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

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.

At the 20th All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America, the Dioceses of Alaska and Mexico offered presentations on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons, July 19-20. After much interest, they are now available online.

The All-American Council was inspired by these presentations and expressed great support for the hard work being done in these two dioceses, both of which face unique challenges. His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon personally pledged substantial financial support towards both of these dioceses over the next ten years.

His Beatitude further encouraged parishes and dioceses across the Orthodox Church in America to support the work of the Dioceses of Alaska and Mexico both spiritually and financially.
Please consider helping support the work in Alaska and Mexico by giving generously:

Diocese of Alaska
Visit their website here and click the “donate” button.

Diocese of Mexico
Support for the Diocese of Mexico can be done through wire transfer at your local bank or through a third party such as Wise. The Diocese asks that you please contact Deacon Thomas and Deacon Ken here for any donations more than $1,500 in a single installment.

Wire Transfer Information:

BENEFICIARY: IGLESIA ORTODOXA CATOLICA EN MEXICO EXARCADO DE LA IGLESIA ORTODOXA EN AMERICA
BANK ACCOUNT: 072180002163152500
SWIFT CODE: MENOMXMTXXX

View: Diocese of Alaska Forum
View: Diocese of Mexico Forum

To the clergy, monastics, and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America,

As Hurricane Ian approaches Florida and as we see the extensive damage to the Atlantic Provinces from Hurricane Fiona, I am calling on all of the faithful of the Orthodox Church in America to intensify their prayer for the affected and suffering of both these regions.

Hurricane Ian is predicted to make landfall shortly. Its strength is considered extremely dangerous and millions of people are under mandatory evacuation orders. Likewise, a few days ago, Hurricane Fiona devastated Atlantic Canada, killed three people, swept entire homes out to sea, and leaves thousands without power.

I ask that you intensify your prayers for everyone in the midst of these natural disasters. In particular, for those facing Hurricane Ian, please pray for the safety of the people and parishes of the Orthodox Church in America in addition to all Floridians. Likewise, pray for those suffering and struggling to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Fiona. For those who have already lost their lives in this disaster we ask that the Lord grant them a place of rest “where there is neither sickness, nor sorrow, nor sighing, but life everlasting”.

May Christ our true God, who “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’” (Mk. 4:39), protect all facing the coming storm and bring comfort and hope to those now suffering.

I remain sincerely yours in Christ,

+Tikhon
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

God grant many years! to: Vincent Melesko on the occasion of his birthday.

Memory Eternal: on the anniversay of the repose of Nadine Faro.

Please continue to pray for our catecumen David.

• 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.

Hieromartyr Cyprian, Virgin Martyr Justina, and Martyr Theoctistus, of Nicomedia (304). Bl. Andrew, Fool-for-Christ, at Constantinople (936). Repose of Rt. Blv. Princess Anna of Kashin (1338). Ven. Cassian of Uglich (1504). Martyrs David and Constantine, Princes of Georgia (740). Righteous Warrior Theodore Ushakóv (1817).

Tone 7 Troparion (Resurrection)

By Your Cross You destroyed death.
To the thief You opened Paradise.
For the Myrrhbearers You changed weeping into joy.
And You commanded Your disciples, O Christ God,
to proclaim that You are risen,//
granting the world great mercy.

Tone 4 Troparion (St. Cyprian)

By sharing in the ways of the Apostles,
you became a successor to their throne.
Through the practice of virtue, you found the way to divine contemplation, O inspired one of God;
by teaching the word of truth without error, you defended the Faith, even to the shedding of your blood.//
O Hieromartyr Cyprian, entreat Christ God to save our souls!

Tone 7 Kontakion (Resurrection)

The dominion of death can no longer hold men captive,
for Christ descended, shattering and destroying its powers.
Hell is bound, while the Prophets rejoice and cry:
“The Savior has come to those in faith;//
enter, you faithful, into the Resurrection!”

Tone 1 Kontakion (St. Cyprian)

You turned from the art of sorcery to the knowledge of God,
and were shown forth as a skillful healer for the world, Cyprian, inspired by God.
Together with Justina you grant cures to those who honor you;//
with her, pray to the Master Who loves mankind that He may save our souls!

Communion Hymn

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

October 2, 2022
Protocol 10/001

To the Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America,

My Beloved Children in the Lord,

‘Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Sing to him a new song, play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.’ (Ps. 33:1, 3).

Music suffuses the scriptures, starting from the first pages of the Pentateuch. In the fourth chapter of Genesis we read of Jubal, ‘the father of all such as handle the harp and organ’ (Gen. 4:21). Songs of holy people are found throughout the Old Testament and the New: the songs of Miriam, Moses, Deborah, Hannah, David, Habakkuk, Isaiah, Jonah, the Three Children, Zachariah, and the most Holy Theotokos, to name but a few.

But of course, even before the first father Adam was formed, when the physical world was first coming into being, the scriptures speak of music: ‘the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy’ (Job 38:7). ‘Praise the Lord, O sun and moon,’ says the psalmist (Ps. 148:3). Music is, in some mysterious way, part of creation and part of redemption, such that even heaven is filled with song. ‘With the angels’ song we cry to thee, All-powerful: Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, O God’ (troparion from the Morning Prayers). And this song, though it begins in time, extends beyond time, and is taken up by the angels and saints forever. As such, the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian is perhaps the most musically rich text of all scripture, full as it is of canticles and invocations of song: ‘And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints’ (Rev. 5:9, 14:3, 15:3).

Today in our churches, we carry on the tradition of sacred song, bridging the gap, as it were, between those ancient songs sung by prophets and patriarchs and the eternal song sung by angels and saints. Our traditions of church music are both a continuation of the ancient worship of the Old and New Covenants and a participation in the heavenly liturgy. This is why the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America has set aside the Sunday following the feast of St. Romanus the Melodist for an annual celebration of church musicianship, to honor singers, choir directors, composers, arrangers, chanters, readers, bell-ringers, hymnologists, translators, hymnographers, and all who help our parishes and their congregations to make a ‘joyful noise unto the Lord’ (Ps. 98:4) so that our temples resound with the praise of God.

I encourage all of our parishes and institutions to take this opportunity to honor those who contribute to church music, and I urge all church leadership to help foster vocations in this area. May we all of us, at all times, according to our own vocation, praise the Lord with ‘psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs’ (Eph. 5:19). And may he in turn be well-pleased with our sacrifice of praise, and rejoice over us, and quiet us with his love, and sing over us in his joy (Zeph. 3:17).

With the blessing of the Lord, I remain sincerely yours in Christ,

+TIKHON
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

People were not created merely to live here on earth like animals that disappear after their death, but to live with God and in God, and to live not for a hundred or a thousand years, but to live eternally. But only Christians can live with God; that is to say, those who rightly believe in Jesus Christ.
Everyone, whoever he may be, desires and seeks prosperity and happiness. To desire what is good for oneself and to seek prosperity or happiness is part of man’s nature, and therefore it is not a sin or vice. But we need to know that here on earth there has not been, and is not, and never will be true and perfect happiness and prosperity; for all our prosperity and happiness is only in God. No one will ever find true happiness and perfect prosperity without God or outside God.
Nothing in this world but God can fill our heart or fully satisfy our desires. A fire cannot be put out with brushwood and oil, because only water will put it out. In exactly the same way, the desires of the human heart cannot be satisfied with the goods of this world, because only the grace of God can quench the thirst of our desires.
Everything we desire pleases us only so long as we do not possess it; and when we get it, we soon get tired of it. Or only what we do not as yet have seems to us good and attractive; while all that we have, even though it is the very best, is either not good enough for us or does not attract us. A good example of this is King Solomon who, as is well known, was so rich that all the household plate and furniture in his palaces was of pure gold; he was so wise that kings came to visit him; and he was so glorious that his foes were terrified of him. Being wiser and mightier than all his contemporaries, he was able to satisfy all his wishes and desires, so that there was hardly a thing in the world which he did not possess or could not obtain. But with all this he could not satisfy his heart, and the desires of his heart wearied and tormented him far more than an ordinary man: and in the end, having tried everything in the world, he said in his writings: Everything in this world is vanity, and nothing can satisfy our desires.
Truly not a single earthly pleasure can satisfy our heart. We are strangers on earth, pilgrims and travelers; our home and fatherland are there in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom; and there do not exist on earth things which could perfectly satisfy our desires. Let a man own the whole world and all that is in the world, yet all that will not interest him for more than a minute, so to speak, and it will never satisfy his heart: for the heart of man can be fully satisfied only by the love of God and therefore God alone can fill the heart and soul of man and quench the thirst of his desires.
And so, do you wish to live with God there, in the Kingdom of Heaven? Be an Orthodox Christian. Do you want prosperity and happiness? Seek it in God. Do you want your heart to be fully satisfied? Turn it to God from Whom you have been separated by your sins.

However, no one by himself, without Jesus Christ, can turn and draw near to God, because our sins, like a high wall, do not let us come to Him. And unless Jesus Christ in His mercy to us had come down to earth, and unless he had taken to Himself our human flesh and by His death destroyed the wall which separated us from God, everyone would have perished and not a single soul could have drawn near to God or lived with Him. For everyone is a sinner and is born in sin from his mother’s womb; and even in an infant, though it knows nothing of the world and does nothing, there is already the seed of sin.
Therefore Jesus Christ is our Redeemer, Saviour, Deliverer and Benefactor. Now everyone who wants to do so can return to God and enter the Kingdom of Heaven
But there is only one way into the Kingdom of Heaven, and that is the very way that Jesus Christ went when He lived on earth. There is no other way, and never was and never will be, for Jesus Christ said: I am the way, and if anyone wishes to follow Me let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow Me.
And so, for every Christian, and even for every human being, it is extremely necessary to know how to find the way and how to follow it. And there I want to talk to you about the way; and although I know myself that I cannot show it to you as I ought, yet I shall try according to my powers, trusting in Jesus Christ Who can use dirt itself for healing and curing.
Now, whoever comes across my book and wants to read it will find in it nothing but a poor and feeble explanation of the Way into the Kingdom of Heaven. But if anyone reads it through with prayers to Jesus Christ, He, being almighty, even by these words of mine can enlighten and warm the heart of the reader.

Itrtoduction

Indication
of the Way into the
Kingdom of Heaven
by
Saint Innocent
Bishop of Kamchatka, the Kurilian and Aleutian islands Enlightener of America

Useful Resources and References

Parish Shared Folder (for all documents, bulletins etc) - http://bit.ly/St-Alexis

The QR Code here may be used as well.

Parish Members' Directory - https://stalexischurch.sharepoint.com 

This directory contains access to studies, sermons, and many other resources. It does require a login to access this "internal" site, so please see Fr Steven for this information.

Parish Web Site - http://www.stalexischurch.org ; calendar (https://bit.ly/StA-Calendar)

Facebook - @stalexisorthodox

Youtube Channel - https://bit.ly/StA_Youtube

Join Zoom Meeting

https://bit.ly/StA-Zoom

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Troparion to St Alexis

O righteous Father Alexis, / our heavenly intercessor and teacher, / divine adornment of the Church of Christ! / Entreat the Master of All / to strengthen the Orthodox Faith in America, / to grant peace to the world / and to our souls, great mercy!