YouTube link to last Sunday's Liturgy
I've uploaded last Sunday's church services on YouTube:
Sunday (11/01) services: https://youtu.be/UysL8FSDpVQ
Nikki
Western Region Basketball Tournament
There will be NO Western Region Basketball Tournament in February 2021.
GOYA-Sponsored Community Christmas Card
You can sign up now to have your family name included in this year's GOYA Sponsored Community Christmas Card!
GOYA members will be taking names & donations starting this Sunday. The deadline is SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 22nd
Or, if you prefer, you can register & pay online in Realm. Look at the Events section.
Fanari Winter Camp Info
For more information, visit www.fanari.camp
The Ark
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Bible Studies
During the Fall and Winter season the Bible Study will meet each Friday at 10:30 a. m. on Zoom.us (until further notice.)
We are studying The Psalms. Each week, we try to prayerfully and reverently read each word to find another drop of eternal truth and all the words together make up the boundless ocean of Eternal Truth God has so graciously given us. Reading the Bible is more than reading a book, it truly gives us life.
Please come and join us in this new Church Year 2020-2021.
If anyone has any questions, please give Janet Christopulos a call. 414-446-5916.
We Do This More than We’d Like to Admit...
I’m ashamed to admit it, but I do it all the time.
I turn my back on poor people who need money.
I close my ears to people reaching out for human connection.
Because it’s so easy to get wrapped up in things that seem essential to me.
This rich man lacked nothing.
Yet, right at his gate, a poor man lay sick and hungry.
In other words, every time the rich man walked in or out of his front door, he was walking past Lazarus.
He showed complete indifference to the suffering of a man that was right at his gate.
This is a big challenge for us, as Orthodox Christians.
God doesn’t simply call us to “believe Christian ideas.”
He calls us to live as Christians.
This doesn’t merely mean praying and fasting in private. It also means almsgiving and caring for those who need our help.
People who are often right at our gate.
This basic almsgiving matters because, as Saint Paul reminds us in this week’s Epistle reading, we are together One Body united by love.
That’s why this week's episode of “Be the Bee” asks an incredibly difficult question:
Do we act like Christians?
If we say that we believe the same things the first Christians did, we need to act like them.
Because we can’t make the same mistake the rich man did...
Peace,
Steve
PS If you’d like more on this Sunday’s Gospel reading, check out our weekly Bible Study. This week’s conversation was particularly powerful.
The Challenge of Prison Ministry During the Pandemic
It’s Wednesday morning and I say my prayers before a small copy of the Hawaiian myrrh streaming Icon of the Theotokos and I anoint myself with the holy myrrh and ask for Her Holy intercession and protection as I leave the Church rectory for a short 15 minute ride to the state institution at Waymart, Pennsylvania, where I serve as a contract chaplain and coordinate a visitation internship program with St. Tikhon’s Seminary. This program has been in existence since 1987 and Orthodox Seminarians receive training in the “Ministry of Presence” and fulfill the scriptural mandate of Matt.25:36 “I was in Prison and you came to Me.” It’s a cold and brisk morning in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and I arrive at 9:45 a.m. in the front entrance of the prison. As I make my way into the facility, I am met with a nurse dressed in protective gear to take my temperature before, I’m permitted to enter into the secure part of the prison. I pass the test and bio-in. I put on my mask and make my way to the control center and get the keys to my office.
The Prison has been in complete lockdown since the second week of March. The complete lockdown restricts the movement of inmates and thus helps keep everyone safe during the Covid 19 Pandemic. During the Lockdown, no visitors, interns, family members and volunteers are permitted to come into the institution. In late summer, during August, a creative and very innovative visitation program begin to emerge through the modern technology of “Zoom.” With the mutual cooperation between St. Tikhon’s Seminary and the Prison, the visitation program has become quite successful and truly mutually beneficial for the inmates and seminary interns.
As I make my way to the particular units which have been designated for the “Zoom” visitation, I’m met with excitement and genuine enthusiasm coming from the inmates. I’ve been permitted to use a particular conference room for the visitation and I make a “Zoom” connection between St. Tikhon’s Seminary and SCI Waymart. I have a growing list of inmates who want to participate in this virtual visit. I call the officer on the unit block and I read the names of the inmate participants, and they begin making their way from the dormitory style unit to the conference room, which is set up for us with a nice size screen and computer. The program has become so successful we have to break it down into two groups of inmates and each group lasts for at least one hour. We begin this computer-generated visit with a prayer offered by one of the intern seminarians and the session begins. We have 15 seminarian interns waiting and eager to participate in this virtual visit and seeing their excitement on the screen and the inmates expressing genuine gratitude and this week breaking out with spontaneous clapping for having the opportunity to hear from someone say, “How are you doing? Or “How has your week been since we last saw each other.” As we continue in this program, each week creates its own dynamic and I let the conversation take its own course. The main focus of this ministry is; “someone cares and is willing to listen.” All of us have a story that we want to share with someone.
I’m very grateful to SCI Waymart for allowing this pioneering virtual visit to take place and to the administration of St. Tikhon’s Seminary for this cooperative thinking out-of-the box venture. Also for OCPM for providing every year, the material necessary for our interns; books and icons for this outreach and thus help ensure the success of this unique program. For many years, Fr. Stephen Powley came to St. Tikhon’s Seminary prior to the beginning of the visitation program to hold a retreat and share all his beautiful insights and provide encouragement to all the seminarians and make a visit to the facility and speak with staff, inmates and seminarians, so he can see and hear first-hand the important work being accomplished. This year obviously, because of the pandemic he was unable to come. We are praying for a time, when it will be safe for the new director of OCPM; Niko Petrogeorge together with Fr. Stephen to make a visitation to our facility and go on tour. I’m very thankful to all of you who are reading this article and support OCPM. God Bless the new technology like “Zoom” which has become a household word in our country and it has provided continuity for this God-inspired visitation ministry to continue.
Fr. John Kowalczyk
Director of Field Education Studies at St. Tikhon’s Seminary
Contract Chaplain, SCI Waymart
Holiday shopping?
Did you know...
that you can download the RaiseRight app on your smartphone and order your giftcards/egiftcards directly, pay for them and have them shipped to your home???
Our church's Enrollment Code is: 75E18DL54178L
For more information, check out: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AlJQVF0OpLuVjD0sQtJrpKfr29Tp