IN-PERSON WORSHIP CONTINUING WITH GREEN PHASE PRECAUTIONS
50% Capacity. No Reservations Required. No Age Restrictions. Masks and Physical Distance Required. Visit HolyTrinityPgh.Org/coronavirus for details.

 UPDATE ON NON-WORSHIP ACTIVITIES:
Due to rising COVID case levels, the following have been suspended through the end of November: Coffee Hour, Church School classes, In-Person Meetings. Watch email and website for updates on plans for next Sunday, December 6.

TODAY’S EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES

Updated Non-Worship Activity Policy Through the End of November: Coffee Hour, Church School, Meetings

Due to the recent Allegheny County Health Department advisory announcement asking people to curtail gatherings and this week’s change in local school district policies, we will not be offering in-person non-worship activities through the end of November. This includes Coffee Hour, Church School classes and other non-worship activities such as in-person meetings. Watch for further announcements at the end of the month for any changes. Thank you for your understanding as we strive to keep our community and those around us safe and may the mercy of God protect us all!

Please Follow Parish Council Seating/Spacing Instructions - Thank You for Your Cooperation

Your Parish Council members are volunteers you have selected to take an important role in the leadership of Holy Trinity parish life. One of the unexpected responsibilities that has entered their list of duties this year is to provide guidance and directions during the COVID pandemic. Therefore, since they are responsible for monitoring capacity, spacing, entrance, dismissals and more in order to have us all maintain best practices in all these areas, thank you for continuing to respect their guidance with your respectful cooperation when it comes to entering the church, where to sit and how to enter, exit for process in lines. Want to go a step farther? Take a moment to thank them for stepping up in these challenging times!

GOYA Christmas Bread Sales Continue – Order Online!

Holy Trinity GOYA is once again offering their delicious, homemade traditional Greek Christmas bread for sale today through December 17^th. Orders may be placed with any GOYA teen or online at HolyTrinityPgh.org/goyabread (new this year!). Thank you for supporting our faithful teens!

Services This Week:

TOMORROW, Monday, November 30: 8:30am Orthros/9:30am Liturgy – St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle (HT)

“Faith and Family WEEKDAYS” This Week

• Daily: Prayer Partners. Have you remembered your prayer partner every day? Especially in these times! Please maintain the prayer partner you received in January. When we are all together again, we will distribute new cards.

Church School vs Holy Trinity Community Fall Food Drive – Ends Tomorrow!

UPDATE: PLEASE KEEP BRINGING FOOD DONATIONS EVEN DURING THE SUSPENSION OF CHURCH SCHOOL CLASSES! During the month of November, Holy Trinity Church School is once again holding its Fall Food Drive…but this year there is a special twist: it’s Church School vs the Community! All month there will be two food collection bins in the Gallery during Coffee Hour: one for Church School collections and the other for the rest of the community. Which will collect more? We’ll see! At the end the winner will be announced, and a special award given, but the real winners will be those in need who will receive food supplies as we approach the winter months. Items will be donated to the Orthodox Christian ministry at the Neighborhood Resilience Project in the Hill District, which Holy Trinity has been supporting actively since its founding as FOCUS Pittsburgh many years ago. See the list of requested food items at the church office window and thanks for taking the challenge!

OUTREACH NEWS: Christmas Angel Tags – Gifts Due Back by TOMORROW

Thank everyone who participated with such outpouring of compassion and generosity! Please remember that all gifts are due back to the church no later than tomorrow, Monday, November 30. If you have any questions, please call Mike and Julie Kritiotis at 412-766-5001 or Email outreach@holytrinitypgh.org. THANK YOU!!

Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery – Online Auction Ends Tomorrow

The Sisters of the Nativity of the Theotokos Greek Orthodox Monastery invite everyone to participate in an Online Auction. This new and exciting fundraiser is in lieu of their Annual Dinner Banquet, which was cancelled this year due to the pandemic. You can browse their hand-made items, register and bid online at: www.biddingowl.com/NativityTheotokos until the auction closes at 12:00 noon tomorrow, Monday, November 30. You can also make a donation to their Capital Campaign by visiting www.NativityoftheTheotokosMonastery.org. Thank you!

[Dec 6] Holy Trinity Christmas Card and Poinsettias Forms Due December 6
Please remember that the forms and donations for the Holy Trinity Community Christmas Card and Poinsettias are due by next Sunday, December 6. Forms can be found in the November edition of the Herald and at the church office window.

[Dec 7] 6:30pm Special Vespers Service Offered by our Bereavement Support Ministry

Holidays may bring mixed feelings for those experiencing loss and grief. Many of us this year 2020 have experienced various losses especially loss of a loved one. For some, our loved ones have been gone for many years, but the holidays may bring sadness as we remember them. Our Bereavement Support Ministry Team is offering a special Vespers Service for “Our Losses and in Remembering our Loved Ones who have Fallen Asleep in the Lord” on Monday, December 7^th at 6:30 pm in the sanctuary. Father John and Amy Armanious have coordinated this special Vespers Service. We are inviting parishioners and their extended family and friends. It will be a quiet, sacred time for worship, reflection, and prayer. We encourage each person to bring a photo frame of their loved one. We will display these photo frames on a table. A special votive candle will be lit by each photo as a remembrance of the light and warmth that our loved ones have shared in our lives. Also, our Bereavement facilitator Jonathan Kohan will be delivering a brief message titled “Honesty and the Holidays.”  At the end, each person will take home their photo and votive as we focus on God’s abiding love and hope. Please join us for this special evening together as we prepare for the Nativity of our Lord and the Christmas holiday. If you want to learn more, contact Amy Armanious, Visitation Ministry Coordinator at visitation@holytrinitypgh.org.

Philoptochos Turkey Fundraiser - Thank You!

The Ladies Philoptochos would like to thank everyone who has donated to their Annual Turkey Fundraiser so far, this year.  Your donations will be used to assist local needy families and food banks during the holiday season.  If you have not sent in your donation, there is still time to support this worthy cause.  Checks can be made payable to "Holy Trinity Philoptochos" with “Turkey Fundraiser” written on the memo line and mailed to the church office. Thank you!

Festival 2020 Update: Order/Donate for the Holidays!

As announced on July 12^th, out of an abundance of caution for our parish volunteers, our tens of thousands of guests and the community around us, the decision has been thoughtfully and prayerfully made by parish and festival leadership that Holy Trinity Church will not be hosting a public, in-person Festival this year, but will postpone the event until Labor Day weekend 2021. We believe this is in fulfillment of our “Faith. Family. Community.” vision statement by Preserving our Faith, Protecting our Family and Respecting our local Community. However, thanks to the dedicated labors of our Holy Trinity parishioners, a limited amount of full-pan foods are available for purchase. They are available through the "Greek4Home" ordering website, “HolyTrinityPgh.org/Greek4Home”.

While supplies last – and they’re starting to run low! - full ready-to-bake pans of Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pita) and Tiropita (Greek Cheese Pita) are available for only $99. That means you can enjoy our wonderful festival food at home! Buy them now to take and bake at home for family gatherings, graduation parties, or to bake and share with others. Each pan has 28 pre-scored servings. The pans are 20” X 13” and are expertly wrapped in premium protective freezer paper. Just unwrap, follow the basic cooking instructions and enjoy! But that's not all!

Through our "Greek2Give" ordering website, “HolyTrinityPgh.org/Greek2Give” you can also donate a pan of food to a worthy cause! During the COVID-19 crisis, some of our neighbors are having a tough time making ends meet. The first-responders and “heroes” at our hospitals, safety services and social agencies have sacrificed of themselves to protect us. And some local churches are struggling just to survive. With your help, pans of our existing inventory of spanakopita and tiropita will be delivered to local organizations, churches, hospitals, agencies and the Neighborhood Resilience Project, an Orthodox Christian ministry in the Hill District, at no charge as gifts of love from you and the Holy Trinity family. To date, generous parishioners and friends of Holy Trinity Church have donated over 70 pans already, and 60 of them have already been delivered to the charities and agencies above. Thank you for your offerings of love and gratitude to those in need and those who serve us!

OUTREACH OPPORTUNITIES – Please volunteer your family or group to help

Please see Mike Kritiotis today, or contact him at 412-518-0588, or at outreach@holytrinitypgh.org to sign up your family/group/ministry for either of these two worthy causes! Thank you, good and faithful servants of Christ!

• 1. Two Dates Still Available to Feed the Homeless at Pleasant Valley!  Holy Trinity has a long-standing commitment to serve meals to the men at Pleasant Valley homeless shelter.  This organization, near our old neighborhood on the North Side, provides overnight accommodations to 30 homeless men, 365 nights each year and relies totally on volunteers to feed the men.  The following dates in 2021 are available, to prepare and deliver the food (due to covid-19 restrictions, we are to drop off the food curbside) - these are all Sunday evenings, and food needs to be there by 7:45pm. (Also, we do have parishioners who have expressed interest in helping families with delivering the food to the shelter.) Available Dates: May 9 and Sept 12. 
• 2. Sign Up to Provide Bag Lunches for Needy Families.  It’s time once again to get your group or family together for a meaningful day of giving to the poor and hungry in our region. Sponsored through the Orthodox outreach of the “Neighborhood Resilience Project”, the 2021 weekly schedule of delivering 140 lunch bags to our less fortunate neighbors every Saturday of the year, has many open dates available. Holy Trinity Church’s participation has been critical in fulfilling this goal in the past, and we are grateful for our parishioners’ renewed generosity this time around.

Snow Cancellations – Where to Check

Please keep in mind over the winter months that there are a number of options to hear or read about event or service cancellations in the case of snow or inclement weather on the Holy Trinity "Snow Line." First stop: Check our website at www.HolyTrinityPgh.org. To hear by phone, call the church office (412-366-8700) then press option #8 and listen for a recorded weather cancellation announcement. To get updates by computer or smartphone, there are three options: 1) watch the parish email list for email announcements; 2) check the front page of our website, www.HolyTrinityPgh.org; or 3) friend us on Facebook at Facebook.com/holytrinitypgh. Finally, to get information by radio or television, watch the KDKA Storm Center, as Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is registered there.

Holy Trinity Church Completion and 2023 Consecration Plan Approved

We are pleased to report that the November 10, 2020, General Assembly unanimously approved the Church Completion and Consecration proposal and plans will be moving forward to complete the necessary items so Holy Trinity Church can be consecrated by the end of 2023. This is historically significant because 2023 also celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the founding of Holy Trinity Church. The plan provides for completing all of the items required for consecration including: completing the remaining iconography in the Church and Narthex; installation of numerous items of handcrafted ecclesiastical wood furnishings, most notably a permanent iconostasis and required new Holy Altar table; Altar furnishings and other liturgically required  items for the Consecration; and more appropriate seating to replace the temporary chairs in the Church. A very realistic plan to raise the needed monies for the project over the next 3 years has been developed. It comprises a combination of funds from the Greek Festival and catering income, as well as parishioner donations, and all without incurring loans or bank financing, so we will remain debt-free having paid off the mortgage this year. We are praying that all of our members will pledge what they are able to over the 2021–2023 timeframe to fund the completion of our Church for its Consecration. With God’s blessing, together we certainly have this within our means to finish what we started when we originally broke ground here in 2011. Details were presented at the November 10 General Assembly and will be further emphasized in the forthcoming “ONE HOLY TRINITY” Pledge Card for 2021. If there are any questions in the meantime, please feel free to speak with Jim Balouris, Charlie Petredis or George Dickos.  May God continue to richly bless His Holy Church!

To the Faithful Stewards of Holy Trinity Church

In the past few months when some have been limited in their ability physically meet on Sundays, many thanks go to those who have continued to offer their offerings, pledges, and capital campaign contributions. We have expanded out opportunities to do so and now have a number of ways. The first way is that you can continue to bring or mail your donations to the church using the offering/capital campaign envelopes. The second way is Give By Web - the online method on the church’s website. Go to HolyTrinityPgh.org/give, or from the home page click on the Online Giving Tab. The third way is Give By Text, which is as easy as sending a text with the amount you would like to donate to 833-955-2176. You will receive a confirmation link immediately via text. The fourth way is Give By App using the Vanco GivePlus app, found in the App Store and on Google Play. Find information on it and more at HolyTrinityPgh.org/give-info. Lastly, we continue to encourage everyone to reach out to members of our church family and let them know they are being thought of, prayed for and most importantly loved. And, of course, for those still not able or ready to return to in-person services, they may continue to worship together in spirit online with our services as they are broadcast online (made possible through your offerings of love) at HolyTrinityPgh.org/live. Thank you and God bless you, faithful stewards!

Holy Trinity Church in “Green Phase”

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Savas, we are so thankful to be able to continue welcoming our Holy Trinity family back to worship in-person and together as a community in the Church. As previously announced, we are now in the “Green Phase.” This means some important things for our worship and community life:

• Greater Attendance Levels: We can accommodate up to 50% of our capacity (approximately 250 people in both the main church and the Grand Room)
• Age Restrictions Lifted: All ages are welcome to attend.
• Masks and Physical Distance: Masks are still required, and safe levels of physical distancing will still be practiced in both seating and moving around. PLEASE RESPECT THESE PRECAUTIONS AND BE SURE YOUR SEATING IS PROPERLY DISTANCED. ALSO PLEASE DO NOT CONGREGATE IN THE NARTHEX.
• Veneration: The faithful may return to their customary practice of venerating icons and sacred objects if they choose, or they may continue to reverence them by bowing, depending on their comfort level.
• Holy Communion: Parishes are free to return to their customary parish practice of customary method of distributing and receiving the Holy Gifts.
• Coffee Hour and Meetings May Resume: We are free to resume holding Coffee Hour and meetings, provided that we respect the 50% capacity and physical distance guidelines.