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Annunciation Church
Publish Date: 2021-03-14
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Eden
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Annunciation Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (231) 799-0185
  • Street Address:

  • 185 East Pontaluna Road

  • Muskegon, MI 49444


Contact Information






Services Schedule

Orthros/Matins: Sunday, 9:00 AM
Divine Liturgy:
 Sunday, 10:00 AM

 

 


Past Bulletins


Parish Calendar

  • Parish Calendar

    March 14 to March 21, 2021

    Sunday, March 14

    9:00AM Matins Service (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, March 15

    Clean Monday: Lent Begins

    6:00PM Great Compline

    Tuesday, March 16

    7:00PM Lenten Book Discussion on "Thinking Orthodox"

    Wednesday, March 17

    9:30AM Prosfora Baking

    6:00PM Presanctified Liturgy

    Friday, March 19

    6:00PM Salutations to the Theotokos

    Saturday, March 20

    9:00AM Matins Service (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy: Saturday of the Souls

    Sunday, March 21

    Artoklasia (Blessing of the Five Loaves)

    Parish Council Meeting

    9:00AM Matins Service (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy: Sunday of Orthodoxy

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New Icon

    New Icon

    New Icon

    Our Iconography, Panayiotis Mihalopoulos has graciously finished yet another icon for our parish, the Mocking of Christ. In this icon, Christ is mocked by the unbelievers with a crown of thorns, a robe, and beaten by Pontius Pilate's men before His Crucifixion. This rare icon originates from the monasteries of Mount Athos and was written by Theophanes the Cretan in the 16th century. Panagiotis plans to have this icon installed after Pascha.


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Sunday School Games

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Patriarchal Catechetical Homily

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Parish News & Events

Philoptochos Koliva Offering

Philoptochos is accepting donations to prepare koliva for parishioners who would like to have their loved ones commemorated for the Saturday of Souls liturgies. The suggested donation is $25 per bowl of koliva and all donations will go towards the ministry of Philoptochos. To order koliva and to submit names, click here.


Liturgies for the Saturday of Souls

This Saturday, March  13th we will hold the second Saturday of Souls service with Orthros @  9 AM & Divine Liturgy @ 10 AM. Names of the departed can be emailed to Fr. John or placed in the basket located in the narthex of the Church. 

  • Saturday of Souls Liturgy, March 13th
  • Clean Monday - Lent begins Monday, March 15th
  • Saturday of Souls Liturgy, March 20th

Online Text for this Saturday's Service:


Live Streaming

The Orthros and Divine Liturgy for Sunday will be streamed live around  8:40 AM. To access the stream please click here.

If you would like to pray along, click on the links below for Sunday's service:

If you are experiencing technical issues or have questions about the live stream during a live Sunday service, John Wehmer is available for assistance and he can be reached at home (616-847-6409) or on his cell (616-502-4800).


Sunday of Orthodoxy - Icon Procession

The Sunday of Orthodoxy will take place next Sunday, March 21st. To commemorate the restoration of the Holy Icons back to Christ’s Church, we will hold a procession with the Icons towards the end of the Divine Liturgy. All are welcome to bring an icon from home for the blessing and procession of the Holy Icons.


Lenten Book Discussion - Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

We will meet every Tuesday evening at 7 PM for our Lenten book discussion on Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind. Our first meeting will be on Tuesday, March 16th and we will cover the first four chapters.

To access the virtual meeting:

Phone Numbers
(‪US‬)‪+1 628-400-7981‬
PIN: ‪179 208 696#‬
 
Reading discussion schedule:
  • Tuesday, March 16:  Chapters 1 - 4
  • Tuesday, March 23:  Chapters 5 - 7
  • Tuesday, March 30:  Chapters 8 - 10
  • Tuesday, April 6:      Chapters 12 - 14
  • Tuesday, March 13:  Chapters 15 - End

Lenten Service Schedule

  • Pre-sanctified Liturgies will be held every Wednesday during Lent @ 6 PM.
  • Salutations to the Theotokos Services will be held every Friday during Lent @ 6 PM.

 

Parish Nameday
  • Great Vespers & Artoklasia (Blessing of the five loves) for the Annunciation will take place on Wednesday, March 24th @ 6:00 PM.
  • Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Annunciation will take place on Thursday, March 25th with Orthros @ 9:00 AM and Divine Liturgy @ 10:00 AM. 

All services will be live-streamed and the text for the services can be found on www.agesinitiatives.com.


Philoptochos Outreach

Philoptochos is collecting donations for the Muskegon Rescue Mission to help sponsor their Easter meal. Each table provides full plates of baked ham with potatoes and gravy - plus salad, coffee, and dessert. A donation of $15.76 will sponsor one table for eight people but any donation amount will help feed the needy on Easter Sunday.
 
Donations may be sent directly to the Rescue Mission or one large donation can be submitted by Philoptochos from our Annunciation Church family. A basket will be at the candle stand for any parishioners who would like to donate to this outreach. The last Sunday to donate will be March 21.

Updated Guidelines

  • Anyone who is currently experiencing any symptoms of illness must stay at home.
  • Pews will be taped off to allow for distancing between individuals/families. Chairs will also be added around the walls of the Church.
  • Parishioners are required to wear masks.  It is recommended that parishioners bring their own masks. Mask will be provided at the candle stand for those who need one. Chanters and clergy are exempt from wearing masks since they are socially distanced. 
  • Please reverence icons by making the sign of the Cross and bowing instead of kissing them.
  • Parishes are not to have choirs until further notice.
  • There will be no liturgical books in the pews.
  • Parishioners are welcomed to receive andithiron after Holy Communion and at the dismissal of the Liturgy. Waxpaper will be provided.
  • Traditional trays/baskets will not be passed. A wooden donation box will be set up for parishioners who wish to make a Sunday offering as they exit the Church.
  • If you have any questions, please see a parish council member.
Holy Communion Guidelines
It is clearly understood that Holy Communion is the very Body and Blood of Christ which cannot be tainted by any harmful thing and that those who receive it with proper intent of mind and heart cannot be harmed by it. Clergy will follow the following guidelines so that the Holy Sacrament is safely administered:
  • Since there will be no Choir, we ask chantors to proceed for Holy Communion first followed by parishioners who be directed by a member of the parish council.
  • Please allow for at least 6 feet per parishioner. The center aisle of the Church will be marked with tape to help in keeping the appropriate distance between parishioners.
  • To receive communion, parishioners are asked to tilt their heads back so that the Holy Sacrament can be dropped into the mouth. It has been allowed that those receiving the Holy Eucharist can stay seated to make the above recommendations easier. 
  • Parishioners are asked not to touch or direct the communion cloth. An altar boy will hold the communion cloth under the chin.
  • Further instructions will be given in Church.

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Saints and Feasts

Eden
March 14

Forgiveness Sunday

The Holy Fathers have appointed the commemoration of Adam's exile from the Paradise of delight here, on the eve of the holy Forty-day Fast, demonstrating to us not by simple words, but by actual deeds, how beneficial fasting is for man, and how harmful and destructive are insatiety and the transgressing of the divine commandments. For the first commandment that God gave to man was that of fasting, which the first-fashioned received but did not keep; and not only did they not become gods, as they had imagined, but they lost even that blessed life which they had, and they fell into corruption and death, and transmitted these and innumerable other evils to all of mankind. The God-bearing Fathers set these things before us today, that by bringing to mind what we have fallen from, and what we have suffered because of the insatiety and disobedience of the first-fashioned, we might be diligent to return again to that ancient bliss and glory by means of fasting and obedience to all the divine commands. Taking occasion from today's Gospel (Matt. 6:14-21) to begin the Fast unencumbered by enmity, we also ask forgiveness this day, first from God, then from one another and all creation.


Benedict
March 14

Benedict the Righteous of Nursia

This Saint, whose name means "blessed," was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town about seventy miles northeast of Rome. He struggled in asceticism from his youth in deserted regions, where his example drew many who desired to emulate him. Hence, he ascended Mount Cassino in Campania and built a monastery there. The Rule that he gave his monks, which was inspired by the writings of Saint John Cassian, Saint Basil the Great, and other Fathers, became a pattern for monasticism in the West; because of this, he is often called the first teacher of monks in the West. He reposed in 547.


St.-aristobulus
March 15

Holy Apostle Aristobulos of the Seventy, Bishop of Britain

Saint Aristobulos, the brother of Saint Barnabas, was ordained to be bishop in Britain by the Apostle Paul, who mentions him in his epistle to the Romans (16:10). He suffered many afflictions at the hands of the pagans, but also brought many to Christ. Having established the Church there, he finally reposed in peace.


Christodulos
March 16

Christodulus the Wonderworker of Patmos

Saint Christodulus, who was from the region of Nicaea of Bithynia, was the son of Theodore and Anna, and was given the name John. He assumed the monastic habit in his youth and was renamed Christodulus ("slave of Christ" in Greek). At first, he lived the ascetical life in various places, then he received permission and monetary aid from the Emperor Alexis I Comnenus (reigned 1081-1118), and built on the island of Patmos a church and monastery named in honour of Saint John the Evangelist. These buildings stand to this day. However, when the Arabs attacked that place, he fled with his disciples and went to Euboia (Euripus), where also he completed the course of his life about the end of the eleventh century on the 16th of March. The disciples of this righteous man took his sacred incorrupt remains and transferred them to his own monastery, where they repose to this day for the sanctification of those who have recourse to them with faith.


0317patrick-ireland
March 17

Patrick the Enlightener of Ireland

Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and a grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart. In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, "After I came to Ireland - every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed - the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm." After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards struggled in the monastic life at Auxerre in Gaul, under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labours bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his flock, "my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord - so many thousands of people," he says in his Confession. His apostolic work was not accomplished without much "weariness and painfulness," long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times. When he came to Ireland as its enlightener, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner.


Cyril
March 18

Cyril, Patriarch of Jerusalem

This Saint was born in 315, and succeeded Maximus as Archbishop of Jerusalem in 350. He was zealous for the Orthodox Faith, and was a defender of the poor. He was exiled three times by the Arian Emperors Constantius and Valens. But after their death, he was recalled to his throne; he reposed in peace in 386. Of his writings, the most prominent are his catechetical lectures, which are considered the most ancient systematic summary of Christian teaching. Before Saint Cyril, there had been two dioceses, one of Jerusalem, and one of Holy Sion; under Saint Cyril, they were united into one bishopric. See also May 7.


Chrysanthus_and_daria_of_rome
March 19

The Holy Martyrs Chrysanthus and Daria

Saint Chrysanthus, who was from Alexandria, had been instructed in the Faith of Christ by a certain bishop. His father, who was a senator by rank and a pagan, had him shut up in prison for many days; then, seeing the unchanging disposition of his mind, he commanded that a certain young woman named Daria be brought from Athens. She was a very beautiful and learned maiden, and also an idolater, and Chrysanthus' father wedded him to her so that he might be drawn away from the Faith of Christ because of his love for her. Instead of this however, Chrysanthus drew Daria unto piety, and both of them boldly proclaimed Christ and received the crown of martyrdom in 283, during the reign of Numerian, when they were buried alive in a pit of mire.


17_theodore3
March 20

First Saturday of Lent: The Commemoration of the Miracle of Kollyva wrought by Saint Theodore the Tyro

Julian the Apostate, knowing that the Christians purify themselves by fasting most of all during the first week of the Fast -- which is why we call it Clean Week -- planned to defile them especially at that time. Therefore he secretly commanded that during those days the markets be filled with foods that had been defiled with the blood of animals offered in sacrifice to idols. But by divine command the Martyr Theodore (see Feb. 17) appeared during sleep to Eudoxius, then Archbishop of Constantinople. The Saint revealed to him the tyrant's plan, then told him to call the faithful together immediately on Monday morning and prevent them from purchasing those foods, but rather to make kollyva to supply their needs. The bishop asked what kollyva might be, and the Saint answered, "Kollyva is what we call boiled wheat in Euchaita." Thus, the purpose of the Apostate was brought to nought, and the pious people who were preserved undefiled for the whole of Clean Week, rendered thanks to the Martyr on this Saturday, and celebrated his commemoration with kollyva. These things took place in 362. Wherefore, the Church keeps this commemoration each year to the glory of God and the honour of the Martyr.


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Grave Mode

By means of Your Cross, O Lord, You abolished death. * To the robber You opened Paradise. * The lamentation of the myrrhbearing women You transformed, * and You gave Your Apostles the order to proclaim to all * that You had risen, O Christ our God, * and granted the world Your great mercy.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal Second Mode

O Master, Prudence, Guide of Wisdom, Instruction to the foolish and Defender of the poor, strengthen my heart and grant it discernment. Give me words, Word of the Father, for behold, I shall not keep my lips from crying out to You, "O Merciful One, have mercy on me who has fallen."
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Seventh Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 20:1-10

On the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Plagal Fourth Mode. Psalm 75.11,1.
Make your vows to the Lord our God and perform them.
Verse: God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans 13:11-14; 14:1-4.

Brethren, salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed; the night is far gone, the day is at hand. Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves becomingly as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

As for the man who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not for disputes over opinions. One believes he may eat anything, while the weak man eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who abstains, and let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats; for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for God is able to make him stand.


Gospel Reading

Forgiveness Sunday
The Reading is from Matthew 6:14-21

The Lord said, "If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father also will forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

"And when you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by men but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."


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