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St. James Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2017-02-05
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St. James Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 770 639-3641
  • Street Address:

  • 1651 Horizon Parkway Suite 400

  • Buford, GA 30518


Contact Information




Services Schedule

Great Vespers - 5:30 PM Saturday; Orthros - 9:00 AM Sunday; Divine Liturgy - 10:00 AM Sunday

Confessions are available after Services, or contact Fr. Steven  

 The Fiftieth Day after Pascha

The Great Feast of Pentecost

        WELCOME! WE WISH TO EXTEND A GRACIOUS WELCOME TO ALL WHO ARE VISITING TODAY!  A FRIENDLY REMINDER: Only Orthodox Christians who have properly prepared themselves through fasting, prayer, and recent confession may approach the Chalice to receive Holy Communion.


Past Bulletins


Upcoming Services, Events, and Information

St._james

TODAY! Our first Coffee Hour Class for the year focuses on The Church: who are its members and what are its boundaries? Please join us for this important topic!

Daily Vespers this Wednesday @ 6:30 PM. This week, as we emulate the Publican in humilty and avoid the excesses of the Pharisee, we do not fast!

Everyone should have received an email regarding our new church directory. Please return the attachment as soon as possible, along with a family picture. If you did not get the email, contact Beth Green for information.

The insert in the bulletin today references the Kroger Community Rewards Program. This can result in free funds for our Church, so if you shop Kroger at all please take the time to sign up! See Steven Kargatis if there are questions.

Remember in your prayers those in need Nicholas, Tamara, Theodore, Aubrey, Elizabeth, Michelle, Alexandra, Mary, Edward, Daren, Salwa, Randa, Florence, Josephine, Pelagia, Tara, Mitrophan, Ruth, Lani, Douglas, Anastasia, Mary, Reader Miguel, Jesse, Timothy, Andrea, Patricia, Pasquale, Allyn, Robert, Jesse, Angelina, Kevin, Polina, Peter, Mary, Jude, Patricia, Jennifer, the catechumens Mary, Xenia, Michael, Gabriel, Alexander, Ephraim, Glyceria, John, Theophylact, Thomas; Jerome, Stephanie, Priest Daniel, Nun Theodora.  

COMING IN APRIL....

   If you have an announcement for the bulletin, please send an email to bulletin@stjamesorthodox.org by THURSDAY.

 St. James Orthodox Church is a mission of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America.

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Saints and Feasts

Publphar
February 05

Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee: Triodion Begins Today

The Pharisees were an ancient and outstanding sect among the Jews known for their diligent observance of the outward matters of the Law. Although, according to the word of our Lord, they "did all their works to be seen of men" (Matt. 23:5), and were hypocrites (ibid. 23: 13, 14, 15, etc.), because of the apparent holiness of their lives they were thought by all to be righteous, and separate from others, which is what the name Pharisee means. On the other hand, Publicans, collectors of the royal taxes, committed many injustices and extortions for filthy lucre's sake, and all held them to be sinners and unjust. It was therefore according to common opinion that the Lord Jesus in His parable signified a virtuous person by a Pharisee, and a sinner by a Publican, to teach His disciples the harm of pride and the profit of humble-mindedness.

Since the chief weapon for virtue is humility, and the greatest hindrance to it is pride, the divine Fathers have set these three weeks before the Forty-day Fast as a preparation for the spiritual struggles of virtue. This present week they have called Harbinger, since it declares that the Fast is approaching; and they set humility as the foundation for all our spiritual labors by appointing that the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee be read today, even before the Fast begins, to teach, through the vaunting of the Pharisee, that the foul smoke of self-esteem and the stench of boasting drives away the grace of the Spirit, strips man of all his virtue, and casts him into the pits of Hades; and, through the repentance and contrite prayer of the Publican, that humility confers upon the sinner forgiveness of all his wicked deeds and raises him up to the greatest heights.

All foods are allowed the week that follows this Sunday.


Agatha
February 05

Agatha the Martyr

This Martyr, who was from Panormus (that is, Palermo) or perhaps Catania of Sicily, was a most comely and chaste virgin. After many exceedingly harsh torments, she gave up her spirit in prison at Catania in 251, because she did not consent to the seductions of Quintian, the Governor of Sicily. At her burial, an Angel placed a stone tablet on her grave inscribed with the words, "A righteous mind, self-determining, honor from God, the deliverance of her father-land." The following year this was fulfilled when Mount Etna erupted, spewing forth violent fire from which Catania was manifestly saved by Saint Agatha's prayers. The holy Martyr Agatha, the protectress and chief patroness of Sicily, is, with perhaps the exception of Saint Agnes of Rome, the most highly venerated Virgin Martyr of the West. Saint Damasus, Pope of Rome, and Saint Ambrose of Milan both wrote in praise of her.


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 8th Tone

PAGE 102: From the heights thou didst descend O Compassionate One, and thou didst submit to the three-day burial, that thou might deliver us from passion. Thou art our Life and our Resurrection, O Lord, glory to thee.

Apolytikion for Afterfeast of the Presentation in the 1st Tone

Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos, full of grace; for from thee arose the Sun of justice, Christ our God, lighting those who are in darkness. Rejoice and be glad, O righteous old man, carrying in thine arms the Deliverer of our souls, who granteth us resurrection.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 1st Tone

Thou, O Christ God, who by thy Birth, didst sanctify the Virgin's womb, and, as is meet, didst bless Simeon's arms, and didst also come to save us; preserve thy fold in wars, and confirm them whom thou didst love, for thou alone art the Lover of mankind.
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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 8th Tone. Psalm 75.11,1.
Make your vows to the Lord our God and perform them.
Verse: God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel.

The reading is from St. Paul's Second Letter to Timothy 3:10-15.

TIMOTHY, my son, you have observed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, my sufferings, what befell me at Antioch, at lconion, and at Lystra, what persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceivers and deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.


Gospel Reading

Sunday of the Publican and Pharisee: Triodion Begins Today
The Reading is from Luke 18:10-14

The Lord said this parable, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."


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Wisdom of the Fathers

It is possible for those who have come back again after repentance to shine with much lustre, and oftentimes more than those who have never fallen at all, I have demonstrated from the divine writings. Thus at least both the publicans and the harlots inherit the kingdom of Heaven, thus many of the last are placed before the first.
St. John Chrysostom
AN EXHORTATION TO THEODORE AFTER HIS FALL, 4th Century

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