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St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2017-02-26
Bulletin Contents
News from the Pews
Saints and Feasts
Wisdom of the Fathers
Message from His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese News
Assembly of Bishops News
Eden
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St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (806) 798-1828
  • Fax:
  • (806) 798-1828
  • Street Address:

  • 6001 81st Street

  • Lubbock, TX 79493
  • Mailing Address:

  • 6001 81st Street

  • Lubbock, TX 79493

Contact Information

Parish Priest Rev. Fr. Peter DeFonce


pdefonce@yahoo.com | 1(806)392-3325

Services Schedule

Service Schedule for June:
Saturday 5/27 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
(NOTE NEW SUMMER SUNDAY LITURGY TIMES!)
Sunday 5/28 8:20 a.m.: Orthros
                    9:30 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Sunday of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council)

Saturday 6/3 9:00 a.m.: Saturday of Souls Divine Liturgy (with Kollyva)
                    6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 6/4 8:20 a.m.: Orthros
                  9:30 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Pentecost)
Kneeling Vespers immediately following Divine Liturgy
Monday 6/5 8:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Monday of the Holy Spirit)

Saturday 6/10 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 6/11 8:20 a.m.: Orthros
                    9:30 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (1st Sunday of Matthew, All Saints)
Monday 6/12 Apostles’ Fast begins

Saturday 6/17 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 6/18 8:20 a.m.: Orthros
                    9:30 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (2nd Sunday of Matthew)

Saturday 6/24 9:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist)
Sunday 6/25 8:20 a.m.: Orthros
                    9:30 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (3rd Sunday of Matthew)

Wednesday 6/28 6:00 p.m.: Great Vigil with Artoklasia
Thursday 6/29 8:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, Apostles’ Fast ends)
Friday 6/30 8:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Feast of the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles)
Saturday 7/1 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 7/2 8:20 a.m.: Orthros
                  9:30 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (4th Sunday of Matthew)

Past Bulletins


News from the Pews

March News

02/26/2017

News from the Pews

Please contact Sarah Fountain at your earliest convenience about any announcements, prayer concerns, or activities that you wish to be included in the monthly newsletter. (She will be the first to say that she is not very "in the know!") Her e-mail is listed at the end of New from the Pews.

 There will be one more Memorial Divine Liturgy on Soul Saturday as we enter into Great Lent (3/4).  Kollyva is needed for this services.  Please contact Fr. Peter if you are willing to provide the kollyva.

The parish survey was be mailed out to every household with a mailing address in our parish directory at the end of February.  Please complete the survey only once as completely and as accurately as possible.  Survey results will be kept anonymous.  All survey results, either online or paper, will need to be submitted by March 1 (or as soon as possible afterward).  If you have any questions, please contact Sarah Fountain (sarah.fountain@huskers.unl.edu) The online version of the survey can be accessed by clicking on the following link:

St. Andrew's Parish Survey 2017

Or tinyurl.com/SaintAndrewSurvey2017

Congratulations to Tyler Phy for completing the installation of a new sign for our church visible on 82nd Street.  Thank you for your generosity and your hard work!

From the Sunday of Orthodoxy (5 March) through St. Thomas Sunday (23 April), Philoptochos will be collecting items for Parent-Life Lubbock, an organization that provides spiritual, material, and financial support to pregnant teens.  The organization needs:

      -Diapers (especially in sizes 4, 5, and 6)
      -Other supplies like diaper wipes
      -New or gently used baby clothes and other baby items
      -Small gifts valued around $10.00 or $10.00 gift cards for baby shower prizes.

A tub for these items will be set up in the parish hall.

A Note from Fr. Peter Regarding Fasting and Abstinence During Great Lent:

In general, during the Great Fast, Orthodox Christians abstain from all animal products and pleasurable fats (meat, fish, eggs, all dairy products, wine, and olive oil), with more experienced members further abstaining from marital relations, television, secular radio, films, and as far as possible even the internet.  Additionally, we fast by eating significantly less at all mealtimes; we ought not be "full/satiated" at any meal between Mondaymorning and Friday night.  Beyond that, some eat only an early breakfast, and no lunch, or at any rate at least a very modest one.  On the first two days of Lent, and during Great and Holy Week, we further restrict ourselves to the extent of our physical abilities, God helping and guiding us. 

It is from this latter understanding of "fasting" that we are dispensed on weekends, and on Great Feasts such as the Annunciation; while we abstain from non-fasting foods as on weekdays--except for wine and olive oil, which are permitted on weekends and certain weekday commemorations--we may eat normal amounts at mealtimes, stopping once we are "full" or "satiated."

Having taken away so many normally acceptable things, this frees the Orthodox to add back other things to their lives, helping to kindle the refining fire of repentance and the acquisition of humility, including: Scripture study, the reading of the Holy Fathers (especially the monastics), prostrations and the Penitential Prayer of Saint Ephraim of Syria (weekdays only!), unseen acts of charity for which we cannot be thanked, giving alms to the poor, and--perhaps most importantly--receiving the Mystery of Holy Confession.  The overall message: let us fill our time with the things of God.

Services for the month of March: 

Saturday 2/25 9:00 a.m.: Soul Saturday Memorial Liturgy
                     6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 2/26 
8:50 a.m.: Orthros
                   10:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Cheese Fare Sunday: Forgiveness
                                      Sunday)
                    7:00 p.m.: Forgiveness Vespers.

Monday 2/27 7:00 p.m.: Compline, with the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete.

Tuesday 2/28 7:00 p.m.: Compline, with the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete.

Wednesday 3/1 6:00 p.m.: Ninth Hour & Presanctified Liturgy, followed by a 
                                         parish fasting potluck.

Thursday 3/2 7:00 p.m.: Compline, with the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete.

Friday 3/3: 7:00 p.m.: Compline, with the Akathist Hymn.     
Saturday 3/4 9:00 a.m: Soul Saturday Memorial Liturgy
                    6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers

Sunday 3/5 8:50 a.m.: Orthros
                 10:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Sunday of Orthodoxy)

 Wednesday 3/8 6:00 p.m.: Ninth Hour & Presanctified Liturgy, followed by a
                   parish fasting potluck.

Sunday 3/12 10:00 a.m.: The Church building is opened for private prayer, the
                   lighting of candles, and fellowship (because of Fr. Peter being away).

Note: Father Peter will be out of town from Thursday 3/9 through Friday 3/17.  Therefore, there will be no services for the Feast of the Forty Holy Martyrs (3/9), the Second Akathist (3/10), the weekend of Saint Gregory Palamas (3/11-3/12), the Third Presanctified Liturgy (3/15), and the Third Akathist (3/17).

Saturday 3/18 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 3/19 8:50 a.m.: Orthros
                  10:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Sunday of the Cross)

Wednesday 3/22 6:00 p.m.: Ninth Hour & Presanctified Liturgy, followed by a
                  parish fasting potluck.

Friday 3/24 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers with Artoklasia
Saturday 3/25 8:00 a.m.: Festal Orthros
                  9:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy for the Great Feast of the Annunciation
                  6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 3/26 8:50 a.m.: Orthros
                   10:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Sunday of Saint John of the Ladder
                    of Divine Ascent) 

Wednesday 3/29 6:00 p.m.: Ninth Hour & Presanctified Liturgy, followed by a
                    parish fasting potluck.
Thursday 3/30 7:00 p.m.: Compline with the Canon of Saint Andrew of Crete
Friday 3/31 7:00 p.m.: Compline, with the Akathist Hymn. 
Saturday 4/1 6:00 p.m.: Great Vespers
Sunday 4/2 8:50 a.m.: Orthros
                10:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy (Sunday of Saint Mary of Egypt)

 Happy Name Day:

March

2 March         St. David of Wales  David Fountain

10 March       St. Anastasia          Amie Swissler

17 March       St. Patrick              Richard Fountain

 

Many Thanks to our Prosphora bakers! 
March 2017

3/5 Sunday MILA PAUL
3/12 Sunday NO LITURGY
3/19 Sunday OLGA KAPOSHKO
3/26 Sunday MILA PAUL

 

COFFEE HOUR TEAMS

March 5: Erin Riedel and Amanda Mankowski
March 12: Doris Kallas and Kathy Tzemos
March 19: CHURCH LUNCHEON – Everyone bring a Lenten dish to share!
March 26: Liudmyla Paul and Masha Zahn

Please send corrections or additions to sarah.fountain@huskers.unl.edu


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Saints and Feasts

Eden
February 26

Forgiveness Sunday

The Holy Fathers have appointed the commemoration of Adam's exile from the Paradise of delight here, on the eve of the holy Forty-day Fast, demonstrating to us not by simple words, but by actual deeds, how beneficial fasting is for man, and how harmful and destructive are insatiety and the transgressing of the divine commandments. For the first commandment that God gave to man was that of fasting, which the first-fashioned received but did not keep; and not only did they not become gods, as they had imagined, but they lost even that blessed life which they had, and they fell into corruption and death, and transmitted these and innumerable other evils to all of mankind. The God-bearing Fathers set these things before us today, that by bringing to mind what we have fallen from, and what we have suffered because of the insatiety and disobedience of the first-fashioned, we might be diligent to return again to that ancient bliss and glory by means of fasting and obedience to all the divine commands. Taking occasion from today's Gospel (Matt. 6:14-21) to begin the Fast unencumbered by enmity, we also ask forgiveness this day, first from God, then from one another and all creation.

Allsaint
February 26

Porphyrius, Bishop of Gaza

Saint Porphyrius had Thessalonica as his homeland. He became a monk in Scete of Egypt, where he lived for five years. He went on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, after which he spent five years in much affliction in a cave near the Jordan. Stricken with a disease of the liver, he departed to Jerusalem, where he was ordained presbyter and appointed Keeper of the Cross at the age of 45. Three years later he was made Bishop of Gaza. He suffered much from the rulers and pagans of Gaza; but with the friendship of Saint John Chrysostom, and the patronage of the Empress Eudoxia, he razed the temple of the idol Marnas in Gaza and built a great church to the glory of God. He reposed in 450.

Photini
February 26

The Holy Great Martyr Photine, the Samaritan Women

Saint Photine was the Samaritan Woman who encountered Christ our Saviour at Jacob's Well (John 4:1-42). Afterwards she laboured in the spread of the Gospel in various places, and finally received the crown of martyrdom in Rome with her two sons and five sisters, during the persecutions under the Emperor Nero.

01_firstlent1cp
March 05

Sunday of Orthodoxy

For more than one hundred years the Church of Christ was troubled by the persecution of the Iconoclasts of evil belief, beginning in the reign of Leo the Isaurian (717-741) and ending in the reign of Theophilus (829-842). After Theophilus's death, his widow the Empress Theodora (celebrated Feb. 11), together with the Patriarch Methodius (June 14), established Orthodoxy anew. This ever-memorable Queen venerated the icon of the Mother of God in the presence of the Patriarch Methodius and the other confessors and righteous men, and openly cried out these holy words: "If anyone does not offer relative worship to the holy icons, not adoring them as though they were gods, but venerating them out of love as images of the archetype, let him be anathema." Then with common prayer and fasting during the whole first week of the Forty-day Fast, she asked God's forgiveness for her husband. After this, on the first Sunday of the Fast, she and her son, Michael the Emperor, made a procession with all the clergy and people and restored the holy icons, and again adorned the Church of Christ with them. This is the holy deed that all we the Orthodox commemorate today, and we call this radiant and venerable day the Sunday of Orthodoxy, that is, the triumph of true doctrine over heresy.

Allsaint
March 10

Anastasia of Alexandria

Allsaint
March 17

Patrick the Enlightener of Ireland

Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and a grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart. In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, "After I came to Ireland - every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed - the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm." After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards struggled in the monastic life at Auxerre in Gaul, under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labours bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his flock, "my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord - so many thousands of people," he says in his Confession. His apostolic work was not accomplished without much "weariness and painfulness," long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times. When he came to Ireland as its enlightener, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner.

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Wisdom of the Fathers

Henceforward then we must be free from our listlessness; "for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."[*] You see how he puts the Resurrection now close by them. For as the time advances, he means, the season of our present life is wasting away, and that of the life to come waxes nearer. If then thou be prepared, and hast done all whatsoever He hath commanded, the day is salvation to thee...Yes, for the day is calling us to battle-array, and to the fight. Yet fear not at hearing of array and arms. For in the case of the visible suit of armor, to put it on is a heavy and abhorred task. But here it is desirable, and worth being prayed for. For it is of Light the arms are! Hence they will set thee forth brighter than the sunbeam, and giving out a great glistening, and they place thee in security: for they are arms, and glittering do they make thee: for arms of light are they!...It is the deadly kind of passions then that he is for extinguishing, lust, namely, and anger. Wherefore it is not themselves only, but even the sources of them that he removes. For there is nothing that so kindles lust, and inflames wrath, as drunkenness, and sitting long at the wine...
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 25 on Romans 13, 4th Century

Here it were well to sigh aloud, and to wail bitterly: for not only do we imitate the hypocrites, but we have even surpassed them.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 20 on Matthew 6, 4th Century

For I know, yea I know many, not merely fasting and making a display of it, but neglecting to fast, and yet wearing the masks of them that fast, and cloaking themselves with an excuse worse than their sin.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 20 on Matthew 6, 4th Century

Do we forgive our neighbors their trespasses? God also forgives us in His mercy. Do we refuse to forgive? God, too, will refuse to forgive us. As we treat our neighbors, so also does God treat us. The forgiveness, then, of your sins or unforgiveness, and hence also your salvation or destruction, depend on you yourself, man. For without forgiveness of sins there is no salvation.
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk
Unknown, 18th century

One must not trust one's feelings, since because of his limitedness a man cannot know everything, and therefore his judgment is also relatively limited. "Even if you see with your own eyes that someone sins, do not judge, for the eyes also may be deceived."
St. John Climacus

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Message from His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios

Archbishop-demetrios

Encyclical of Archbishop Demetrios for Holy and Great Lent 2017

02/24/2017

http://www.goarch.org/news/encyclicallent2017
With this light that shines in our hearts we will also offer a witness through our observance of Lent and through our lives. As we know and experience God’s grace, others will see His offering of forgiveness. They will see the power of grace to transform life and bring healing and restoration. They will find salvation in Christ as the grace of God works in and through us to show all His redeeming love.
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Greek Orthodox Archdiocese News

Logo

Encyclical of Archbishop Demetrios for Holy and Great Lent 2017

02/24/2017

http://www.goarch.org/news/encyclicallent2017
With this light that shines in our hearts we will also offer a witness through our observance of Lent and through our lives. As we know and experience God’s grace, others will see His offering of forgiveness. They will see the power of grace to transform life and bring healing and restoration. They will find salvation in Christ as the grace of God works in and through us to show all His redeeming love.

Public Schedule of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Feb. 24 – Mar. 10, 2017

02/23/2017

http://www.goarch.org/news/adschedule-02-23-2017

Catechetical Encyclical on the Opening of Great Lent

02/23/2017

http://www.goarch.org/news/patriarchal-lent-ency-02232017
This period is one of constant contrition before the mystery of God that daily unfolds before us, the mystery of our salvation. This is why the opportunity granted to us with the Sacred Fast has a special characteristic: the renewal and vigilance of the soul that is called for during this time filled with divine exhortation and sanctity to become aware of the ephemeral and material, while gradually being transferred to the eternal and spiritual.

“All for One” in the 41st Folk Dance and Choral Festival, FDF 2017

02/20/2017

http://www.goarch.org/news/fdf2017-02202017
The 41st Folk Dance and Choral Festival (FDF 2017) a four day celebration of Faith, Dance and Fellowship of the Metropolis of San Fransisco, culminated yesterday Feb. 19, 2017 with the Archieratical Divine Liturgy in the morning, the Finals of the Advance Senior Division and the Awards Ceremony, all taking place at Town and Country Resort Hotel here in San Diego.

FDF 2017 Faith, Dance, Fellowship, largest Greek Orthodox Youth Gathering in the United States

02/18/2017

http://www.goarch.org/news/2017FDF-02182017
His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, Geron of America arrived in San Diego Thursday Feb. 16, for the 2017 Folk Dance and Choral Festival of the Metropolis of San Francisco, a four day celebration of Faith, Dance and Fellowship taking place this year at Town and Country Resort Hotel here in San Diego.
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Assembly of Bishops News

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to Continue Successful Fellowships at the UN

02/07/2017

http://assemblyofbishops.org/news/2017/united-nations-fellowship
The Department of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is inviting graduate and recent post-graduate students to apply for its fellowships at the United Nations.

2017 News

01/03/2017

http://assemblyofbishops.org/news/2017-news1/

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