Jesus Christ taught us to love and serve all people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. To understand that, we need to look no further than to the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, it is offered "on behalf of all, and for all." As Orthodox Christians we stand against racism and bigotry. All human beings share one common identity as children of God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatian 3:28)

Members of our Parish Council are:
Joseph Barbera - Council Member at Large
Susan Davis- Council Member at Large
Carolyn Neiss - President
Marlene Melesko - Vice President
Susan Egan - Treasurer
Dn Timothy Skuby - Secretary

Parish Shared Folder - http://bit.ly/St-Alexis
Parish Members' Directory - https://stalexischurch.sharepoint.com (See Fr Steven for login information)

Pastoral Care - General Information

Emergency Sick Calls can be made at any time. Please call Fr Steven at (860) 866-5802, when a family member is admitted to the hospital.
Anointing in Sickness: The Sacrament of Unction is available in Church, the hospital, or your home, for anyone who is sick and suffering, however severe. 
Marriages and Baptisms require early planning, scheduling and selections of sponsors (crown bearers or godparents). See Father before booking dates and reception halls!
Funerals are celebrated for practicing Orthodox Christians. Please see Father for details. The Church opposes cremation; we cannot celebrate funerals for cremations.

A special thanks to Marlene Melesko who went over to church and cleaned out the front & side flower beds, filled in the potholes, fixed the fence in the back, reinstalled the solar lights in the driveway that the plow guy took out, put the gutter back up on the bell tower and took down the reflectors.

Pre-Paschal Parish Clean-up

The council would like to set a date to have a parish clean up, both inside and outside. I am suggesting Saturday, April 9th. Please let a council member know if you can contribute to this effort in some way.

Paschal Celebration

In the hopes of returning to a more "typical" Paschal Celebration, I am proposing that we begins Nocturns at 10:30p. Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in continuation with Paschal Matins and will not be separated as we did last year. The Agapa Meal will follow. Blessing of Pascha Baskets will happen after Holy Saturday Liturgy and at the Agapa Meal.

Summary of Parish Council Meeting
15 March 2022

Financial Report

As reported last month, there are 47 members of the parish. Of those 47, we have received a pledge from 29 members and 18 are still outstanding. No additional pledges have been received to date.

2022 Council Goals/Priorities – The Parish Goals/Priorities Spreadsheet has been developed which includes all of the Parish Ministries. It is color coded as follows: Blue blocks mean they are completed; Yellow block means are the initiatives (things we want to accomplish); Green boxes are in progress; and Red boxes need additional information and are on hold.

• Father has developed a new Communications Site – see the bulletin for information on how to get into this folder. Also expect periodic updates on things that are ongoing at the end of Liturgies on Sundays.

Parking Lot Contract – The parking lot contract is due to be renewed. To simplify the contract, we have decided to eliminate the 3% annual increase as well as the discount ($100) if payment was made in full at the beginning of the contract. Thus the parking contract will be a straight $200/month, $2,400 annually. Father will discuss the contract with Beth the owner of the Bridal Shop who is leasing the parking lot.

Building and Maintenance – Several items need to repaired including : 1)Three of four lights on the ramp are out and they need replacing; 2) During the last snow storm, the down spout on the front of the bell tower came down and needs to be remounted; 3) Several of the lights and associated ballasts are not working and need to be replaced. It was decided that it would probably be best to replace them with LED lights versus florescent lights.

Non-Parish Council Member items – We are looking for some volunteers to run the Zoom Camera and Computer system during the services. As has been discussed in the past, once the service(s) start it is generally very difficult for Father Steven to monitor and or restart the cameras so it would be good to have someone monitor the system during the service. Likewise, we need to solicit for volunteers to work on PR/Social Media items such as writing articles for the Diocesan Newspaper (One Steward).

Choir Rehearsals

Kyle and Sarah would like to have a few minutes (20 or so) of your time to have rehearsal after Liturgy on Sundays in preparation of Holy Week.

Confessions

You may offer your confession at anytime before or after any service (after Liturgy is not the most optimal), on Wednesday's during Open Doors, or by appointment. Please don't wait until Holy Week!

St Elizabeth Fund

For this Lenten season, would ask that you consider supporting our St Elizabeth Fund as part of your alms-giving. We have a parish family that is currently in financial need, above what we currently can provide through the monies we have in the Fund. I am asking to have a special collection the Sundays of Lent to augment the St Elizabeth Fund, so that we can help this family and others of the parish who may have financial need. 

Archpriest Dennis, Archpriest Michael, Deacon Timothy, Evelyn, Katheryn, Anne, Aaron, Veronica, Richard, Nancy, Susanne, Carol, Alexander, Gail, Kelley, Nina, Ellen, Maureen, Elizabeth, Christopher, Joshua, Jennifer, Petra, Olivia, Jessica, Sean, Sarah, Justin, Edward, Dayna and Maria.

Please pray for our catecumens: Daniel and David.

Many Years! to Jack Jankura s on the occasion of his birthday.

___

• Pray for: All those confined to hospitals, nursing homes, and their own homes due to illness; for all those who serve in the armed forces; widows, orphans, prisoners, victims of violence, and refugees;
• All those suffering chronic illness, financial hardship, loneliness, addictions, abuse, abandonment and despair; those who are homeless, those who are institutionalize, those who have no one to pray for them;
• All Orthodox seminarians & families; all Orthodox monks and nuns, and all those considering monastic life; all Orthodox missionaries and their families.
• All those who have perished due to hatred, intolerance and pestilence; all those departed this life in the hope of the Resurrection.

___

Veneration of the Cross. Martyr Matrona of Thessalonica (3rd-4th c.). Martyrs Manuel and Theodosius (304). Ven. John the Clairvoyant, Anchorite, of Egypt (394-395).

Tone 5 Troparion (Resurrection)

Let us, the faithful, praise and worship the Word,
co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit,
born for our salvation from the Virgin;
for He willed to be lifted up on the Cross in the flesh,
to endure death,
and to raise the dead//
by His glorious Resurrection.

Tone 2 Troparion (Sunday of Orthodoxy)

We venerate Your most pure image, O Good One;
and ask forgiveness of our transgressions, O Christ our God.
Of Your own will You were pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh
and deliver Your creatures from bondage to the Enemy.
Therefore with thankfulness we cry aloud to You:
“You have filled all with joy, O our Savior,//
by coming to save the world.”

Tone 8 Kontakion (Sunday of Orthodoxy)

No one could describe the Word of the Father;
but when He took flesh from you, O Theotokos, He accepted to be described,
and restored the fallen image to its former state by uniting it to divine beauty.//
We confess and proclaim our salvation in words and images.

(Instead of “It is truly meet…,” we sing the following)

Hymn to the Theotokos

All of creation rejoices in you, O Full of Grace:
the assembly of angels and the race of men.
O sanctified temple and spiritual paradise,
the glory of virgins,
from whom God was incarnate and became a Child –
our God before the ages.
He made your body into a throne,
and your womb He made more spacious than the heavens.
All of creation rejoices in you, O Full of Grace.
Glory to you!

Communion Hymn

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous; praise befits the just! (Ps. 32:1)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
SUNDAY OF THE CROSS
23 March 1984

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
Together with the Holy Scriptures we proclaim that our Lord Jesus Christ is King, Prophet and High Priest of all Creation. And the Lord has told us that in the Christian Church and in the Kingdom, a King is not one who overpowers others to exact from them unconditional and slavish obedience, but He is the one who serves and gives His life for others. St. John Chrysostom teaches us that anyone can rule, but that no one but a king gives his life for his people, because he so identifies with his people that he has no existence, no life, no purpose but to serve them with all his life and if necessary with his death.
When we keep the Feast of the Cross we can realise with new strength, perceive with new depth what the Kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ means. It means a love for us so complete, so total that He can forget Himself ultimately, without any reservation, forget Himself to the point of existing, of living and of dying for us and together with us; forgetting Himself to such an extent, and identifying Himself with us in such a way that in His humanity He accepts the loss of the perception of His oneness with God, with the source of life eternal - indeed, with life eternal within Himself, and become one with our deadness, with our mortality. This is the love that makes our Lord Jesus Christ our worthy King; this is a Kingship which makes every knee to bow before Him.
And it is because He is such that He can also be the High Priest of all Creation. The high priests of the pagan world as well as the High Priests of Israel brought forth as a sacrifice victims with which they identified only metaphorically, symbolically, ritually. The Lord Jesus Christ brought as a victim His own Self, although there was nothing in Him that condemned Him to the death He has taken upon Himself. Doesn't He say in His High-priestly prayer, talking to His disciples that the adversary is coming near, but there is nothing in Him - in Christ - that belongs to him. There is nothing in Christ which belongs in the realm of death and of sin. And to His Father He says: I sanctify Myself for them, I bring Myself as a holy offering for My people. The High Priest who brings Himself frees thereby all other creatures from the horror of blood-offering, but confronts us with an immensity, a depth of love divine which otherwise we could not even fathom: life accepting to be quenched, light accepting to go out, eternity accepting to die the mortality of a fallen world.
And that is why the Word of God can speak to us as a Prophet. A prophet is not one who foretells the future; a prophet is one who speaks for God. One of the prophets of old says that a prophet is one with whom God shares His thoughts. Christ, the Word of God, Christ, the perfect image of Love divine, Christ who not only speaks for God, but who acts, enacts in His life and in His death the Love of God, sacrificial, total, perfect, given ...
And this is why the Feast of the Cross is such a wonder in the experience of the Church. We will never be able to experience what it meant for Him to die upon the Cross, even our own death cannot disclose to us what His death was: how can Immortality die? But what we can learn, what we can discover by communing ever more deeply, ever more perfectly through a daring, wholehearted endeavour with the life, and the teaching, and the ways of Christ - what we can learn is to love in a way that approximates more and more to that love divine, and discover in this love the quality which unites death as forgetfulness of self, ultimate and perfect, with the victory of love, Resurrection and eternal life. Amen.