Blessing of our Church Musicians
It is a tradition in our Archdiocese to bless our Church Musicians on the Sunday after the Feast of St. Romanos, the patron of Church Musicians. Even though our choir has not started back in full force, our chanters have continued to lead the singing of our beautiful hymns; they have been joined by voices throughout our scattered congregation. We pray one day soon our whole choir will be able once again to lead us in singing the praises of God.
Because the blessing was passed over last week, this week at the end of Liturgy today, we ask that all our church musicians present come forward (keeping appropriate spacing) to receive the blessing in the name of all our church musicians. May God bless their continued labor for His glory!
Fellowship Hour
No Fellowship Hour this week. The Church Hall will be abuzz with activity, preparing, bagging and distributing this month's Greek meal! We will be back together next week.
Services this Week
Our Weekday Liturgy this week is our celebration of the Holy Martyr Longinus the Centurion (the Centurion at our Lord's crucifixion) on Friday, October 16 at 10:00 am. We will be welcoming Fr. Gregory Potter, who will be celebrating the Divine Liturgy with us.
This Wednesday, our 2nd Wednesday of the month Paraklesis Service, we will celebrate the Paraklesis to the Holy Belt (Agia Zoni) of the Theotokos at 10:00 am. Please contact Father with the names of those you would like prayed for during this service. The Theotokos left us her holy belt as a sign of her continual protection and love for her children. We need her prayers especially in these days of greater diabolical attacks on our Church and society.
Teaching Liturgies
The month of October brings us to our annual formal teaching Liturgies. As in the past, we will divide the teaching part of the Liturgy up into four parts, each for one of the Sundays of October. During the teaching section, Father will stop at various points and explain some historical and theological aspects of prayers or rituals. It is vital for a fruitful praying of the Liturgy that we understand what it is that we are praying for and why we do some things that we do. Please make an effort to be present for these Liturgies to gain a greater appreciation for the most important thing that we can do as human beings!
Orthodox Book Club
Our Book Club is moving on to a new book: The Gurus, the Young Man, and Elder Paisios. We meet on Thursdays at 7:30 pm on line. If you would like to read and discuss this fascinating book, please tell Father so you can receive an invitation to join the on-line discussion.
Re-Catechism Sessions
We have brought our session on Modern Orthodox Saints to a conclusion. Now we turn our sites to our next session The Church in the World: How to Approach Modern Questions with an Ancient Faith. We will be discussing sections of the recent publication For the Life of the World: Towards a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church, approved by the Patriarch and the Holy Synod. The text presents an Orthodox approach to contemporary questions. The text will provide material for a robust discussion, both about the approach taken by the authors and about the Orthodox view of these questions. You can find a copy of the text (you can choose either English or Greek!) at https://www.goarch.org/social-ethos.
Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 20 at 7:00 pm . on Zoom, and we will meet every other week for 8 sessions. If you do not have zoom or internet access, there is the ability to join on telephone. If you would like to join but do not have internet access, please speak with Father.
A Special Visit
We will be having our weekday Liturgy next week on Friday, October 16 in memory of the martyr Longinus the Centurion. We will be having a special visitor that day. You may remember the young Subdeacon who spent the summer with us. Now, Fr. Gregory Potter will be joining us for Liturgy on October 16 to celebrate Liturgy with us! We will also get to meet Presbytera. Please join us that day to welcome Father and Presbytera!
Our Virtual Festival
Because of present circumstances we are not able to have our annual Greek Food Festival, which provides a large part of our budget for the endfing of the year. We are trying to replace this income with our monthly meals. Another way is to buy a virtual piece of the Festival. This is our normal way of raising needed funds for the Festival and trying to make it as profitable as possible. If you are a regular buyer of a piece of the Festival, please consider doing that again this year; if you aren't this year would be a great one to do that. You received the information in the mail; you can also find it in the Bulletin inserts part of this Bulletin. Thank you once again for your faithfulness and generosity.
Light a Virtual Candle
Have you wanted to light a candle in church, but weren't able to be there for some reason? Maybe you were not feeling well enough to go, or it was a weekday and the church was closed. Now you can light a virtual candle on our website. What a great way to participate in prayer in the church when you are watching the Liturgy on line! Go any time of the day or night to http://www.holytrinitynh.org/media/light-a-candle.
Please Remember the Poor
Because we have been away from our church building for so many months, our supply of food for the food pantry has dwindled to almost nothing. Please remember once again to do your Lazaros shopping when you are out! If even a few people bring a few things, we will have an abundance to help those in need.
On-Line Giving
Because of the strange circumstances we find ourselves living through, our Parish, although blessed by God in many ways, suffers from a particular shortage of income during the summer months. Your consistent offering of your Stewardship each month will be an enormous help to get us through this summer slump. The easiest and most consistent way to do this is by having your Stewardship given automatically each month. Please go to our website (www.holytrinitynh.org); in the upper right hand corner (of each page!) you will find the link to make your monthly contribution. You can also use this link for other contributions to the parish, such as candles and trays, especially if you prefer not to handle cash. Thank you for your generosity and making sure we are able to serve you throughout the whole year to the glory of God!