 29th @ 6 PM
2022 Stewardship Card
Online Stewardship Giving
The Department of Religious Education (DRE) of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, with the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros, is pleased to announce that the Metropolis of New Jersey will host the 39th Annual St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival Nationals at the St. George Greek Orthodox Church in Clifton, NJ, on the weekend of June 9 to 11, 2023.
The Family Wellness Ministry and the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries from the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco are pleased to the announce them continuation of the popular relationship series, Eight Dates, based on the book Eight Dates:
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 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 of the Lord Jesus. 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? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how He told you, while He was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into 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.
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.
1st Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 5:1-11
At that time, as Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, he saw two boats by the lake; but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had ceased speaking, he said to Simon, "Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." And Simon answered, "Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets." And when they had done this, they enclosed a great shoal of fish; and as their nets were breaking, they beckoned to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." For he was astonished, and all who were with him, at the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men." And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Our righteous Mother Euphrosyne, who lived during the reign of Saint Theodosius the Younger (408-450), was the daughter of Paphnutius of Egypt. Forsaking her father and his wealth, she renamed herself Smaragdus, and pretending to be a eunuch of the imperial palace, she dressed herself as a man and entered a monastery of men where her identity remained unknown until her repose thirty-eight years later.
This Apostle was from Bethsaida of Galilee, and was the son of Zebedee and Salome, and the brother of James the elder. First a fisherman by trade, he became an Apostle and the beloved Disciple of Christ. Only he of all the Disciples followed Him even to the Cross, and was entrusted with the care of our Saviour's Mother, as it were another son to her, and a brother of Christ the Teacher. After this, he preached throughout Asia Minor, especially in Ephesus. When the second persecution against the Christians began in the year 96 during the reign of Domitian, he was taken in bonds to Rome, and there was cast into a vat filled to the brim with boiling oil. Coming forth therefrom unharmed, he was exiled to the island of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. Returning again to Ephesus after the death of the tyrant, he wrote his Gospel (after the other Evangelists had already written theirs) and his three Catholic Epistles. In all, he lived ninety-five years and fell asleep in the Lord during the reign of Trajan in the year 100. He was called Theologian because he loftily expounded in his Gospel the theology of the inexpressible and eternal birth of the Son and Word of God the Father. It is for this cause that an eagle-a symbol of the Holy Spirit, as Saint Irenaeus says-is depicted in his icon, for this was one of the four symbolic living creatures that the Prophet Ezekiel saw (Ezek. 1:10).
These Martyrs contested for the Faith during the reign of Diocletian, in the year 288. Saint Callistratus was arrested as a Christian, and after being tormented, was enclosed in a sack and cast into the sea. The sack burst, and the Saint came to dry land safe and sound. Forty-nine soldiers, seeing this, also confessed Christ, and with him were cast into prison, then beheaded.
The Prophet Baruch was the son of Nerias, and the disciple of the Prophet Jeremias ( Jer. 39:12; 43:4 LXX). The extant prophetical book that he wrote is divided into five chapters; it was composed in the fifth year of the Babylonian Captivity of the Jews during the years of Sedekias, 583 B.C. The prophetic lection that is read on the eve of the Feast of Christ's Nativity, which bears Jeremias' name, is taken from the prophecy of Baruch (Bar. 3:35-4:4). His name means "blessed."
This Saint was born in Corinth in 448. He went to Palestine to the Lavra of Euthymius the Great, but because of his youth was sent by Saint Euthymius to Saint Gerasimus; after the death of Saint Gerasimus he returned to the Lavra of Saint Euthymius. Later he took on a more rigorous life of asceticism in the wilderness of Natoufa, where there was nothing to eat except the exceedingly bitter wild herb called squills, which, however, through his prayers, God made sweet for him and his disciple. He lived 107 years and reposed in the year 555.
This Saint, a Parthian by race, was the son of Anak. He was born about the year 240 and was taught the Faith of Christ in Caesarea of Cappadocia. He entered the service of Tiridates, King of Armenia, but when discovered to be a Christian, he was subjected to many horrible torments at the King's hands, then was cast into a pit of mire with poisonous serpents and left to die. By the power of God, however, he abode there unharmed for fourteen years, his needs provided by a certain widow, until he was made known by revelation and set free. He converted to piety innumerable multitudes of Armenians, including Tiridates himself, and was consecrated bishop by Leontius, Archbishop of Caesarea, to shepherd the vast flock he had gained for Christ. He spent the last part of his life in retirement in the ascetical discipline, and reposed in peace about the year 325. Saint Gregory is honoured as the Illuminator of Armenia.
Saint Romanos flourished during the reign of Anastasius (491-518). He was from Emesa of Syria, and apparently was born of Jewish parents, for a hymn written in his honour in Greek says he was "of Hebrew stock," and it has furthermore been noted that he uses many Semitic idioms in his writings. He was baptized an Orthodox Christian, and at some time became a deacon in the Church of Beirut. He was the first composer of the kontakia, the foremost of which is that of the feast of Christ's Nativity, On this day the Virgin .... In composing many of his kontakia. Saint Romanos was inspired by the hymns of Saint Ephraim of Syria.