Greetings in Christ Jesus to all of you as we are in this difficult time. Consider it our sojourn in the desert, our monastic isolation through Great Lent on our way to the cross and resurrection of our Lord.
We have received the revised guidlines from His Eminence Metropolitan Evangelos regarding the Coronavirus vis-a-vis attending Divine Services. As per His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew, we are hereby suspending all Divine Services through March 29th, at which time we will update our status. Please know that we are praying for you during this difficult time and will continue to do so.
We will however live stream the Sunday Divine Liturgy from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. each week. Simply go to our St. Demetrios Facebook page.
All of us are very sorrowful about this, but recognize it is our filial obligation, one of our admonition from Jesus Christ to "love one another," that we take these measures. We are a parish, a family of faith, and we enjoy being together. Yet, out of fundamental concern for one another, we must not gather in a congregation: social distancing.
Also enclosed in this e-bulletin are the hymns and commemorations for Sunday, the Epistle lesson and Gospel reading. I would suggest that as a family you gather together, sing the hymns and read the scriptures along with the morning prayers in your prayer books. Remember, though the church building is closed, the Church remains alive and well. We continue to pray with the saints all around us; we continue to worship as a family; we continue to read the Bible; we continue to love one another, even in our staying apart; we are the Church Militant.
I close with some sentiments from St. Innocent of Alaska that are timely and poignant.
A Christian's . . . duty is to "take up his cross." The word cross means sufferings, sorrows and adversities. To take up one's cross means to bear without grumblings everything unpleasant, painful, sad, difficult and oppressive that may happen to us in life. . .without expecting any earthly reward in return, but bear it all with love, with joy and with courageous strength.