Sunday of the Prodigal Son. February 24, 2019

Κυριακή τοῦ Ασώτου Το κήρυγμα της Κυριακής εδώ

On February 24, we commemorate the finding of the venerable head of the holy Prophet and Forerunner John the Baptist.

From the Triodion: On this day we remember the parable of the Prodigal Son from the holy Gospel, which the most divine Fathers placed second in the Triodion.
By Your ineffable love for humanity, O Christ our God, have mercy on us. Amen.

• 8:30 am MATINS, 9:30 am DIVINE LITURGY
• The fellowship hour is hosted by GOYA

Monday, February 25, 2019

• 7 pm Spring General Assembly. Invitation here. 2018 Annual Report here.

Tuesday, February 26, 2019

• 5 pm Youth Greek School classes
• 7 pm Adult Greek language class

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

• 7 pm Bible study

Thursday, February 28, 2019

• 7 pm Choir rehearsal
• 7 pm Council of Youth Ministries

Friday, Mar 1, 2019

• 5 pm Youth Greek School classes
• 6:30 pm JOY dance practice
• 7:30 pm GOYA dance practice

Saturday of Souls March 2, 2019

• 8:30 am MATINS, 9:30 am DIVINE LITURGY
• 11:30 am TRISAGION PRAYERS at Lawnview Cemetery
• 6:30 pm Annual feast day and March 25 celebration dinner

Judgment Sunday (Meatfare Sunday) March 3, 2019

• 8:30 am MATINS, 9:30 am DIVINE LITURGY (Youth serving)
• Memorial prayers will be offered for the repose of the soul of Alexandros Ververeli (40-day), of blessed memory
• The fellowship hour will be hosted by Philoptochos

Celebrations, Milestones, Gratitude, Comfort & Support

Pastoral care: If you or someone you know is sick, homebound elderly, or scheduled for surgery, please call the church office to let us know so Fr. John can make a pastoral visit, or to add someone to the prayer list.

Let us pray to the Lord for the health and salvation of: Suffering and persecuted Christians in the Middle East and the non-Christian world,  Polly, Debra, Antonios, Sophia, Stephen, Gina, George, Chryssie, Sandra, Donna, Anthony, Alice, Eugene, George, Patrick, Anne, Virginia, Irene, Konstantinos, Sophia, Dimitrios, Yianni, Matina, George, Madison.

Names will be kept on this list for approximately 3 months. Please resubmit Names if needed. Fr. John will include the submitted names at the Psokomide “Offering of Gifts” during the first part of the liturgy when he prepares the mystical gifts of bread & wine. Please lift these names up to the Lord in your personal prayer life as well.

Prayer for healing: Heavenly Father, physician of our souls and bodies, who have sent our Lord to heal every sickness. Visit and heal us. Grant patience in this sickness, the strength of body and spirit, and recovery of health. Lord, You have taught us to pray for each other that we may be healed. We pray that You heal, guide and protect your servant (s) (pray by name for those who are sick) and grant them the gift of complete health. You are the source of healing and to You we give glory, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Happy wedding anniversary to those celebrating this week: Kyriakodis, Peter & Jennifer; Sandilos, Charles & Maria; Ballas, James & Heidi Garvin; Bandy, Theodore & Jeanette. 

Χρόνια πολλα!  Happy birthday!   God grant you many years!  To those celebrating this week: Michael Blackton, Chris Gabriel, Maria Pries, Gianna Tsaketas, Laurie Tsinontides, Despina Vafiadis, Dimitrios Verros, Nicos Nicolaou, Tatiana Tsinontides, Dimitrios Armenakis, Kristen Lankford, Maria Maragoudakis, Zissis N Pappas, Nikki Bakas, Helen Spilliotis, Isabel Diaz, Vikki Glynos, Gabriel Gonzales, Argie Draganis, Tasia Mullock.

Our deepest sympathy:  to Susan and Stacy Lagakos and family for the loss of Gail Gardiner (Susan Lagakos’ mom) who reposed in the Lord on Tuesday, February 19. May her memory be eternal.

Be Fruitful: Challenging Yourself to Abide in Order to Bear More Fruit

-By Jerry Root (Part two of two)

The message of the love and forgiveness of God and his desire that all might find the fulfillment they are looking for in him is too important to neglect.

Throughout the Gospels, we see the connection between leading others to Christ and directing the new believer to work in this great Kingdom enterprise. God loves people! So many live in ignorance of this fact. He wants them to know his love and deploys those who are abiding in that love to go and tell them. It is a privilege.

The man who had many demons cast out of him longs to go with Jesus. Jesus’ follow-up approach with that man was instead to go tell his family about him and tell them what Jesus has done for him. This man actually went out and proclaimed the gospel in ten cities.

After her encounter with Christ, the woman Jesus met at the well goes and proclaims what she has found to all in her city. Repeatedly in the Gospels, we see those who have had an encounter with Christ eager to tell others about him. In fact, Jesus called his disciples (the New Testament word for a disciple literally means “learner”) that they might “abide” in him; learn from him, by instruction and by contagion.

Then, he deploys them as apostles (the New Testament word for apostle literally means, “sent one” or more specifically “one sent with a message”). Christians who are true followers of Christ will abide in him, and tell others about his love and grace that those others too might know the love of God.

Back to the idea of fruitfulness. If churches are not fruitful, perhaps we should look first to our leadership. Characteristics for leaders are given in the Epistles. The lists of qualities are not exhaustive.

What if churches expected that those in leadership have a record of accomplishment in leading others to Christ—that is, of mentoring others to that level of Christian maturity where those others are also active, each in his or her own vocational context, in making disciples? In fact, no one should be in church leadership who has not yet cultivated these habits.

A church should recognize that if the leadership is not engaged in Christ’s mission in the world, the people will not be led to embrace their opportunities in this regard.

Of course, legalists are likely to arise and if they see their leadership is not reproducing disciples engaged in the work, they will condemn the leadership. That is not the way to tackle fruitlessness. If a church sees that leaders should have a degree of competence in this matter, then mentor them so that they can be proficient.

Jesus said that his disciples (learners) should abide in him and learn the missional arts. Then, once the problem of fruitlessness is tackled, on this level, make it a standard from then on to have leaders who mentor the Body of Christ to fulfill its missional objectives.

We may not always do well. G. K. Chesterton once wrote, “If a job is worth doing it is worth doing poorly.” That is, if something ought to be done, better it be done poorly than not at all.

Perhaps Jesus had something like this in mind when he said, “Abide in Me and bear fruit,” and if pruning is needed so you will bear more fruit, then he will be with you in the process for Kingdom good.

Jerry Root, Ph.D., is Professor of Evangelism at Wheaton College and Director of the Evangelism Initiative out of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College.

 “Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future”

The theme of our 50^th Anniversary Campaign is “Honoring Our Past, Building Our Future”.  Did you know that we are the 6^th Oldest Greek Orthodox Parish in the United States and the oldest in Philadelphia?  Our community was founded in 1901 and on February 22, 1907, was granted a charter of incorporation by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the official name of “The Greek Orthodox Community of Philadelphia”.  Greek immigrants from throughout the Easter Mediterranean region had begun settling in the Philadelphia area in the 1870s and established the community in order to worship and continue the Orthodox faith and Hellenic culture.  Once incorporated, the community set about establishing a permanent place of worship and on November 13, 1908, purchased All Saints Episcopal Church at 745 South 12^th Street, converting it into an Orthodox Holy Temple dedicated to the Evangelismos/Annunciation and which became known affectionately as “Old Evangelismos”.  To this day, an icon of the Evangelismos from this Church leads the annual Greek Independence Day parade in Philadelphia to honor the roots of the entire Greek Orthodox community in Philadelphia.

The driving force behind the community in those early years was the Stephano brothers, originally from Alexandria, Egypt.  They envisioned the creation of a Greek Orthodox community and instituted a tithing system for the Greek immigrants who worked at their tobacco business.  Other early pioneers were John Farmakis, John Litras, Demetrious Asemopoulos, Sarantos Zavakos, John Nestopoulos, Thomas Pappas, Vasilios Athanasiou, John Strountsos, Fotios Politos, Athanasios Damianos, and others.  Their names are inscribed on the original Charter of Incorporation which still hangs in the Parish Office for all to see.

In order to accommodate the moving of parishioners from the city to the northern and western suburbs, the Parish was apportioned in 1963 with some parishioners forming St. Demetrios Parish in Upper Darby and others relocating Annunciation/Evangelismos to a temporary location at 504 Elkins Avenue in Elkins Park, PA.  On June 8, 1968, construction of the Hellenic Cultural Center began on our current site, formerly the Whitaker estate.  In fact, the heavy side doors to Cultural Center were reclaimed from the Whitaker estate to provide continuity on the site.  The Cultural Center was dedicated in 1969 and in March of 1971, the ground was blessed by Father Limberakis and other local clergy for the construction of the Holy Temple, which was completed in 1972.  On November 19, 1972, Archbishop Iakovos presided at the Thyranoixia (‘door opening ceremony”).  George and Lopi Pavlis became Godparents of the Holy Temple and were given the honor of turning the key and ceremoniously opening the door.

While our 50^th Anniversary campaign honors the 50^th Anniversary of our community in its present location, you can see that we have a long, rich history of devotion and dedication to our Orthodox Faith and our Evangelismos community.  If you have family photographs or recollections and stories that you would be willing to share, particularly of the early 1900s through the 1970s, please contact me at cdalson@comcast.net so we can add them to our archive and share them with the community.  We invite you to come to the office to see the original Charter, and when you are in the Narthex, to look at the plaques on the walls that honor the people involved in the building of our Church.  You will understand that many people gave generously of their time, talent and treasure to see the Community have a new home for worship and a secure future.  We honor them as we also continue their legacy and work to build a bright future for our beloved Evangelismos.

Dean Dalson

50^th Anniversary Campaign Chairperson

• Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey
• New York Abortion Law Encyclical