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.

All are invited to join us at Christ the Savior Parish in Southbury, Sunday November 13th, 2022 at 4:00 pm for the Vespers of St. Nektarios. Please note this is the Sunday after his Feast Day.
There will be a procession with his relics, prayers for the sick and anointing with the oil from St. Nektarios’ tomb.  A light Buffet will follow.  On the feast, Wednesday November 9th, there will be Divine Liturgy at 9:30 am.
Christ the Savior Orthodox Church
1070 Roxbury Rd Southbury Ct. 06788
 203 267 1330  www.christsaviorchurch.org

Available

If you are in need of firewood for your woodburning stove, please contact Fr Steven, he has penty and would be willing to augment your supplies.

Sharepoint Issues

There are currently issues with accessing the St Alexis Sharepoint drive. I am working to resolve the problem, but at the moment, no one can login. I will keep you posted as to how things progress with the trouble-shooting.

Parish "Coffee Hour" Discusssions

The Parish Council is locking for people to help lead brief discussions during Coffee Hour. The topics will be based on the writings of Sister Vassa Larin, author of "Reflections with Morning Coffee." If this is something you are interested in, please talk with Susan Davis, Carolyn Neiss or Fr Steven for more information.

God grant many years! to: Loyd Davis, Marlene Melesko on the occasion of their birthdays, and to Ed and Susan Hayes and Melissa and Lou Josefiak on the occastion of their anniversaries.

Memory Eternal: on the anniversay of the repose of Archbishop Nikon.

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.

Glorification of St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Enlightener of North America (1989—Sept 26th O.S.). Holy Apostle James (Jacob), Son of Alphæus (1st c.). Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council. Ven. Andronicus, and his wife Athanasia, of Egypt (5th c.). Righteous forefather Abraham, and his nephew, Lot (ca. 2000 B.C.). Martyrs Juventius and Maximus at Antioch (363). St. Publia the Confessor, Deaconess, of Antioch (4th c.). Ven. Peter of Galatia (9th c.). Hieromartyr Dionysius (Denis, Denys) of Paris, Bishop (ca. 258). The “CHERSON” and “ASSUAGE MY SORROW” Icons of the Mother of God.

Tone 8 Troparion (Resurrection)

You descended from on high, O Merciful One!
You accepted the three day burial to free us from our sufferings!//
O Lord, our Life and Resurrection, glory to You!

Tone 1 Troparion (St. Tikhon)

Chosen by God in a turbulent time,
you glorified God in complete holiness,
and attained greatness through humility,
showing forth the power of God through simplicity and piety.
You laid down your life for the Church and her people,
O holy Confessor and Patriarch, Father Tikhon.
Pray to Christ God with Whom you were also crucified,
that He may save our souls!

Tone 8 Kontakion (Resurrection)

By rising from the tomb, You raised the dead and resurrected Adam.
Eve exults in Your Resurrection,//
and the world celebrates Your rising from the dead, O greatly Merciful One!

Tone 2 Kontakion (St. Tikhon)

A gentle manner adorned you:
you showed kindness and compassion to those who repented;
you were firm and unbending in confessing the Orthodox Faith,
and zealous in loving the Lord.
O holy Hierarch of Christ and Confessor Tikhon,
pray for us that we may not be separated from the love of God,//
which is of Christ Jesus, our Lord!

Communion Hymn

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest! (Ps. 148:1)
The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance! He shall not fear evil
tidings! (Ps. 111:6)
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

A FEW BRIEF COMMENTS ON THE FUNERAL RITES FOR ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS

Rev. Fr. Dustin M. Lyon

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Though I’ve not been a priest for very long, I have noticed that there’s been a lot of confusion concerning death and the customs of the Orthodox Church regarding the funeral rites. Because of this, I want to take this time to educate you on the customs of the Church and their meanings.

The moment of death and afterwards

I will begin by briefly discussing the funeral rites. It is expected that all Orthodox Christians have lived a life of daily personal prayer, of studying the scriptures, of faithfully attending all the services, of partaking of the sacraments, of fasting, and of giving alms.

When an Orthodox Christian is close to death the parish priest may be called. There are prayers that can be offered before death asking the Lord for the departure of the soul. If the person has been suffering for a long time, this can be comforting.

Once the person has departed, there are prayers that can be offered by the parish priest before the body is moved to the funeral home.

Then, according to the custom of the Greek Archdiocese of America, when the funeral date is set, the priest will come to the funeral home the night before the funeral and offer the Trisagion prayers. A visitation may precede this service.

On the day of the funeral, the priest will meet the casket in the parking lot and sing “Holy God” as the casket is brought into the church. Immediately the funeral will begin. Once the funeral has ended, and the deceased’s family and friends have offered the last kiss, the priest will lead the casket to the hearse singing “Holy God.”

Once they have reached the burial site, the priest will once again offer the Trisagion prayers.

Regarding cremation

The Orthodox Church does not permit cremation for several reasons. This is one of those hard and fast rules, and there are very few exceptions.

“The Orthodox Church teaches that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (see I Cor. 3:16; 6:19). The truth that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was buried and bodily resurrected is the reason we follow burial of the physical body, rather than cremation. Death is the beginning of the new and abundant life in Christ. A church funeral is denied to an Orthodox Christian who has been or will be cremated. In addition, since cremation contradicts the practice of the Church, there should be no Trisagion or individual Memorial Service offered for a person who has been cremated. (The name of the individual may be given during the Saturday of the Souls memorial. Exceptions may be made by the local Hierarch.)”1

Deacon Mark Barna, in his podcast on Ancient Faith Radio2 addressed some particular reasons why Orthodox Christians are not to be cremated. Let me briefly summarize his discussion.

He points out that cremation does violence to the body, which is regarded as an image of Christ. Thus the body is the temple for the Holy Spirit, where the living God dwells. Though some religions - such as Buddhism and Hinduism – teach that the body is a corrupt prison for the soul, Orthodox Christians don’t believe this. Instead, we believe that the whole person is made up of soul and body. We believe that when Christ returns, the body will be resurrected and reunited with the soul, just as it was meant to be.

Dn. Mark has several points: 1) that the body is a gift from God, 2) that God breathed life into the body, 3) humanity was meant to know God through its experience in the body, and 4) that when Christ put on a body in the incarnation, even with all its weaknesses, the body was glorified. Thus the idea of total depravity of the flesh is unknown in Orthodox theology.

Dn. Mark continues in his podcast to point out the importance of relics to the Orthodox Church. Relics are found in every altar, and in every antimins. We venerate the relics of saints, which remind us of their holiness. Obviously, cremation would make relics hard to come by. Commenting on relics Dn. Mark continues,

“What are relics anyway? The pieces of a Christian body, sanctified through a life of prayer, labor, and sacrifice in the Church. We bless an icon one time and revere it for all time. A Christian body is baptized, blessed, and anointed over and over again. It’s nourished by the very body and blood of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ throughout our entire life. Hopefully our last act will be to receive the holy Eucharist before our death. It is, in fact, an icon of Christ Not-Made-by-Hands. Surely the relics of the most common of Orthodox Christians are worthy of ultimate respect...

“Respect is a vital issue we’ll be returning to throughout these podcasts, and that brings up the final—and I think the most important—point about cremation. As Christians, particularly Orthodox Christians, our whole life is to be lived in reverence, love, and humility before God and one another as his image. Our obedience and humility is the ultimate show of respect for God and for his creation. After all, it’s disobedience that got us into this mess to start with. If we read the holy Scriptures, the lives of the saints, and the writings of the holy Fathers, we find constant reminders of humility before God. ...

“This [cremation], then, rather than humble submission to the will of God, becomes as our final act an act of pride. After a life of work to acquire the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of humility and the Spirit of love, should we throw it away at the last moment with a prideful decision? I don’t think so, and I hope you agree. The prohibition against cremation in the Orthodox Church is not just the Church trying to dictate how we live and die, and it’s not just some antiquated tradition. It is the Church trying, once again, to guide us into a God-pleasing way of life, and in this case, a God- pleasing way of death and burial.3

Inhumation/embalming/cemetery

The proper way to bury a person is inhumation, that is, a bodily burial. However, in America, it has become the custom to embalm the body, which is a tradition that started during the Civil War. The reasons given are thus: to disinfect, to preserve, and to restore a life-like appearance for viewing. However, none of these arguments hold up. I refer to the book A Christian Ending for more information. Embalming involves opening the body and draining the blood, which does harm it, and treats the body as less than a sacred temple. The body becomes an it – a thing to be suctioned, plugged, stapled, painted, and put on display.

Because of this, and because the blood is seen as a part of the body and sacred, it is preferred that one does not embalm. Rather a natural burial, sometimes known as a green burial in contemporary America, is to be preferred. It should be noted, though, that although embalming is frowned upon, the Church will still conduct a funeral for one who does undergo this procedure.

It is also preferred that one is buried in a simple burial shroud without fancy clothes or jewelry. As is stated in the book mentioned earlier, “Each individual, king or pauper, stands before the Righteous Judge, naked and alone. The essence then of the Christian funeral is simplicity and humility. There is no great show of earthly wealth, fame or accomplishment, for all those things are dust, just as the body shall soon be.”4

It is also recommended that the coffin or casket also be simple. A cardboard box will do just fine, or, if one must, a simple wooden box will also do. It is also recommended that one not use a vault in the burial plot. The vault is a concrete box in the ground in which the coffin is placed. This prevents contact with the earth. “Placed in contact with the earth, the body returns naturally to its maker and is placed in His holy hands to do with as He wills.”5 A liner, which only covers the sides and top of the coffin, may be acceptable, because the bottom still allows the coffin to rest on the natural ground.

As you can see, it is preferred that one keep the funeral arrangements as simple and natural as possible. If you are a wealthy person, the money saved on the funeral should be given away as alms. We should die as Christians, and so we shouldn’t have fancy funerals lest we sin even in death! As Ecclesiastes says, “Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher; all is vanity” (12:8).

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, October 6, 2019
Usually, we read the New Testament in a very small and limited way. Rarely do we examine the richness of the Gospel, the infinite depths of what they are meant to reveal to us. This is understandable. To be able to see into the depths we have to have in us the mind of Christ that alone can delve into the mysteries that speak of him. So often for us a shallow and surface level of interpretation is where we begin and end.

For example, in today’s Gospel we have a simple narrative about a widow, her dead son, and Jesus raising him from the dead. We can speak of her immense sorrow and fear over losing her son, the compassion of Christ, his empathy and power over death and all of that is true. And as always there is more.

We could delve into the cultural context, the mores and traditions of Judaism (assuming of course that the widow was a Jew), the funeral rites of first century rural Palestine, etc., etc. and all of that information would bring us a little deeper into the meaning of the event.

So far, with all this however, we will have only scratched the surface using our rational minds to concoct an interpretation that fits our ability to comprehend the literal, cultural, and historical meaning of the event with all that our presuppositions allow. All of that is good. All that the mind can bring to interpretation is helpful.

And there is still more. If indeed this Christ is God incarnate, and if he really raised a young man from the dead, then the implications of this cannot be limited to reason and the senses. No. It is as if Christ ripped through, I don’t know, the space/time continuum maybe, and performed a miracle that in some invisible way effects not on the widow, her son, the crowd of mourners, and the disciples, but the entire cosmos.

It is an even greater miracle than the tale of God making the sun to stand still for Joshua, About this I found a very interesting report written by Israeli scientists to explain the event. Allow me to quote:

Cambridge researchers announced Monday that they have pinpointed the date of the biblical account of Joshua stopping the sun — which they claim is the day of the oldest eclipse ever recorded — to October 30, 1207 BCE, exactly 3,224 years ago.

Fascinating! By this the scientists were able “to refine the dates of the reigns of two Egyptian pharaohs of that era, Ramesses the Great and his son Merneptah.” There is in scripture so much more than meets the eye. A literal interpretation is simply not enough!

I believe it is so in the story of the widow of Nain and in every account of Christ pouring himself out for the life of the world, which he did each moment of his life. His was a life of total kenosis, self-emptying, that served to reveal the truth about God and the presence of the kingdom here and now. And what is this truth? God is relational, God is present, everywhere and in everything and we are invited to enter into the Trinitarian life which is represented by the divine Cappadocians, as perichoresis, or, in other words, the intercirculation of love in the Trinity. Another way to say this is that the Trinity is a circular Divine Dance of love, like an artesian well that is an infinite source of water constantly being poured out from Divine Person to Divine Person overflowing into all of creation. And this love is what brought the young man to life, gave the widow reason to live, and allowed the mourners a glimpse into sacred reality that lay just beneath the veil of their limited understanding.

For this we must set aside our rational mind and our senses and let go of our always feeble concepts and definitions and enter into the mystery that is at the core of all things. It is not the mind that can do this, but the heart. So, we too must become empty like Christ in order to awaken the heart from its long slumber receive the fulness of his kingdom.

It has become clear to me that the scripture is an open window into what appears to the mind as an alternative reality, but which is in fact reality itself. It is not the closed and locked door of intellectual certainty; it is the entrance to eternal and divine possibility, the gateway to the heart.

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!