Publish-header
St. John Chrysostom Greek Orthodox Church Of Nashville
Publish Date: 2020-12-13
Bulletin Contents
Announcements
Weekly Calendar
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Saints and Feasts
Archepiscopal Message
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese News
Ecumenical Patriarchate News
Forefathers
Organization Icon
St. John Chrysostom Greek Orthodox Church Of Nashville

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (615) 957-2975
  • Street Address:

  • 4602 Indiana Avenue

  • Nashville, TN 37209
  • Mailing Address:

  • P.O. Box 90162

  • Nashville, TN 37209

Contact Information

Father Parthenios Turner
Proistamenos

stjohnnashville@gmail.com | (615) 957-2975

Services Schedule

Services will be live-streamed via our Facebook page: St. John Chrysostom Greek Orthodox Nashville, TN.

Please see our online Calendar for the schedule of Services.

Past Bulletins


Announcements

WANTING TO ATTEND A SERVICE?

If you would like to attend a Service,

A few questions first:

1) Have you been in contact recently with anyone who has tested positive?

2) Have you been following standard protocols to slow the spread such as wearing a mask in close public quarters?

If your answer is: 'No' to 1), and ‘Yes’ to 2) then please use this link to signup:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B084EADAC2FA0FF2-stjohn

Currently we are following standard protocols to wear a mask, and allow a minimum 6' physical distance between individuals/families while attending services.

While there are no restrictions for families with children, we respectfully ask that children stay with their families.

Please note that all first-time visitors are kindly asked to contact Fr. Parthenios prior to signing up.


KEEPING SAFE IN CHURCH

(A parishioner here at St. John offered the following reminder of the protocols that we should be observing while attending services at St. John.)

*Thoughts on keeping safe distances within church in the time of COVID 19:

As throughout the pandemic, but all the more so now that we are experiencing a new second wave of  infections and hospitalizations, we want to remind everyone to be vigilant in the safe practices we have offered when attending church services at St. John’s .

Thanks to all for keeping their masks on throughout the services. We realize this is uncomfortable especially for some, and we applaud the 100 percent compliance.

We just want to remind everyone that once you are given your designated spot within the nave by the usher, that you remain in that place throughout the service so that we may stay 6' or more apart. The church space is very limited when it comes to the 6' recommendation that we need to stay where we are. (You of course may please feel free to walk in and out of the nave as needed, or to the iconostasis to light candles or safely venerate the icons there on the iconostasis.)

During the time in the service known as the "Great Entrance" in which the priest carries the gifts through the church, just a reminder that there is no need to move from your spot unless it will directly impair the clergy from walking through the area. If you do need to move, please be mindful to move keeping 6' from other parishioners. Thank-you.

Any Orthodox Christians coming up to receive Holy Communion, please remember to keep at least 6' distance between family units while in what used to be a  “line”.

Final reminder, please maintain distance after services, perhaps even best moving from inside the building to enjoy the fresh air and then greeting, and perhaps catching up with each other at a safe distance.


HOLY COMMUNION

Although we are receiving Holy Communion in the normative way with a common spoon, as a precautionary measure, we ask that each communicant take a tissue provided and place it over the  communion cloth before receiving, and afterwards place it in the receptacle provided nearby.


CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICE

The Christmas Eve Service of the Vesperal Divine Liturgy for the Nativity of Christ will be celebrated at 6 PM, Thursday, Dec. 24. (This will be the only Liturgy for Holy Nativity at St. John this year.)

To learn more, go to:

www.goarch.org/nativity

Feast of the Nativity


A NOTE FROM THE BOOKKEEPER

Thank you to those who have continued to offer their financial support of the Church!

Fewer people attending Services means fewer donations. Each and every offering is valued and appreciated!

Due to the extra administrative time and expense for the bookeeping firm to record online donations, the preferred and most efficient way to make an offering is either by a personal check, or by asking your bank to set up a (free) regular (weekly/monthly) automatic check to be mailed from your bank.

Please send all checks and correspondence to:

St. John Chrysostom Greek Orthodox Church

P.O. Box 90162

Nashville, TN 37209

Thank you!


A SERMON FOR YOU

 A beautiful Homily...

https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/rememberingsion/2020/11/22/when-god-does-not-come/


BACK TO TOP

Weekly Calendar

  • St. John Chrysostom Church Calendar

    December 13 to December 27, 2020

    Sunday, December 13

    8:30AM Matins (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, December 14

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    Wednesday, December 16

    5:30PM Small Paraklesis (Prayers of supplication in times of distress).

    Saturday, December 19

    5:30PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, December 20

    8:30AM Matins (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

    Wednesday, December 23

    5:30PM Small Paraklesis (Prayers of supplication in times of distress).

    Thursday, December 24

    6:00PM Christmas Eve Vesperal Divine Liturgy for the Nativity of Christ

    Friday, December 25

    Holy Nativity

    Saturday, December 26

    5:30PM Great Vespers

    Sunday, December 27

    8:30AM Matins (Orthros)

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy

BACK TO TOP

Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

11th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Colossians 3:4-11

Brethren, when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. In these you once walked, when you lived in them. But now put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and foul talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old nature with its practices and have put on the new nature, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all, and in all.

Gospel Reading

11th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 14:16-24

The Lord said this parable: "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'"

BACK TO TOP

Saints and Feasts

Forefathers
December 13

11th Sunday of Luke

On the Sunday that occurs on or immediately after the eleventh of this month, we commemorate Christ's forefathers according to the flesh, both those that came before the Law, and those that lived after the giving of the Law.

Special commemoration is made of the Patriarch Abraham, to whom the promise was first given, when God said to him, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). This promise was given some two thousand years before Christ, when Abraham was seventy-five years of age. God called him and commanded him to forsake his country, parents, and kinsmen, and to depart to the land of the Canaanites. When he arrived there, God told him, "I will give this land to thy seed" (Gen. 12:7); for this cause, that land was called the "Promised Land," which later became the country of the Hebrew people, and which is also called Palestine by the historians. There, after the passage of twenty-four years, Abraham received God's law concerning circumcision. In the one hundredth year of his life, when Sarah was in her ninetieth year, they became the parents of Isaac. Having lived 175 years altogether, he reposed in peace, a venerable elder full of days.

Hermanalaska
December 13

Herman the Wonderworker of Alaska & First Saint of America

Saint Herman (his name is a variant of Germanus) was born near Moscow in 1756. In his youth he became a monk, first at the Saint Sergius Hermitage near Saint Petersburg on the Gulf of Finland; while he dwelt there, the most holy Mother of God appeared to him, healing him of a grave malady. Afterwards he entered Valaam Monastery on Valiant Island in Lake Ladoga; he often withdrew into the wilderness to pray for days at a time. In 1794, answering a call for missionaries to preach the Gospel to the Aleuts, he came to the New World with the first Orthodox mission to Alaska. He settled on Spruce Island, which he called New Valaam, and here he persevered, even in the face of many grievous afflictions mostly at the hands of his own countrymen in the loving service of God and of his neighbour. Besides his many toils for the sake of the Aleuts, he subdued his flesh with great asceticism, wearing chains, sleeping little, fasting and praying much. He brought many people to Christ by the example of his life, his teaching, and his kindness and sanctity, and was granted the grace of working miracles and of prophetic insight. Since he was not a priest, Angels descended at Theophany to bless the waters in the bay; Saint Herman used this holy water to heal the sick. Because of his unwearying missionary labours, which were crowned by God with the salvation of countless souls, he is called the Enlightener of the Aleuts, and has likewise been renowned as a wonderworker since his repose in 1837.

Allsaint
December 13

The Holy Martyrs Eustratius, Auxentius, Eugene, Mardarius, and Orestes of Greater Armenia

The Five Martyrs were from Greater Armenia. Like their ancestors, they worshipped Christ in secret; during the persecution of Diocletian, they presented themselves before the Forum authorities, and having been tormented in diverse manners, by Lysius the proconsul, three of them ended their lives in torments. As for Saints Eustratius and Orestes, they survived and were sent to Sebastia to Agricolaus, who governed the whole East; by his command these Saints, received their end as martyrs by fire in 296. Saint Auxentius was a priest. Saint Eustratius was educated and an orator; he was the foremost among Lysius' dignitaries and the archivist of the province. In the Synaxarion he is given the Latin title of scriniarius, that is, "keeper of the archives." The prayer, "Magnifying I magnify Thee, O Lord," which is read in the Saturday Midnight Service, is ascribed to him. In the Third Hour and elsewhere there is another prayer, "O Sovereign Master, God the Father Almighty," which is ascribed to Saint Mardarius.

BACK TO TOP

Archepiscopal Message

Archiepiscopal Encyclical on the Christmas Fast

11/27/2020

As we enter more deeply into the Christmas Fast, we understand that this will be a holiday season unlike no other, I want to commend to all of you the words of the Lord written above. Our chief and principal responsibility as Christians is to our God and to the image of God that we find in other people. And this duty is love.
https://www.goarch.org/-/encyclical-christmas-fast
BACK TO TOP

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese News

Time Out for Marriage

12/11/2020

"Time Out for Marriage" featuring Presvytera Kerry Pappas is a bi-monthly video series offered by the GOA Center for Family Care. Concise 2-3 minute messages offer encouragement for couples drawn from the wisdom of Holy Scripture, saints' teachings, and contemporary marriage literature.
https://www.goarch.org/-/time-out-for-marriage-1

Comfort Food for Families Advent Series

12/11/2020

"Comfort Food for Families Advent Series" is alternatively offered by the GOA Center for Family Care staff members every Monday at noon beginning on November 9th and ending on December 28th. Each brief video message highlights elements of the Nativity Fast to support families as they prepare to celebrate Christmas.
https://www.goarch.org/-/family-care-advent-series
BACK TO TOP

BACK TO TOP