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Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2019-07-07
Bulletin Contents
Schedule of Services
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese News
Community Calendar
News & Events
Assembly of Bishops News
Hymns of the Day
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Wisdom of the Fathers
Saints and Feasts
Prayer Requests
Allsaint
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Saint John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 408.605.0621
  • Street Address:

  • 9th and Lincoln

  • Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
  • Mailing Address:

  • PO Box 5808 Carmel by the Sea

  • Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA 93921

Contact Information

Priest: Father Ion Coman


fatherion@gmail.com | 408.605.0621

Services Schedule

 

Weekend services: the weekend schedule is fixed for most of the year. The services take place in Carmel-by-the-Sea, at All Saints Church, lower level, 9th and Lincoln.

Saturdays: 5:00pm Vespers

Sundays:   8:30am Matins

                   9:45am Liturgy

Week-day services: during the week we may celebrate the major feast days of the Church either in Carmel or in Salinas. Please check the calendar! The schedule pattern is:

Wednesdays:  6:00pm Paraklesis

Eve of feasts: 6:00pm Vespers

Feast days:    8:30am Matins

                       9:45am Liturgy

Past Bulletins


Schedule of Services

  Saturday, July 6
    5:00pm  Vespers
Sunday, July 7
    8:30am  Matins
    9:45am  Liturgy
    11:30am  Kids 'n Cancer BBQ
    12:00pm  Orthodoxy 101/ Catechism and Sunday School
Wednesday, July 10
    10:00am  Congregational Chanting
    11:00am  Book Forum: "Tears of Repentance"
    6:00pm  Paraklesis
Thursday, July 11
    6:00pm  Vespers
    6:45pm  Akathist to Saint Paisios
Friday, July 12   Saint Paisios the Athonite (since 2015)
    8:30am  Orthros + Liturgy
Saturday, July 13
    5:00pm  Vespers
Sunday, July 14
    8:30am  Matins
    9:45am  Liturgy
    12:00pm  Orthodoxy 101/ Catechism and  Sunday School
Wednesday, July 17  Saint Marina
    10:00am  Congregational Chanting
    11:00am  Book Forum: "Tears of Repentance"
    6:00pm  Paraklesis
Friday, July 19
    6:00pm  Vespers and Reception in Santa Cruz
Saturday, July 20   Prophet Elias
    9:00am  Orthros + Liturgy + Reception in Santa Cruz
    5:00pm  Vespers
Sunday, July 21
    8:30am  Matins
    9:45am  Liturgy
    12:00pm  Orthodoxy 101/ Catechism and  Sunday School

See the whole calendar at http://www.stjohn-monterey.org/parish-calendar

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Community Calendar

July 7 - Kids n' Cancer BBQ
July 8 & 9 - Festival Cooking: Cancelled
July 15 & 16 - Festival Cooking: Kourambiethes  (Butter/Sugar Cookie)  
July 22 & 23 - Festival Cooking: Meat Dolmathes (Stuffed Grape Leaves)
August 30 - Festival Set up at Custom House Plaza
August 31 - September 2 - The 33rd Monterey Bay Greek Festival
September 29 - Hosting ASC for lunch after liturgy

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News & Events

KIDS'N CANCER BBQ

Philoptochos presents the annual Kids ‘n Cancer Summer BBQ, this Sunday, July 7th after Divine Liturgy in the Church Patio. Grilled hot dogs, corn on the cob, watermelon, lots of fun for the whole family, and chances to win fun prizes!!! Adults $10 ~ Children $5.

Camp Agape is an all expense four day camp experience for families with children fighting life threatening and terminal diseases. Give your heart to a child: Sponsorship opportunities $25, $50, $100+. Proceeds benefit Kids ‘n Cancer | Camp Agape & Philoptochos Ministries. RSVP alex@alexandramouzas.com or 619-518-2755

 


ORTHODOXY 101: THE 2019 (RE)CATECHISM CLASS

The Catechism/ Orthodoxy 101 Class will meet on Sunday, July 7 to address topic #3 of the curriculum: Exercises for Soul and Body. The newly revised curriculum including audio resources can be found at our web site under Adult Education.

Our visitors and newcomers are encouraged to attend and participate. The class is also offered as RECATECHISM to all for their own benefit, for connecting with our visitors and catechumens and for strengthening our community. No asked questions are silly. Come, ask, learn, change and be transformed!


SUNDAY SCHOOL

The Sunday School and Preschool classes will meet this Sunday after the Divine Liturgy and lunch.


BOOK FORUM: TEARS OF REPENTANCE

The Book Forum continues with the reading and discussion of the very popular book Tears of Repentance. The book can be found at our bookstore or online here. Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, July 10, from 11 a.m. in Saint Nektarios Chapel. Please prepare chapter 4.

Brief commentary: Athanasios Katigas of Sykies (suburb of Thessaloniki, Greece), answered the divine call to a life of repentance after the fervent prayers of his quadriplegic childhood friend Savvas, and the sound instruction of a lay preacher, Panagiotis Panagiotides. Thanasi used the therapeutic discipline of our Church, to free himself from the nets of human passions by practicing strict obedience under his seasoned spiritual father Triantafyllos Xeros. Thanasi's love for Christ did not permit him to leave our Lord at home (as most of us do), but he took Him along on his daily route as a Cab driver. Thanasi's zeal for the word of God initiated hundreds of spiritual conversations, awakenings and transformations in his cab, with clients from all walks of life. Thanasi's genuine simplicity, a simplicity likened to the fishermen of Galilee served as pure oxygen for hundreds of souls that shared the space of his taxi, some battered and gasping for air from the oxidants of the secular lifestyle. In "The Tears of Repentance", printed multiple times in Greece, and hailed by dozens of Bishops, Thanasi relives some of the most intriguing personal and life changing encounters in his 25 year taxi career.


FAITH AND FELLOWSHIP TO CONTINUE IN SALINAS

Our Small Group ministry will continue to meet only in Salinas for one more session in order to complete the series A HOUSE BUILT ON ROCK - A Four Week Foundational Program for Small Groups. The remaining session will take place on Tuesday, July 9 from 8 p.m. in Salinas (Ledo's residence). Please sign up with Father Ion who will be leading this first cycle. Bring a friend or two!

The FAITH AND FELLOWSHIP ministry is inspired by its very successful incarnation at one of our sister churches (thank you Father Aris!) and it will be brought to us in its first cycle with the Book Forum group. The topics that will be covered make it easy to invite friends, neighbors and acquaintances as an introduction to Christian fellowship, and Orthodoxy in general. They are easy, fun and instructive, most of them requiring no prior preparation but yet enabling us to make more friends and share in FELLOWSHIP and FAITH.


CONGREGATIONAL CHANTING WORKSHOP

The Congregational Chanting Workshop will meet on Wednesday, July 10 from 10 am (before Faith and Fellowship). We will work on the Doxology and on hymns for the coming Sunday services and from the Divine Liturgy. Open to all.


MESSAGE FROM THE FESTIVAL CHAIRMAN

Congratulations: July 1 through 3 the festival chefs completed all Karithopita and Stuffed Bell Peppers. The following dates are set up for cooking:

July 8 & 9 - Festival Cooking: Cancelled
July 15 & 16 - Festival Cooking: Kourabiethes  (Butter/Sugar Cookie)  
July 22 & 23 - Festival Cooking: Meat Dolmathes (Stuffed Grape Leaves)

Those who wish to volunteer, or have any questions about donating ingredients, please call Voula Saites at 831-384-3893.

Cooking begins at 9:30am, at the Salinas Church on 326 Park St. If you are not able to make it during the day, your help in the evening prepping and cleaning up for the next day would be a great help.


NEW ELECTRONIC STEWARDSHIP PAYMENT

We are finally able to receive stewardship payments and any donation through our Facebook page. Go to our page and select the DONATE button for a free-of-charge donation (no fee to be payed). Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/SaintJohnTheBaptistGreekOrthodoxChurch/


SERVING THESE SUNDAYS

Serving this Sunday in church and at the fellowship hour following Liturgy:

July 7

Parish Council member: Kevin Wheeler
Greeter: Julia Wheeler
Fellowship: Kids n’ Cancer BBQ on the patio

July 14

Parish Council member: Euthimios Saites
Greeter: Temia Demakopoulos
Fellowship: Pink Team – Every 2nd Sunday each month


NEW: LITURGY IN SALINAS

The Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in Salinas on Tuesday, July 16 from 9 a.m. to strengthen the cooking team. They will begin the work in the kitchen right after the service, at 10 a.m.


PROPHET ELIAS FEAST DAY

The Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church Community is hosting the celebration of Prophet Elias.

  • Friday, July 19. 2019 - 6:00pm - Great Vespers with Artoklasia followed by light refreshments.
  • Saturday, July 20, 2019 - 9:00am - Orthros and Divine Liturgy  followed by lunch in the church hall.

For more information, see www.propheteliassc.org


CONFESSIONS AT SAINT JOHN’S

Father Ion is available to hear confessions after services and also by appointment at other times. If you need to do confession, please contact Father Ion ahead of time.


ALL SAINTS HOUSEKEEPING NOTICE

With the change of trash receptacles, we have also received notice from Greenwaste about a change in the pick-up schedule. We will be posting new No Parking Tuesdays signs to this effect.


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 2nd Mode

When You descended unto death, O Lord who yourself are immortal Life, then did You mortify Hades by the lightning flash of Your Divinity. Also when You raised the dead from the netherworld, all the Powers of the heavens were crying out: O Giver of life, Christ our God, glory be to You.

Apolytikion for Great Martyr Kyriake in the 4th Mode

Your own ewe-lamb cries to You loudly, O Jesus, and she says, * "For my Bridegroom do I long, and seeking You I now contend; * and I am crucified and buried with You in Your baptism. * I suffer for Your sake, that I may reign with You. * I die for You that I may also live in You. * Accept me as an unblemished sacrifice * as I offer myself to You with love." * At her entreaties and intercessions, * save our souls, O Merciful Lord.

Apolytikion of Saint John the Baptist in the 1st Mode

The memory of the just is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord's testimony is sufficient for you, O Forerunner; for you have proved to be truly even more venerable than the Prophets, since you were granted to baptize in the running waters Him Whom they proclaimed. Wherefore, having contested for the truth, you did rejoice to announce the good tidings even to those in Hades: that God has appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world and granting us great mercy.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 2nd Mode

A protection of Christians unshamable, intercessor to our Holy Maker, unwavering, please reject not the prayerful cries of those who are in sin. Instead, come to us, for you are good; your loving help bring unto us, who are crying in faith to you: hasten to intercede and speed now to supplicate, as a protection for all time, Theotokos, for those who honor you.
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Third Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Mark 16:9-20

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it.

After this he appeared in another form to two of them, as they were walking into the country. And they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them.

Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they sat at table; and he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover."

So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.

Epistle Reading

Kyriake the Great Martyr
The Reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians 3:23-29; 4:1-5

Brethren, before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Gospel Reading

3rd Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 6:22-33

The Lord said, "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light; but if your eye is not sound, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well."

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Wisdom of the Fathers

A brother, more thrifty than covetous, ... left behind him at his death a hundred pieces of money which he had earned by weaving linen. ... a council was held as to what should be done [with the money] ... However, Macarius, Pambo, Isidore and the rest of those called fathers, speaking by the Spirit, decided that they should be interred with their owner, with the words: "Thy money perish with thee."
St. Jerome
Letter 22 to Eustochium

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Saints and Feasts

Allsaint
July 07

3rd Sunday of Matthew

07_kyriaki
July 07

Saint Kyriake the Great Martyr

Saint Kyriake was the daughter of Christian parents, Dorotheus and Eusebia. She was given her name because she was born on Sunday, the day of the Lord (in Greek, Kyriake). She contested in Nicomedia during the reign of Diocletian, in the year 300. After many bitter torments she was condemned to suffer beheading, but being granted time to pray first, she made her prayer and gave up her holy soul in peace.

Procopius
July 08

The Holy Great Martyr Procopius

The holy Martyr Procopius was born of a pious father named Christopher, but his mother Theodosia was an idolater. After Christopher's death, she presented Neanias - for this was the Saint's name before - to Diocletian, who was at Antioch in Syria. Diocletian made him Duke of Alexandria, and sent him there to punish the Christians. On the way to Alexandria, our Lord spoke to Neanias as once He had to Saul, and turned this new persecutor to faith in Him. Neanias turned back to Scythopolis, and preached Christ. He was betrayed by his own mother, and was arrested and tormented in Caesarea of Palestine. While he was in prison, the Lord appeared to him again and gave him the new name of Procopius (which is derived from the Greek word meaning "progress, advancement"). He was brought out of prison and taken to worship the idols, but at his prayer, the idols fell; many then believed in Christ and suffered martyrdom, among them certain soldiers, twelve women of senatorial rank, and the Saint's own mother, Theodosia. Saint Procopius, after further torments and imprisonment, was beheaded about the year 290.

11_ephemia
July 11

Euphemia the Great Martyr

In 451, during the reign of the Sovereigns Marcian and Pulcheria, the Fourth Ecumenical Council was convoked in Chalcedon against Eutyches and those of like mind with him. After much debate, the Fathers who were the defenders of Orthodoxy, being 630 in number, agreed among themselves and with those who were of contrary mind, to write their respective definitions of faith in separate books, and to ask God to confirm the truth in this matter. When they had prepared these texts, they placed the two tomes in the case that held Saint Euphemia's relics, sealed it, and departed. After three days of night-long supplications, they opened the reliquary in the presence of the Emperor, and found the tome of the heretics under the feet of the Martyr, and that of the Orthodox in her right hand. (For her life, see Sept. 16.)

Olga
July 11

The All-Praised Olga, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Princess of Kiev

Saint Olga, renowned for her wisdom and sobriety, in her youth became the wife of Igor, Great Prince of Kiev, who ruled during the tenth century. After her husband's death, she herself ruled capably, and was finally moved to accept the Faith of Christ. She traveled to Constantinople to receive Holy Baptism. The Emperor, seeing her outward beauty and inward greatness, asked her to marry him. She said she could not do this before she was baptized; she furthermore asked him to be her Godfather at the font, which he agreed to do. After she was baptized (receiving the name of Helen), the Emperor repeated his proposal of marriage. She answered that now he was her father, through holy Baptism, and that not even among the heathen was it heard of a man marrying his daughter. Gracefully accepting to be outwitted by her, he sent her back to her land with priests and sacred texts and holy icons. Although her son Svyatoslav remained a pagan, she planted the seed of faith in her grandson Vladimir (see July 15). She reposed in peace in 969.

Allsaint
July 12

Paisios the Athonite

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Prayer Requests

Please remember in your prayers the following who are in need.

"Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on your servant (first name)."

Eleni Saites - for patience and endurance.

Vasiliki Saites - for recovery after surgery.

Olga Drumev - for strength and recovery.

Nina and George Kadiev - George going through many serious health trials.

Maria Kastros-Taubman - for health, patience and endurance.

Sky (Sergey), Kera, Mariem and Kylie (Caliope) - for guidance, patience and peace.

Kylie and her family for health, faith and hope. 

Brodie Aguirre - for protection during his military service

Alberta - for recovery after hip reconstruction surgery

Maribelle Alvarez - for strength and recovery

And for those who are in prisons:

Constantine, Sergei and Dennis.

Father Ion is available for home visits. Please call him directly at 408.605.0621 if you would like to schedule one.

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