Community News

Weekday Services...

Every Sunday we have Orthros beginning at 8:50 a.m. and Divine Liturgy beginning at 10:00 a.m. Saturday evenings we have Great Vespers at 6:00 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Weekday services are listed below and begin at 9:00 a.m. with Orthros followed by Divine Liturgy. Unless otherwise stated service will be at St. George.

(Note: All services are at 9:00 a.m. and at St. George unless otherwise noted)

May

21st, Thursday - Feast of Sts. Constantine & Helen

27th, Wednesday - Apodosis of Pascha

28th, Thursday - Holy Ascension

June

6th, Saturday - Saturday of Souls

8th, Monday - Monday of the Holy Spirit

24th, Wednesday - Nativity of St. John the Baptist

29th, Monday - Sts. Peter & Paul

30th, Tuesday - Synaxis of the Apostles

The Church is now open to the public. His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah has issured the following Potocol for our services. We will continue to stream on YouTube. To view online go to our website www.saintgeorgeokc.org, FaceBook page and click on the link or click on the link below.

YouTube link:

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCTFEPA3i_WXD6AF9nYDXe5A

The Church, like a forest, provides needed oxygen

Growing up in Northern Idaho, I was surrounded by mountains and forests. I don’t remember a time when forests did not tug at my heart and fill my imagination with thoughts of adventure. As a small child my parents took my brother Dwayne, and me, on annual camping trips to a state park on the far northeast side of Lake Pend Oreille. There my dad would make us small toy canoes, complete with sails, out of birch bark. This state park is virtually unchanged since that time, and I try to visit the campground every summer, when I go bass fishing with my brother.

As a high school student I regularly went hiking in the mountains around Sandpoint, Idaho, together with my best friend (now a professor of theology and philosophy in Scotland). Jim and I would climb to the highest point of a given mountain, and pray together. We could understand the Prophet Moses meeting God on Mt. Sinai, for we too felt the presence of God on the mountain. To this day I feel closer to God when hiking in a forest, and the grandeur of the mountains that surround the Puget Sound inspire me, and lift up my soul.

When we first cleared the land to build the monastery, we cut down as few trees as possible, desiring as we did to have the buildings appear as though cupped like a kitten in the hands of God. We even named our forest after Saint Seraphim of Sarov, who himself sought solitude in a forest. Our forest not only provides that needed solitude, but gives us oxygen, allowing us to breath. Like the forests throughout the whole world, ours provides good air to breath, and fills our lungs with the sweet odor that only a forest can provide. Is it any wonder I consider myself a conservationist?

Monks have always had a special place in their hearts for forests. Coptic and Ethiopian monks have been known to plant trees on desert mountains whereupon monasteries have been built, and calling these places, “holy forests”. Russian monks sought their solitude in the Northern Thebaid, forests that became their desert.

For me, forests and mountains have always been associated with prayer. My first chapel was at the end of a hidden trail, in a forest that was just a short walk down the beach from our home on Lake Pond Oreille. I’d constructed a small altar out of driftwood, and nailed a cross made out of tree branches on a tree behind the altar. When in college, my first encounter with an icon took place during the very summer I’d visited the Redwood Forest of Northern California, for the first time.

Our temples are like forests in many ways. When we enter into an Orthodox temple we are encompassed in the living presence of God, and our spiritual lungs are filled. It is oxygen for the soul that we breath in, and the forest that surrounds us is none other than the cloud of witnesses, the saints, who join us in worship before the Throne of God. The oxygen we breath in is God’s Grace that flows out to all who would seek the safety and sanctuary that awaits us in God’s Holy Temple.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Versus the true evangelization of the First Nations

Manifest destiny was the belief that the United States god-given right was to spread westward from sea to shining sea, spreading American beliefs across the continent. As we all know, the First Nations tribes (Indians) were seen as heathen, and fair game for the advancing peoples of European ancestry. Whole tribes were wiped from the face of the map, either by being slaughtered, or succumbing to white man’s diseases, for which they had no natural immunity. For those natives who were “lucky enough” to survive the occupation of their lands, relocation by force to reservations, was the norm.

The “Christian” basis for this expansion had as it’s roots the Calvinist doctrine of “Predestination,” a false and horrid teaching that some were predestined to salvation, while others were not. The natural link between the two doctrines is obvious.

By contrast, the Orthodox missionary monks to Alaska journeyed under strict orders from the Patriarch and the Czar, to respect the First Nations religion, culture, and peoples. They were under direct orders to avoid baptizing the natives, unless they sought to convert, and then only after they were fully catechized. The missionary monks befriended the natives, even to the point of protecting them from Russian fur traders, who mistreated them. They learned the native languages, and respected the local culture.

To this day, Alaska’s Orthodox natives see Orthodoxy as their native religion, because the love and kindness shown them by the Orthodox monks helped them see Christianity as the fulfillment of their own religion.

This has been the Orthodox way of evangelism from the earliest of times. Some have accused we Orthodox of not being missionary minded, not seeing that our missionary efforts are simply different than that of the west. We believe that God transforms hearts, so we, in turn, share our faith by loving those whom we wish to convert. Our evangelism is based in the heart, where love reigns.

The God we Orthodox Christians worship, is the God of love and mercy, and the only way to bring others into a relationship with this God, is to love them into God’s Kingdom. We don’t pronounce them as heathen, who are destined to hellfire, but God’s children, created in His image and likeness. We invite them into the Church as our brothers and sisters, because we love them, and desire that they not only have God as their Father, but the Church as their Mother.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

Community Connections

In Our Prayers

Today we will have a Trisagion Service for JoAnn Fotopolos who passed away in Kansas City, MO on May 3rd. Please keep Bill & Tasia Vrentas and their family in your prayers. May her memory be eternal.

Face Masks

Amy & Roger Spring have generously donated several handmade face masks (washable) to anyone that needs one. If you are interested in a mask, please call the Church office.

Philoptochos Corner

Our BUZZED with BLESSINGS fundraiser continues in a time of social distancing. The Bees might be a nice alternative! $50, includes 30 Bees, occasion card & honey. Thank you! Take care & prayers for our community. Contact the Church office or a Philoptochos member to schedule any upcomming BUZZED with BLESSINGS date.

Classes...

We are holding our class on St. Dorotheos of Gaza - Teachings of Living a Christian Life, Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Zoom, provided there is not a service on that day. They will resume at Church once the Church is open to the public.

Fellowship Hour...

Until further notice, we will not be having Fellowship Hour.

Prosfora Schedule

May

3rd - Catherine Chrysant

10th - Patrick ingle

17th - Jennifer Economopoulos

24th - Catherine Chrysant

27th - Catherine Chrysant (Apodosis of Pascha)

28th - Catherine Chrysant (Holy Ascension)

31st - Tasia Vrentas

June

6th - Fofo Bargeliotis (Saturday of Souls)

7th - Vana Economopoulos (Pentecost)

8th - Vana Economopoulos (Monday of the Holy Spirit)

14th - Elaine Bappert

21st - Fofo Bargeliotis

24th - OPEN Nativity of St. John the Baptist

28th - Catherine Chrysant

29th - Katarina Stavrakis (Sts. Peter & Paul)

30th - OPEN (Synaxis of the 12 Apostles)

St. Paul writes, "The Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body which is for you. Do this in rememberance of me.'" (1 Cor. 11:24).

We are in need of Prosfora bakers. Our ladies and gentlemen have diminished over the years. The greatest part of this is everyone qualifies! Anyone young and old can make Prosfora. We would only ask a few times per year to prepare bread for a Divine Liturgy. What better way for a family to give of themselves and their love for the Church.

Prosfora can be kneaded in a bread machine, with a mixer that has dough hooks, or by hand. It can easily bge an individual's or an offering made by the whole family. Children love to knead bread or be able to put the seal on and for the children it is a learning experience. It is a great offering of life and love to God.

Please call the Church office if you would like to offer this gift.

Saints and Feasts

May 31

Fathers of the 1st Council

The heresiarch Arius was a Libyan by race and a protopresbyter of the Church of Alexandria. In 315, he began to blaspheme against the Son and Word of God, saying that He is not true God, consubstantial with the Father, but is rather a work and creation, alien to the essence and glory of the Father, and that there was a time when He was not. This frightful blasphemy shook the faithful of Alexandria. Alexander, his Archbishop, after trying in vain to correct him through admonitions, cut him off from communion and finally in a local council deposed him in the year 321. Yet neither did the blasphemer wish to be corrected, nor did he cease sowing the deadly tares of his heretical teachings; but writing to the bishops of other cities, Arius and his followers requested that his doctrine be examined, and if it were unsound, that the correct teaching be declared to him. By this means, his heresy became universally known and won many supporters, so that the whole Church was soon in an uproar.

Therefore, moved by divine zeal, the first Christian Sovereign, Saint Constantine the Great, the equal to the Apostles, summoned the renowned First Ecumenical Council in Nicaea, a city of Bithynia. It was there that the shepherds and teachers of the Church of Christ gathered from all regions in the year 325. All of them, with one mouth and one voice, declared that the Son and Word of God is one in essence with the Father, true God of true God, and they composed the holy Symbol of Faith up to the seventh article (since the remainder, beginning with "And in the Holy Spirit," was completed by the Second Ecumenical Council). Thus they anathematized the impious Arius of evil belief and those of like mind with him, and cut them off as rotten members from the whole body of the faithful.

Therefore, recognizing the divine Fathers as heralds of the Faith after the divine Apostles, the Church of Christ has appointed this present Sunday for their annual commemoration, in thanksgiving and unto the glory of God, unto their praise and honour, and unto the strengthening of the true Faith.

May 31

Hermias the Martyr at Comana

According to some, this Martyr strove in contest during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, also called Antoninus (161-180); according to others, it was in the reign of Antoninus Pius (138-161). Already an old man, the Saint was brought before Sebastian, Proconsul in Comana of Cappadocia, and because he would not renounce his confession of Christ, his tormentors showing no reverence to his grey hairs, broke his jaw, tore the flesh from his face, pierced his eyes with a sharp instrument, subjected him to many other torments, and finally, after three days of such torture, beheaded him.

June 01

Justin the Philosopher and Martyr and his Companions

This Saint, who was from Neapolis of Palestine, was a follower of Plato the philosopher. Born in 103, he came to the Faith of Christ when he was already a mature man, seeking to find God through philosophy and human reasoning. A venerable elder appeared to him and spoke to him about the Prophets who had taught of God not through their own wisdom, but by revelation; and he led him to knowledge of Christ, Who is the fulfillment of what the Prophets taught. Saint Justin soon became a fervent follower of Christ, and an illustrious apologist of the Evangelical teachings. To the end of his life, while preaching Christ in all parts, he never put off his philosopher's garb. In Rome, he gave the Emperor Antoninus Pius (reigned 138-161) an apology wherein he proved the innocence and holiness of the Christian Faith, persuading him to relieve the persecution of Christians. Through the machinations of Crescens, a Cynic philosopher who envied him, Saint Justin was beheaded in Rome in 167 under Antoninus' successor, Marcus Aurelius (reigned 161-180). Besides his defense of Christianity (First and Second Apologies), Saint Justin wrote against paganism (Discourse to the Greeks, Hortatory Address to the Greeks), and refuted Jewish objections against Christ (Dialogue with Trypho).

June 02

Nicephorus the Confessor, Patriarch of Constantinople

Saint Nicephorus was born in Constantinople about the year 758, of pious parents; his father Theodore endured exile and tribulation for the holy icons during the reign of Constantine Copronymus (741-775). Nicephorus served in the imperial palace as a secretary. Later, he took up the monastic life, and struggled in asceticism not far from the imperial city; he also founded monasteries on the eastern shore of the Bosphorus, among them one dedicated to the Great Martyr Theodore.

After the repose of the holy Patriarch Tarasius, he was ordained Patriarch, on April 12, 806, and in this high office led the Orthodox resistance to the Iconoclasts' war on piety, which was stirred up by Leo the Armenian. Because Nicephorus championed the veneration of the icons, Leo drove Nicephorus from his throne on March 13, 815, exiling him from one place to another, and lastly to the Monastery of Saint Theodore which Nicephorus himself had founded. It was here that, after glorifying God for nine years as Patriarch, and then for thirteen years as an exile, tormented and afflicted, he gave up his blameless soul in 828 at about the age of seventy. See also March 8.

June 03

Lucillian of Byzantium, 4 martyred Youths and Paula the Virgin

Formerly a priest of the idols near Nicomedia, the Saint came to the Christian Faith in his old age; this was during the reign of Aurelian (270-275). Lucillian was brought before Silvan the Count; when he refused to return to the service of the idols, his jaw was broken, he was beaten with rods, and hanged upside down, then imprisoned with four Christian children, Claudius, Hypatius, Paul, and Dionysius. All of them were brought out again before Silvan, and remaining constant in their faith, were cast into a raging furnace. Preserved unharmed, they were sent to Byzantium, where the children were beheaded, and Lucillian was crucified. The virgin Paula, a Christian, buried their holy relics. For this, she was taken before the Count, and refusing to sacrifice to the idols, was stripped naked and mercilessly thrashed; after other torments, she was beheaded, in 270. There was a church in their honor in Constantinople.

June 04

Our Father Metrophanes, Archbishop of Constantinople

Saint Metrophanes was born of pagan parents, but believed in Christ at a young age, and came to Byzantium. He lived at the end of the persecution of the Roman Emperors, and became the Bishop of Byzantium from about 315 to 325, during which time Saint Constantine the Great made it the capital of the Roman Empire, calling it New Rome. Saint Metrophanes sent his delegate, the priest Alexander, to the First Ecumenical Council in 325, since he could not attend because of old age. He reposed the same year and was buried by Saint James of Nisibis (celebrated Jan. 13), one of the Fathers present at the First Ecumenical Council. The Canons to the Trinity of the Octoechos are not the work of this Metrophanes but another, who was Bishop of Smyrna about the middle of the ninth century, during the life of Saint Photius the Great.

June 04

Mary & Martha, the sisters of Lazarus

The Holy Myrrh-bearers Mary and Martha, together with their brother Lazarus, were especially devoted to our Savior, as we see from the accounts given in the tenth chapter of Saint Luke, and in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Saint John. They reposed in Cyprus, where their brother became the first Bishop of Kition after his resurrection from the dead. See also the accounts on Lazarus Saturday and the Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing Women.

June 05

The Holy Hieromartyr Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre

Saint Dorotheus became Bishop of Tyre in Phoenicia about the end of the third century. During the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, about the year 303, he fled to Odyssopolis in Thrace to preserve his life, and after the death of the tyrants he returned to Tyre. He lived until the reign of Julian the Apostate (361-363), from whose persecution he again fled to Odyssopolis (or, according to Theophylact of Bulgaria, Edessa), but was found by Julian's men and slain in great torments, at the age of 107, in 361. He was very learned, and has left behind writings in both Latin and Greek relating the lives of the holy Prophets, Apostles, and other Saints.

June 06

The Saturday of Souls

June 06

Hilarion the New of Dalmation Monastery

Saint Hilarion, the fervent zealot for the veneration of the holy icons, was born in 775 and had Cappadocia as his homeland. About 806-811 he became Abbot of the Monastery of Dalmatus (see May 30), but was exiled by the Emperor Leo the Armenian, and later again by Theophilus; he was set free by the pious Empress Theodora, and again became Abbot of the Monastery of Dalmatus from 843 to 845, until the time of his repose.

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Tenth Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 21:1-14

At that time, being raised from the dead, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he revealed himself in this way. Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples were together. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat; but that night they caught nothing. Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, have you any fish?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his clothes, for he was stripped for work, and sprang into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, but about a hundred yards off.

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish lying on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and although there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared ask him, "Who are you?" They knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and so with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Fourth Mode. Daniel 3.26,27.
Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers.
Verse: For you are just in all you have done.

The reading is from Acts of the Apostles 20:16-18, 28-36.

IN THOSE DAYS, Paul had decided to sail past Ephesos, so that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening to be at Jerusalem, if possible, on the day of Pentecost. And from Miletos he sent to Ephesos and called to him the elders of the church. And when they came to him, he said to them: "Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with the blood of his own Son. I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish every one with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I coveted no one's silver or gold or apparel. You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities, and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 'it is more blessed to give than to receive.' " And when he had spoken thus, he knelt down and prayed with them all.

Gospel Reading

Fathers of the 1st Council
The Reading is from John 17:1-13

At that time, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, you glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made.

"I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you did send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are mine; all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves."

Wisdom of the Fathers

For there is One God, and One Mediator between God and Man, the Man Christ Jesus. For He still pleads even now as Man for my salvation; ...

St. Gregory the Theologian

4th Theological Oration, 4th Century

... for He continues to wear the Body which He assumed, until He make me God by the power of His Incarnation; although He is no longer known after the flesh -- I mean, the passions of the flesh, the same, except sin, as ours.

St. Gregory the Theologian

4th Theological Oration, 4th Century

Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Plagal Second Mode

Angelic powers were above Thy tomb, and they that guarded Thee became as dead. And Mary stood by the grave seeking Thine immaculate Body. Thou hast despoiled Hades and wast not tried thereby. Thou didst meet the Virgin and didst grant us life. O Thou Who didst arise from the dead, Lord, glory be to Thee.

Apolytikion for Holy Ascension in the Fourth Mode

Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, and gladdened Thy disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit; and they were assured by the blessing that Thou art the Son of God and Redeemer of the world.

Apolytikion for Fathers of the 1st Council in the Plagal Fourth Mode

Most glorified art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast established our Fathers as luminous stars upon the earth, and through them didst guide us all to the true Faith. O Most Merciful One, glory be to Thee.

Apolytikion for Saint George in the Fourth Mode

Liberator of captives, defender of the poor, physician of the sick, and champion of kings, O trophy-bearer, Great Martyr George, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal Second Mode

O Christ our God, upon fulfilling Your dispensation for our sake, You ascended in Glory, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. You were never separate but remained inseparable, and cried out to those who love You, "I am with you and no one is against you."

General Information

Contact Information

Services Schedule

Past Bulletins