St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre Church
Publish Date: 2016-06-12
Bulletin Contents
Hlyfthrs
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St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 860-664-9434
  • Street Address:

  • 108 E Main St

  • Clinton, CT 06413-0134
  • Mailing Address:

  • PO Box 134

  • Clinton, CT 06413-0134


Contact Information



Services Schedule

Weekly Services

Tuesdays at 8:30a - Daily Matins

Wednesdays at 6:00p - Daily Vespers

Thursday at 8:30a - Daily Matins

Saturday at 5:30p - Great Vespers

Sunday at 9:30a - Divine Liturgy

The Church is also open on Wednesdays for "Open Doors" - confession, meditation and reflection.

Please see our online calendar for dates and times of Feast Day services.


Past Bulletins


Welcome

Gospel1

We welcome all visitors to our Divine Liturgy and services. While Holy Communion may only be received by prepared Orthodox Christians, our non-Orthodox guests are welcome to participate in our prayers and hymns and to join us in venerating the Cross and and receiving blessed bread at the conclusion of the Liturgy. Please sign our guest card and join us for refreshments and fellowship after the services.

Feel free to ask questions before or after the services. Any member of our Council or Congregation are glad to assist you. Literature about the Orthodox faith and this parish can be found in the narthex (back of the Church).

Members of our Parish Council are:

Phyllis Sturtevant - President, ad hoc Ministries (Red House, 25th Anniversary)

Sophia Brubaker - Vice President, Building/Grounds

Susan Hayes - Secretary, Communications

Susan Egan - Treasurer

Deborah Bray - Member at Large, Fellowship/Stewardship

Demetra Tolis - Member at Large, Outreach/Evangelism

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Announcements

Help with Tag Sale 

 

Photine Hunt graciously donated many household items for use by the Parish in this year’s Tag Sale. Much of this is currently in storage in our furnace room, which is now ‘full to the brim.’ With your help, we would like to find temporary storage off site. If anyone could take a few items/boxes home to store until the Tag Sale, it would be greatly appreciated. We do need to have the space to get to the furnaces and electrical boxes.

 

Please talk with Fr Steven if you can help.

 

The Children’s Word: Pray for the Church!

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Saints and Feasts

Hlyfthrs
June 12

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.


Peteratheniteonouphrios
June 12

Peter the Athonite

Saint Peter was born of noble parents in Constantinople in the ninth century. Sent forth with the Roman army against the Saracens, he was taken captive and shut up in the prison of Samarra in Syria; this is no doubt the same prison in which the Forty-Two Martyrs of Amorion were kept (see Mar. 6). Released from prison through the prayers of Saint Nicholas of Myra and Saint Symeon the God-receiver, he fled to Rome, where he became a monk, and later came to the peninsula of Athos, where he lived in a cave as a solitary, suffering many temptations from the evil one, but also enjoying the manifest help of the most holy Theotokos. After many years, he reposed in peace.


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Parish Calendar

  • Parish Calendar

    June 12 to June 20, 2016

    Sunday, June 12

    Ministry Meeting: Outreach and Evangelism

    Church School Ice Cream Social

    Fathers of the 1st Council

    9:30AM Divine Liturgy

    Monday, June 13

    Nancy Davis

    Aquilina the Martyr of Syria

    6:00PM Parish Council Mtg

    Tuesday, June 14

    The Holy Prophet Elisseus (Elisha)

    8:30AM Daily Matins

    Wednesday, June 15

    Amos the Prophet

    4:30PM Open Doors

    5:30PM Daily Vespers

    Thursday, June 16

    Tychon the Wonderworker

    8:30AM Daily Matins

    Friday, June 17

    The Apodosis of the Feast of the Holy Ascension

    Saturday, June 18

    The Saturday of Souls

    Andrews - A

    5:00PM Akathist for the Departed

    5:30PM Great Vespers with Litya

    Sunday, June 19

    Akathist to St John Maximovich

    Holy Pentecost

    9:30AM Divine Liturgy

    12:00PM Vespers of Pentecost

    Monday, June 20

    Repose of Ann Cooke

    Monday of the Holy Spirit

    Righteous Priest Aaron

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Prayers, Intersessions and Commemorations

Cross2

Robert, Olga, Daria, Daria, Dori, John, Evelyn, Alla, June, Nina, Joan, John, Alex, Alan, Nadia, Glenn, Kathryn, Veronica, Darlyne, Albert, Irene, Nancy, Dionysian, Elena, Jevon, Ivan and Joscean.

and for…John, Jennifer, Nicholas, Isabel, Elizabeth, John, Jordan, Michael, Lee, Eva, Neil, Gina, Joey, Michael, Madelyn,Sofie, Katrina, Olena,and Valeriy.

and for our catechumens; Joe Barbera, Kyle Hollis and Stephen Wexell

 

Many Years!

This week we commemorate Nancy Davis on the occasion of her birthday.

Commemorations:

Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Ven. Onuphrius the Great (4th c.) and Ven. Peter of Mt. Athos (734). Finding of the Relics (1649) and the second glorification (1909) of Rt. Blv. Anna of Kashin. Ven. Arsenius, Abbot of Konevits (1447). Ven. Onuphry, Abbot of Mal’sk (Pskov—1492). Ven. Bassian and Jonah of Pertomsk (Solovétsky Monastery—1561). Ven. Onuphry and Auxenty of Vologdá (15th-16th c.). Ven. Stephen of Komel’, Abbot of Ozérsk Monastery (Vologdá—1542). Ven. John, Andrew, Heraclemon, and Theophilus, Hermits, of Egypt (4th c.).

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bulletin Inserts

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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 6th Tone

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 4th Tone

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 8th Tone

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.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 6th Tone

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."
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 4th Tone. 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."


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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

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In House

Burnbush

Before commenting on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, let’s go back for a moment to His Nativity, His “descent” from heaven.  Christ came down from heaven in a human way—He was “born” as a baby.  And He came in a private way, made known only to Mary and Joseph, to shepherds and Magi.  There was a “cosmic” event, however, with the appearance of the star and the multitude of the angels.  So there was “glory” in Christ’s descent to earth at the Nativity, but it was not made known to all.

The Ascension was different.  Christ ascended in glory, in radiance.  This occurred in the presence of His Disciples, the twelve and quite possibly even more than that.  What a sight this must have been, to see Christ “lifting off” of the earth and ascending into the clouds and entering into the heavens.

It is not a stretch to say that the Ascension touches on all of the major events in the life of Christ.  There was, at the Ascension, as described by hymnographers, a multitude of angels, with trumpets playing, reminiscent of the heavenly hosts at the Nativity.  The heavens were opened, as they were at the Theophany/Epiphany.  However, instead of the voice of the Father and the Spirit in the form of a dove alighting on Christ in the Jordan River, the heavens opened to receive Christ ascending to them.  We are reminded of the brilliance of the Transfiguration, when Christ first appeared in the sky with Moses and Elijah.  At the Crucifixion, Christ was lifted up on the Cross.  At the Ascension He was lifted up on the clouds.  And at the Resurrection, He showed the fullness of His Glory, that He was Lord of life and death.  In the Ascension He showed His glory to all people.

Let’s go back for a moment to the equation where God was on one side and man was one side.  At the time of the Creation, man was made to be like God, the equation was balanced.  At the time of the Fall, man’s side of the equation fell out of balance, because all of the human miseries entered on man’s side but were not on God’s side.  At the Nativity, the equation began to come into balance as Christ came to earth to experience our side of the equation.  The equation was balanced at the time of the Crucifixion, as Christ died on the cross and experienced the human death that we will all experience.

The balance of the equation was short-lived.  Because after the burial of Christ, He rose from the dead, something we have not done.  And then He ascended into heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father.  This is our future hope and the work of our salvation.  We are to live in Christ, so that we can die like Christ.  And if we die like Christ, in perfect faith and trust in God, then we will be resurrected like Christ.  We, too, will ascend to heaven.  And we, too, will be accounted worthy to sit at the right hand of the Father. This is the Last Judgment, where all will be judged either worthy to sit at the right hand of the Father (Paradise) or to be consigned to the left (condemnation). Because one cannot fall from heaven, if we are deemed worthy to sit at the right hand of God, the equation can be balanced for each of us for all time.  For if we rise with Christ, ascend to heaven and sit at the right hand of the Father, then we will be with Christ and “like” Christ forever.

The Ascension was the last act of Christ’s earthly ministry.  And it will be the last act of our earthly lives as well.  This is the end point for our lives—it’s either going to be an “ascension” in glory or a “descent” in condemnation.  That’s why we should pause and reflect on the Ascension, not only what it was like to witness that awesome event, but what it will be like for us to ascend to heaven and sit at the right hand of God.  What a comfort to reflect on the journeys of our loved ones who have made this journey already ahead of us.

It’s amazing how all of these events in the life of Christ tie together.  Because the Resurrection still couldn’t have been the end of the story.  Christ didn’t rise from the dead so that we could rise from the dead, but so that we could rise from this earthly life and ascend in glory to heaven.  This is why the Ascension is so important in our faith.  For the Resurrection is not the end of the journey.  The end of the journey is heaven.  The Resurrection opened the path to Paradise.  The Ascension opened the gates to heaven for Christ, and because of the Ascension, those gates can open for each of us as well.

With the disciples witnessing, You ascended O Christ, unto the Father, to sit beside Him.  Angels ran before you and they cried aloud, “Lift up the gates, O lift them up, and Behold the King has ascended, to light-principled glory.” (Exapostelarion, from the Orthros of Ascension, Trans. by Fr. Seraphim Dedes)

May we one day ascend in glory as well!

 

+Fr. Stavros

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