Sunday, November 29, 2020, 13^th Sunday of Luke

SERVICES THIS WEEK:

Saints Constantine and Helen services are open for parishioners and we encourage those who are not in high-risk categories to attend services.  Parish guidelines regarding capacity limits and safety restrictions are posted on the home page of our church website, https://www.stcons.org

The church building is professionally cleaned, disinfected, and sanitized weekly. 

We strongly encourage those who will not be attending church to participate in services through our website, at  https://www.stcons.org/video-streaming  

Sunday, November 29  – 13^TH SUNDAY OF LUKE, Orthros 9:00 am; Divine Liturgy 10:00 am   If you wish to follow along with the text, please use the link listed below:

https://www.agesinitiatives.com/dcs/public/dcs/p/s/2020/11/29/li/gr-en/se.m08.d30.li.pdf

Saturday, December 5^th – VESPERS FOR FEAST DAY OF ST. NICHOLAS – Due to COVID capacity limits, we recommend you participate in one of these services via live video stream.

• St Nicks Ann Arbor – 7:00 pm  https://www.stnickaa.org/webcam.html
• St. Nicks Troy – 5:00 pm http://stnicholastroy.org/parish_resources/live_video_stream/index.php

LIGHT A CANDLE AND SAY A PRAYER:  When you are not able to attend church, you can purchase a candle from our church website (home page or video-streaming page), which Father Teodor will light before the following service or a service that you specify.  Please give specific names, living or deceased, that you would like Father to remember in prayer.  Father will light candles one hour before each service.  For Sunday services, please place candle orders prior to 8:00 am Sunday morning.

PLEASE PRAY FOR: Victoria, Cruz, Giselle, Donovan, Michael, Barbara, Lisa, Pat, Christopher, Jonathan, Alexandra, Tracy, Dianna, Lazarus, Henry, Betty, Catherine, Susan, Evelyn, Gregg, Peter, Stella, Ann Marie, Vasilios, Carol, George, Demetri, Steve, Molly, Maria, Elizabeth, Carol, Evans, Katherine, Mike, Connie, Mary, Margaret, Angela, Connie, Bill, Carrie, Vito, Pete, Amalia, Stephanie, Lisa, Bill, Connie, Jacob, Anastasia, Rima, Kylie, Effie, Camryn, Nicholas, and Maria.  (Names may be added by request to the prayer list.) 

UPCOMING EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES:

FAMILY SUNDAY: Sunday, December 6^th is our next Family Sunday at St Cons!  Honor all the Nicks and Nikki’s in your family on this Feast Day of St. Nicholas; and learn about “Jolly Old St. Nick” the true inspiration behind Santa Claus, and the hanging of Christmas stockings. When you attend church on that day, please remember to bring in a donation of new, warm, adult Men’s or Women’s socks to be donated to the Community Housing Network “Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness” (PATH) program. 

TREE OF LIGHTS:  Our 26^th annual Mary Drakos Tree of Lights Ceremony will be held on Sunday, December 20^th. If you would like to honor a loved one on the Christmas tree there are forms available in the narthex.  Donations and forms can be mailed to the church office, or left in the collection box in the narthex.  For more information, contact Diane Plungis at 734.462.1179.

NEW YEAR’S COMEDY EVENT:  The AHEPA and Daughters of Penelope District 10 will present a live, virtual comedy event on Friday, January 1^st at 7:00 pm.  Comics Angelo Tsarouchas and Ellen Karis should bring some much-needed laughs while raising money to create an endowed fund at the University of Michigan to benefit students studying Modern Greek language; and other AHEPA charitable efforts. Donation is $30 per household. For more information, contact: AHEPAD10events@gmail.com

ADULT BIBLE STUDY: Our Adult Bible Study group will not be meeting this week.   We will notify parishioners of the date when Bible Study will resume.

NEWS AND NOTICES

PARISH CHRISTMAS CARD: Our parishioners have provided generous support to the church when needed this year and will have several upcoming opportunities to make a donation during the Nativity season.  Because of this, the decision has been made to not collect donations for the parish Christmas card.  We will include the names of all those who have completed a Sts. Constantine and Helen pledge card for 2020 in this year’s Christmas card. 

If you did not complete a pledge card for this year but would like to be included in the Christmas Card, it’s not too late! Please complete a 2020 Pledge card – any donations you have already made to the church this year will be credited toward your pledge amount.  Pledge cards are available on the Pangari or in the church office; or contact the church office and we can send email a form to you. Forms must be completed by Sunday, December 6^th.

SHARING OUR WARMTH: During the month of December, we will be collecting new, warm, adult Men’s or Women’s socks to be donated to the Community Housing Network “Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness” (PATH) program.  We will also have a “Warming Tree” in the Narthex to collect donations of new gloves, hats and scarves for all ages to be distributed to area families in need. Collections will be accepted through Christmas.

RAVE REVIEWS!  We have been receiving calls about the delicious spanakopita and sweets that were sold at the Philoptochos Thanksgiving Bake Sale last Sunday! We still have a few unbaked, frozen Spanakopita/Spinach Pies (1/2 pan) for $30.  If you are interested, contact the church office to arrange for weekday pick up.

ICONOGRAPHY: We are expecting delivery on some of the iconostasis icons very soon! We have reached 87% of our fundraising goal for our Iconography project, but several icons are still available for sponsorship as of 11/27/20:

• EVANGELISTS:  Matthew ($15,000 sponsorship)
• HIERARCHS: St. Gregory the Theologian, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and St. Iakovos (James) ($9,000 sponsorship each)
• GOLD BEAUTIFICATION MOTIF encircling the Pantokrator (Dome):  $500/ft.

For those who are interested in sponsoring an icon, please talk to Father Teodor or contact the church office for more information.  We are also still in need of general donations of any amount to complete our fundraising on Phase One: East and Dome.

HELLENIC CULTURAL CENTER REOPENING:  At the current time, the State of Michigan is allowing banquet facilities to open for events with reduced capacity. Masks and social distance restrictions are still in place, along with increased precautions in the preparation and serving of food and drink. Although they are not yet keeping regular office hours, if would like to discuss future bookings or other issues with the HCC staff, please contact Victoria at 734.525.3550 or Kathy at 313.303.6350 or kathysmcmullen@yahoo.com

QUESTIONS FOR FATHER TEODOR: In this unusual year with no regular Sunday School classes, Father Teodor will take a few minutes on Sunday mornings to answer questions from our young people (or adults!) about our faith. Questions  can be submitted online using this link:  https://forms.gle/7ae8mqd6DNSghbQs6

VOLUNTEER USHERS NEEDED: With all the extra COVID procedures necessary for the church (taking temps, usher to seats, communion, bulletins, etc.) we need some extra support in the Narthex.  We need men and women who are healthy, on the younger side, and able to get to church by 9:30 am.  Please contact Annette at the church office, stcons2@gmail.com or 734.525.6789 if you are able to volunteer for a Sunday service.

Memorial Service Information

Please call the church office to schedule memorials in a timely manner so we can include the information in the bulletin.  On the day of the service, please bring a list of family names you would like Father to remember in prayer. At this time, due to COVID restrictions, koliva that has been prepared for the memorial service cannot be distributed to parishioners, but will be returned to the family to take home.  We are not currently allowed to have coffee hour, or distribute any cookies, paximadia or koulourakia.

ALL ABOUT THANKSGIVING 

(Fr. Lawrence Farley, Excerpted from Orthodox Church in America, oca.org)

The Christian Faith is all about thanksgiving.  Our secular North American society thinks that thanksgiving is moderately important, and so it has a wonderful Thanksgiving Day feast once a year.  I love this feast. When the leaves start to turn color and the days become a little cooler, we gather if possible with our extended families and sit down to a turkey dinner.  At least once a year our all-too-often self-entitled culture tells us that it is good to give thanks and to be grateful.

It is otherwise in the Church.  In the Church, we are to give thanks not just once a year, but always, so that every day is a thanksgiving day.  Thanksgiving not only defines us as Christians, but also as human beings—not surprisingly, if the soul (as the second century Christian apologist Tertullian noted) is “naturally Christian.”  That is, what separates us from the animals is the ability to transcend ourselves and the realm of the senses and appetites through thanksgiving. 

My cat, lovely thing that she is, was not made in the image of God, and so cannot transcend the realm of the appetites and the senses in which she lives.  She might love me (or might not; with cats it’s sometimes hard to tell), but even if she does love me, she never expresses it in thanksgiving.  When I fill her food dish, she never stops, looks up at me and meows a word of doxology or gratitude.  She simply chows down as if I do not exist.  That’s okay.  She’s just an animal.  But we are not just animals, but strange and glorious amalgams of the animal and the spiritual, a kind of amphibian, living in both of the physical world and the angelic realm.  As such we can transcend the merely physical in which we usually live, and rise up to God.  Man is, as Father Alexander Schmemann once reminded us, homo adorans —“worshiping man”—and this capacity to worship is what constitutes the divine image in us.

Our annual secular reminder of this in the autumn is wonderful.  Yet even more wonderful is our weekly reminder every Sunday.  For there we are not simply reminded to give thanks, but through our weekly liturgical eucharistia are able to rise above the world, and commune with God, and find healing for our broken and ailing hearts. 

Family and turkey are great.  The Kingdom of God is even better.

Non-Orthodox Visitors Please Note:  Holy Communion is offered to Orthodox Christians who have properly prepared themselves.  Visitors are welcome to receive the Antidoron (Blessed Bread), which is distributed at the end of the Divine Liturgy.