St. George Church
Publish Date: 2025-03-30
Bulletin Contents

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St. George Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (734) 283-8820
  • Fax:
  • (734) 283-8866
  • Street Address:

  • 16300 Dix Toledo Highway

  • Southgate, MI 48195
  • Mailing Address:

  • 16300 Dix Toledo Highway

  • Southgate, MI 48195


Contact Information



Services Schedule

Sundays:

9 am - Orthros

10:15 am - Divine Liturgy

 

Weekday Services:

Please check the Services schedule in the bulletin or call the Church office.


Past Bulletins


Parish Calendar

  • Church Calendar

    March 30 to April 6, 2025

    Sunday, March 30

    No Sunday School

    8:50AM Orthros

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy - Sunday of St. John Climacus

    12:00PM Greek Dance Practice

    Monday, March 31

    6:00PM Adult Catechism Zoom Class

    Tuesday, April 1

    7:00PM Greek Parade Meeting

    Wednesday, April 2

    6:00PM Liturgy of the Presanctified (followed by Lenten meal)

    Thursday, April 3

    6:00PM Greek Dance Practice

    Friday, April 4

    6:00PM Final Salutations to the Theotokos Service

    Saturday, April 5

    SJCOF District Festival

    Sunday, April 6

    8:50AM Orthros

    10:00AM Divine Liturgy - Sunday of St. Mary of Egypt

    12:00PM GOYA Coffee Hour & Meeting

    12:00PM Philoptochos Meeting

    3:00PM Greek Town Parade

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Church Announcements

2025 Young Adult Lenten Retreat

Holy Trinity will be hosting this year's Young Adult Lenten Retreat this Saturday, March 29. Registration is just $10.


Church Scholarships Now Available

Scholarship applications are now available for graduating high school seniors entering higher education and college students going into their sophomore through senior years of college. The deadline is Holy Monday, April 14, and applications can be picked up at the church office or by clicking here.


Memorial Service

Andreas Christou - 5 years

May the Lord our God grant rest to his soul where the righteous repose, in a place where there is no pain, no sorrow, and no suffering, but rather everlasting life. May his memory be eternal. The coffee is offered by the family.


Thank You!

Thank you to all the Sunday School students who participated in the Greek Independence Day program and to Maria Makarounas and Presvytera Pavlina for organizing the event. 


Greek Independence Parade

The Greek Independence parade will take place Sunday, April 6, at 3:00 pm.  Please note that the parade route has changed this year due to construction. For more information on the parade route and other important details,  click here.


2025 Fall Greek Festival Zoom Meeting

Our first Fall Greek Festival meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 8, at 6 pm. For the Zoom meeting, click here.


Adult Catechism Zoom Class

An Adult Catechism Zoom Class will be offered on Monday, March 31, and Monday, April 7, at 6 pm.  To access the meeting, click here.


Greek School

We are exploring the possibility of bringing back the Greek School program in the fall of this year. If you are interested in attending the program or teaching, please contact Fr. John.   


Upcoming Lenten Services

During Great Lent, the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts will be prayed each Wednesday at 6:00 PM followed by a Lenten Potluck meal. Please see the attached flyer each week for the food item to bring according to your last name.

This Friday, we will pray the last Salutations to the Theotokos service of Lent at 6:00 PM.


Palm Sunday Fish Luncheon & Benefit Bake Sale

The Philoptochos will host their Palm Sunday Fish Luncheon on April 13. You can make reservations with a Philoptochos member, the church office or online here.

On that same day, we will hold a Bake Sale to benefit Holy Trinity Monastery.

Flyers for both events are attached.


District Oratorical Festival

On Saturday, April 5, Sophia Varkas and Konstanine Sakellariou, along with their families, will head to St Demetrios G.O. Church, Saginaw, for the District finals. We wish them well!


Easter/Feast Day Flowers - Donations Needed

Donations are needed for Easter and Feast Day flowers and items to help defray the costs associated with these events. You can make donations online on our website, by check (in memo line: Easter/Feast Day flowers), by cash (please give us your name), or HERE.


Rose City Summer Camp: Updated 3/19/25

Visit www.gomdsc.org to register. Parents of first-time campers will pay $50/per camper after reimbursement. All repeat campers will pay $250/per camper after reimbursement. 

To be reimbursed, please submit a Camp Reimbursement form. You must have met at least half of your stewardship contributions for 2025. Reimbursement forms are now available at the candle counter or on our website under Ministries/Sunday School.

We want all families to be members of the parish and for all kids to have the opportunity to go to camp. If there are any financial hardships with stewardship or camp tuition, please do not hesitate to speak with Fr. John.

Week Zero: June 22 – June 28, 2025
Week 1: June 29 – July 5, 2025  ** CLOSED **
Week 2: July 6 – July 12, 2025
Week 3: July 13 – July 19, 2025
Week 4: July 20 – July 26, 2025
Week 5: July 27 – August 2, 2025  Fr John will be attending Week 5


Memorial Area Pavers - Order Forms

Updated (12/17/24) Memorial Paver Order Forms are available to you on a table in the school hallway along with a granite sample and symbols, and attached to the online bulletin. Any original granite memorial Pavers (made in 2003) will be re-engraved to match the current granite. If you had an original granite Memorial Paver made, please contact Fr. John or the church office.


Family Assistance Fund (FAF)

The church has a separate fund to help those in our community and surrounding areas who are in need of financial help with rent and utilities. You can help donate to this fund on the home page of our website under "support our ministries" or by clicking here.


Visitation for Shutins

If you would like Fr John to visit and spend time with a loved one who's a shut-in, please don't hesitate to contact the church office or to reach out to Fr. John directly to arrange a time. 


Prayer / Candle Requests

If you would like for us to light a candle in the Church in prayer for you and your family, please use the Prayer/Candle Request form found here or on the home page of the church website. You can pay by credit card or send a check in the mail to the Church.


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the Grave Mode

By means of Your Cross, O Lord, You abolished death. * To the robber You opened Paradise. * The lamentation of the myrrhbearing women You transformed, * and You gave Your Apostles the order to proclaim to all * that You had risen, O Christ our God, * and granted the world Your great mercy.

Apolytikion for Sun. of St. John Climacus in the Plagal Fourth Mode

With the streams of thy tears, thou didst cultivate the barrenness of the desert; and by thy sighings from the depths,thou didst bear fruit a hundredfold in labours; and thou becamest a luminary, shining with miracles upon the world, O John our righteous Father. Intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Apolytikion for the Church 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 Fourth Mode

To you, Theotokos, invincible Defender, having been delivered from peril, I, your city, dedicate the victory festival as a thank offering. In your irresistible might, keep me safe from all trials, that I may call out to you: "Hail, unwedded bride!"
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Saints and Feasts

March 30

Sunday of St. John Climacus

The memory of this Saint is celebrated on March 30, where his biography may be found. He is celebrated today because his book, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, is a sure guide to the ascetic life, written by a great man of prayer experienced in all forms of the monastic polity; it teaches the seeker after salvation how to lay a sound foundation for his struggles, how to detect and war against each of the passions, how to avoid the snares laid by the demons, and how to rise from the rudimental virtues to the heights of Godlike love and humility. It is held in such high esteem that it is universally read in its entirety in monasteries during the Great Fast.


March 30

John Climacus the Righteous, author of The Divine Ladder of Ascent

This Saint gave himself over to the ascetical life from his early youth. Experienced both in the solitary life of the hermit and in the communal life of cenobitic monasticism, he was appointed Abbot of the Monastery at Mount Sinai and wrote a book containing thirty homilies on virtue. Each homily deals with one virtue, and progressing from those that deal with holy and righteous activity (praxis) unto those that deal with divine vision (theoria), they raise a man up as though by means of steps unto the height of Heaven. For this cause his work is called "The Ladder of Divine Ascent." The day he was made Abbot of Sinai, the Prophet Moses was seen giving commands to those who served at table. Saint John reposed in 603, at eighty years of age. See also the Fourth Sunday of the Fast.


March 31

Hypatios the Wonderworker

This Saint, who was from Cilicia of Asia Minor, became Bishop of Gangra, the capital of Paphlagonia. He was present at the First Ecumenical Council. Because of his confession of the Orthodox Faith, he was put to death by the Novatians, a sect which denied that sins committed after Baptism could be forgiven.


April 01

Mary of Egypt

When Mary was only twelve years old, she left her parents and departed to Alexandria, where she lived a depraved life for seventeen years. Then, moved by curiosity, she went with many pilgrims to Jerusalem, that she might see the Exaltation of the venerable Cross. Even in the Holy City she gave herself over to every kind of licentiousness and drew many into the depth of perdition. Desiring to go into the church on the day of the Exaltation of the Cross, time and again she perceived a certain invisible power preventing her entrance, whereas the multitude of people about her entered unhindered. Therefore, wounded in heart by this, she decided to change her way of life and reconcile herself to God by means of repentance. Invoking our Lady the Theotokos as her protectress, she asked her to open the way for her to worship the Cross, and vowed that she would renounce the world. And thus, returning once again to the church, she entered easily. When she had worshipped the precious Wood, she departed that same day from Jerusalem and passed over the Jordan. She went into the inner wilderness and for forty-seven years lived a most harsh manner of life, surpassing human strength; alone, she prayed to God alone. Toward the end of her life, she met a certain hermit named Zosimas, and she related to him her life from the beginning. She requested of him to bring her the immaculate Mysteries that she might partake of them. According to her request, he did this the following year on Holy and Great Thursday. One year after this, Zosimas again went thither and found her dead, laid upon the ground, and letters written in the sand near her which said: "Abba Zosimas, bury here the body of wretched Mary. I died on the very day I partook of the immaculate Mysteries. Pray for me." Her death is reckoned by some to have taken place in 378, by some, in 437, and by others, in 522. She is commemorated also on the Fifth Sunday of Great Lent. Her life was recorded by Saint Sophronius of Jerusalem.


April 02

Titus the Wonderworker

Little is known of this Saint except that he took up the monastic life from his youth, became the abbot of a monastery, and reposed in peace.


April 03

Nikitas the Confesor

Saint Nicetas lived in the eighth century and became the Abbot of the Monastery of Medicium, which was near the city of Triglia on the Sea of Marmara. For his Orthodox confession of the veneration of the holy icons, he was persecuted and exiled twice by the Iconoclast Emperor Leo the Armenian, but recalled by Michael the Stutterer, and reposed, adorned with the twofold crown of holiness and of confession of the Orthodox Faith, about the year 824.


April 04

George the Righteous of Maleon

This Saint took up the monastic life from his youth, and went to Mount Maleon, where a community of monks gathered about him. He foretold his death from three years before, and reposed in an odour of sanctity.


April 05

5th Saturday of Lent: The Akathist Hymn

About the year 626, the Persians, Avars, and Slavs came with a great host and besieged the imperial city of Constantinople while the Emperor Heraclius and the main body of the Byzantine army were absent in the East. Enemy ships filled the sea, especially the Golden Horn, and on land the adversaries were ready for attack with foot-soldiers, horses, and engines of war. Though the citizens courageously withstood them, yet they were few in number and would be unable to repulse the attack of such a great host. Hence, they could not count on any other means of salvation, except the protection of the Theotokos. And truly, suddenly a violent tempest broke up all the ships and submerged them, and the bodies of the invaders were cast out near the Blachernae quarter of the city where the famous Church of the Theotokos stood. Taking courage from this, the people went forth from the city and repulsed the remaining forces, who fled out of fear. In 673, the city was miraculously delivered yet again, this time from an invasion of the Arabs. Then in 717-718, led by the Saracen general Maslamah, the Arab fleet laid siege once more to the city. The numerical superiority of the enemy was so overwhelming that the fall of the Imperial City seemed imminent. But then the Mother of God, together with a multitude of the angelic hosts, appeared suddenly over the city walls. The enemy forces, struck with terror and thrown into a panic at this apparition, fled in disarray. Soon after this, the Arab fleet was utterly destroyed by a terrible storm in the Aegean Sea on the eve of the Annunciation, March 24, 718. Thenceforth, a special "feast of victory and of thanksgiving" was dedicated to celebrate and commemorate these benefactions. In this magnificent service, the Akathist Hymn is prominent and holds the place of honour. It appears that even before the occasion of the enemy assaults mentioned above, the Akathist Hymn was already in use as the prescribed Service for the Feast of the Annunciation, together with the kontakion, "When the bodiless one learned the secret command," which has the Annunciation as its theme. It was only on the occasion of the great miracle wrought for the Christian populace of the Imperial City on the eve of the Annunciation in 718 that the hymn "To thee, the Champion Leader" was composed, most likely by Saint Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople.

Historians have ascribed the Akathist Hymn to Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople (638), to Saint George the Confessor, Bishop of Pisidia (818), or even to Saint Photius the Great (891), all of whom lived either at the time of or after the above-mentioned sieges. However, it appears most likely from its language, content, and style that the true composer of the Akathist Hymn is Saint Romanus the Melodist (6th century).


April 05

Monk-Martyrs Claudius, Diodore, Victor, Victorinus, Pappias, Nicephorus, and Serapion

Of these Martyrs, Saint Claudius died when his arms and legs were severed; Saint Diodore was burned alive; Saints Victor, Victorinus, and Nicephorus were crushed to death by a large boulder; Saint Serapion was burned alive; Saint Pappias was cast into the sea. According to some accounts, they contested in Corinth under Decius in 251; according to others, in Diospolis in Egypt under Numerian in 284.


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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

Seventh Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from John 20:1-10

On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying and the napkin, which had been on His head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that He must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Grave Mode. Psalm 28.11,1.
The Lord will give strength to his people.
Verse: Bring to the Lord, O sons of God, bring to the Lord honor and glory.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 6:13-20.

BRETHREN, when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore to himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.


Gospel Reading

Sunday of St. John Climacus
The Reading is from Mark 9:17-31

At that time, a man came to Jesus kneeling and saying: "Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a dumb spirit; and wherever it seizes him it dashes him down; and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid; and I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able." And he answered them, "O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me." And they brought the boy to him; and when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked his father, "How long has he had this?" And he said, "From childhood. And it has often cast him into the fire and into the water, to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have pity on us and help us." And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, "I believe; help my unbelief!" And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You dumb and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again." And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse; so that most of them said, "He is dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting." They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he would not have any one know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of man will be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, after three days he will rise."


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Wisdom of the Fathers

Seest thou how He now proceeds to lay beforehand in them the foundation of His doctrine about fasting? ... See, at any rate, how many blessings spring from them both. For he that is praying as he ought, and fasting, hath not many wants, and he that hath not many wants, cannot be covetous; ...
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 57 on Matthew 17,4,5. B#54, pp.355,356., 4th Century

... he that is not covetous, will be also more disposed for almsgiving. He that fasts is light, and winged, and prays with wakefulness, and quenches his wicked lusts, and propitiates God, and humbles his soul when lifted up. Therefore even the apostles were almost always fasting.
St. John Chrysostom
Homily 57 on Matthew 17,4,5. B#54, pp.355,356., 4th Century

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Prayer List

 

Please remember in your prayers the following:

Liana Golematis, Sarah Nitz, Fanis Nikitaras, Nikos Papadakis, Aristea Stamoyloy, Eftihia Kapetanaki

Please contact the church office to add your name to the Prayer List. Thank you.

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Flyers of Interest

    Matins

    Matins

    for Sunday, March 30, 2025


    Divine Liturgy

    Divine Liturgy

    for Sunday, March 30, 2025


    Presanctified Lenten Potluck Meal

    Presanctified Lenten Potluck Meal

    for Wednesday, April 2, 2025


    Benefit Bake Sale

    Benefit Bake Sale

    for Sunday, April 13, 2025 All pre-orders due by Wednesday, April 9


    Palm Sunday Fish Luncheon

    Palm Sunday Fish Luncheon

    for Palm Sunday, April 13, 2025


    Important Update of Church Expansion and Remodel

    Important Update of Church Expansion and Remodel

    We are happy to present the current draft schematics for the expansion and remodel of the Activity room, office space and Sunday School areas. As we continue to work with the architect the plans will be updated as time progresses. We are also interested in feedback from parishioners and especially from ministries of the parish and the particular needs. Any suggestions can be given to a parish council member or emailed to Fr. John.


    Updated Expansion Renderings

    Updated Expansion Renderings

    Updated Expansion Renderings


    Memorial Area Paver Order Form

    Memorial Area Paver Order Form

    Updated December 17, 2024


    MDSC Camper Registration

    MDSC Camper Registration

    Don’t miss this opportunity to give your kids the gift of camp! We look forward to welcoming campers and staff from our Metropolis for a fun, memorable, and safe experience steeped in our Orthodox faith. Please visit www.gomdsc.org. For more information, contact us at [email protected] or 248-909-6372. We are always looking for licensed medical professionals and lifeguards and offer 1/2-week commitments to accommodate working parents.


    Stay connected with YAL

    Stay connected with YAL

    Use the QR code to install and connect to the St. George YAL group for future meetings and events.


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