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St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2017-08-27
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St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • 408.605.0621
  • Street Address:

  • 9th and Lincoln, Carmel-by-the-Sea

  • ,
  • Mailing Address:


  • PO Box 5808 Carmel by the Sea, CA 93921


Contact Information




Services Schedule

 

Weekend services: the weekend schedule is fixed for most of the year. The services take place in Carmel-by-the-Sea, at All Saints Church, lower level, 9th and Lincoln.

Saturdays: 5:00pm Vespers

Sundays:   8:30am Matins

                   9:30am Liturgy

Week-day services: during the week we may celebrate the major feast days of the Church either in Carmel or in Salinas. Please check the calendar! The schedule pattern is:

Wednesdays:  6:00pm Paraklesis

Eve of feasts: 6:00pm Vespers

Feast days:    8:30am Matins

                       9:30am Liturgy


Past Bulletins


Schedule of Services

Saturday, August 26
    5:00pm  Vespers
Sunday, August 27
    8:30am  Orthros + Liturgy
    12:00pm  Orthodoxy 101/ Catechism Class
Monday, August 28
    6:00pm  Vespers
Tuesday, August 29  Beheading of St. John the Baptist
    8:30am  Orthros + Liturgy in SALINAS
Wednesday, August 30
    6:00pm  Paraklesis
    7:00pm  Dinner and Group Discussion
Thursday, August 31
    6:00pm  Vespers
Friday, September 1  New Ecclesiastical Year
    8:30am  Orthros + Liturgy
Saturday, September 2 Greek Festival
    5:00pm  Vespers at The Little Church at the Festival, Dali Museum Theater
Sunday, September 3  Greek Festival
    7:30am  Orthros + Liturgy
Monday, September 4  Greek Festival
Thursday, September 7
    6:00pm  Vespers
Friday, September 8 Nativity of the Theotokos
    8:30am  Orthros + Liturgy
Saturday, September 9 Saints Joachim & Anna
    5:00pm  Vespers
Sunday, September 10
    8:30am  Orthros + Liturgy
    12:00pm  Orthodoxy 101/ Catechism Class

 

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Special Services

This Sunday's Memorial Service is for:
- The servant of God Zlatan (Gigi) Drumev (40 days), husband of Olga and the father of Rumiana and grandfather of Devin and Clarece.
- The servant of God Peter Stuhlmiller (annual), husband of Jenny Stuhlmiller.
May their memory be eternal!
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News & Events

GREEK FESTIVAL PREPARATIONS

Did you know that during the three days of the festival we will be visited by 5,000 to 10,000 people? Some say that even more come to enjoy the hospitality we will offer. Quite a few people return from year to year, looking forward to our great Festival. Question for us: how many of these will we succeed in bringing to church as guests, to stay, to join us on the journey to fullness? God willing, with your effort, maybe the nets will not be empty this year.

Online Sign up: you may now let the leaders know when you can help and where you would like to work. Click here to signup on line.

Little Church at the Festival: the 9 icon copies of the iconostasis from Salinas have been ordered. They should arrive next week. Pretty tight... The donations thus far total $1,150, barely making it halfway to what is needed to cover the expense of the rental and materials. Make checks to Saint John the Baptist Church, Memo: Small Church at the Festival.

Electronic Payment: This year the festival booths will be equipped with electronic point of sale iPads in order to take credit cards and cash in a fast and efficient manner. All transactions will be run through the machines allowing the leadership to know in detail the dynamics of the sales per day, per booth, per item per hour. Very simple to use, these machines can provide a great insight into how we conduct business.

More than the 3 days: Let’s not forget the BEFORE and AFTER; there is a great need for volunteers to help the setup on Friday before the festival starts, and also to take down on Monday after the Festival ends. Please sign up here.

Upcoming Cooking Schedule: all cooking to take place in Salinas, unless otherwise noted. Bring with you a sack lunch and your apron.

    Tuesday, August 29: Apricot Baklava, 12 pm
    Thursday, August 31: Apricot Baklava 9 am
            Question about the Baklava event? Call Sandy Sanders at 831.229.1937


NEW: ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY PRIMER

The second in a series of lectures will be offered this Sunday to help us in our spiritual journey.

Session 2 Sunday, August 27, 12 noon: Prayer

Join us in the church to learn more on this powerful subject.


ORTHODOXY 101/ CATECHISM CLASS

Our Orthodoxy 101/ Catechism cycle will be this Sunday, August 27. The meetings will take place on Sundays after the coffee hour. To sign up for the class, please contact Father Ion.  All are welcome. For this class' assignments go to The Heart.  Also see the list of books at Bibliography.


LITURGY IN SALINAS

The feast of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, the protector of our community, will be celebrated with Vespers in Carmel and Orthros and Liturgy in Salinas. See Schedule of Services for the hours. August 29 is a day of strict fast.


PARAKLESIS, POTLUCK AND WORKSHOP

Next week's Wednesday Paraklesis will be followed by the small group discussion inspired by the delicious potluck dinner. We will again enjoy some Desert Wisdom and we will discuss about applying it to our lives in the modern age.

6:00pm – Paraklesis
6:45pm – Lenten Potluck dinner and discussion: "Desert Wisdom"


PHILOPTOCHOS NEWS

Join Philoptochos for their Fall Breakfast Meeting, featuring Father Milutin Janjic of St. Prophet Elias Church. Hear his insightful "Reflections on the Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year." Enjoy the warm fellowship, a delicious Greek style breakfast, support our newly elected board of directors, and learn what's new with our dynamic chapter!


Saturday, September 16th
10:30 AM
Seccombe Hall
Corner of Lincoln & 9th
Carmel by the Sea
By Donation

Information and reservations: Alexandra Mouzas 619-518-2755, or email Alex@AlexandraMouzas.com


SERVING THESE SUNDAYS

The teams on duty these coming Sundays are:

August 27
   Welcoming:  Presbytera Ana
   Parish Council Member:  Christina Pressas
   Fellowship: Team 4 (Green) – always 4th Sunday of the month


September 3
  Coffee Hour is suspended for this Sunday.
  Please join us at the Greek Festival at the Monterey Plaza near Fisherman’s Wharf


NEW: CONNECT!

We now have three new Facebook Groups for you to consider:

  • Families - for parents (and grandparents) to keep in touch and plan events.
  • Newbies - for catechumens and new people in our community.
  • Military - for families of the military in the area, both active and retired.

These are closed groups. Add your friends who might enjoy being part of them or, to join, please contact Julia Wheeler.


SUNDAY SCHOOL SUMMER BREAK

The Sunday School will enjoy the summer break until September. See you in church!


ST. BASIL CHURCH ANNIVERSARY GALA

St. Basil the Great Greek Orthodox Church in San Jose invites all of us to join in the festive occasion  of their 31st Anniversary Gala on Saturday, September 9, 2017 at 5pm at the The Villages Golf and Country Club, 5000 Cribari Lane, San Jose, 95135. RSVP Maria Anagnostos at 408.316.6609.


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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Matins Gospel Reading

First Orthros Gospel
The Reading is from Matthew 28:16-20

At that time, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshipped him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age. Amen."


Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. 3rd Mode. Psalm 46.6,1.
Sing praises to our God, sing praises.
Verse: Clap your hands, all you nations.

The reading is from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians 15:1-11.

Brethren, I would remind you in what terms I preached to you the gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast -- unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.


Gospel Reading

12th Sunday of Matthew
The Reading is from Matthew 19:16-26

At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, "Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" And he said to him, "Why do you call me good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which?" And Jesus said, "You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have observed; what do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.

And Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, "Who then can be saved?" But Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."


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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 3rd Mode

Let the heavens sing for joy, and let everything on earth be glad. * For with His Arm the Lord has worked power. * He trampled death under foot by means of death; * and He became the firstborn from the dead. * From the maw of Hades He delivered us; * and He granted the world His great mercy.

Seasonal Kontakion in the 4th Mode

Both Joachim and Anna from their sterility's stigma, and Adam and Eve from their mortality's ruin have been set free, O immaculate Maid, by your holy nativity. For this do your people hold celebration, redeemed from the guilt of transgression as they cry to you, "The barren one bears the Theotokos, the nourisher of our Life."
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Kontakion of the Fallen Asleep

Remember, O Lord, as good, your servants, and forgive whatever sins in life they committed, for no one is without sin, except you the Mighty One; and grant rest to them who have been removed from among us.

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Saints and Feasts

Mgenthroned1
August 27

12th Sunday of Matthew


Allsaint
August 27

Pimen the Great

Saint Pimen was from Egypt and shone forth in the ascetical life in Scete in the fourth century; he was renowned for his discretion. Many of his sayings and deeds are preserved in the Paradise of the Fathers and the Sayings of the Fathers.


Phanourios
August 27

Holy Martyr Phanurius

Little is known of the holy Martyr Phanurius, except that which is depicted concerning his martyrdom on his holy icon, which was discovered in the year 1500 among the ruins of an ancient church on Rhodes, when the Moslems ruled there. Thus he is called "the Newly Revealed." The faithful pray to Saint Phanurius especially to help them recover things that have been lost, and because he has answered their prayers so often, the custom has arisen of baking a Phaneropita ("Phanurius-Cake") as a thanks-offering.


Jbaptbhd
August 29

Beheading of the Holy and Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John

The divine Baptist, the Prophet born of a Prophet, the seal of all the Prophets and beginning of the Apostles, the mediator between the Old and New Covenants, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, the God-sent Messenger of the incarnate Messiah, the forerunner of Christ's coming into the world (Esaias 40: 3; Mal. 3: 1); who by many miracles was both conceived and born; who was filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb; who came forth like another Elias the Zealot, whose life in the wilderness and divine zeal for God's Law he imitated: this divine Prophet, after he had preached the baptism of repentance according to God's command; had taught men of low rank and high how they must order their lives; had admonished those whom he baptized and had filled them with the fear of God, teaching them that no one is able to escape the wrath to come if he do not works worthy of repentance; had, through such preaching, prepared their hearts to receive the evangelical teachings of the Savior; and finally, after he had pointed out to the people the very Savior, and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world" (Luke 3:2-18; John 1: 29-36), after all this, John sealed with his own blood the truth of his words and was made a sacred victim for the divine Law at the hands of a transgressor.

This was Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee, the son of Herod the Great. This man had a lawful wife, the daughter of Arethas (or Aretas), the King of Arabia (that is, Arabia Petraea, which had the famous Nabatean stone city of Petra as its capital. This is the Aretas mentioned by Saint Paul in II Cor. 11:32). Without any cause, and against every commandment of the Law, he put her away and took to himself Herodias, the wife of his deceased brother Philip, to whom Herodias had borne a daughter, Salome. He would not desist from this unlawful union even when John, the preacher of repentance, the bold and austere accuser of the lawless, censured him and told him, "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife" (Mark 6: 18). Thus Herod, besides his other unholy acts, added yet this, that he apprehended John and shut him in prison; and perhaps he would have killed him straightway, had he not feared the people, who had extreme reverence for John. Certainly, in the beginning, he himself had great reverence for this just and holy man. But finally, being pierced with the sting of a mad lust for the woman Herodias, he laid his defiled hands on the teacher of purity on the very day he was celebrating his birthday. When Salome, Herodias' daughter, had danced in order to please him and those who were supping with him, he promised her -- with an oath more foolish than any foolishness -- that he would give her anything she asked, even unto the half of his kingdom. And she, consulting with her mother, straightway asked for the head of John the Baptist in a charger. Hence this transgressor of the Law, preferring his lawless oath above the precepts of the Law, fulfilled this godless promise and filled his loathsome banquet with the blood of the Prophet. So it was that that all-venerable head, revered by the Angels, was given as a prize for an abominable dance, and became the plaything of the dissolute daughter of a debauched mother. As for the body of the divine Baptist, it was taken up by his disciples and placed in a tomb (Mark 6: 21 - 29). Concerning the finding of his holy head, see February 24 and May 25.


Creation_adam
September 01

Ecclesiastical New Year

For the maintenance of their armed forces, the Roman emperors decreed that their subjects in every district should be taxed every year. This same decree was reissued every fifteen years, since the Roman soldiers were obliged to serve for fifteen years. At the end of each fifteen-year period, an assessment was made of what economic changes had taken place, and a new tax was decreed, which was to be paid over the span of the fifteen years. This imperial decree, which was issued before the season of winter, was named Indictio, that is, Definiton, or Order. This name was adopted by the emperors in Constantinople also. At other times, the latter also used the term Epinemisis, that is, Distribution (Dianome). It is commonly held that Saint Constantine the Great introduced the Indiction decrees in A.D. 312, after he beheld the sign of the Cross in heaven and vanquished Maxentius and was proclaimed Emperor in the West. Some, however (and this seems more likely), ascribe the institution of the Indiction to Augustus Caesar, three years before the birth of Christ. Those who hold this view offer as proof the papal bull issued in A.D. 781 which is dated thus: Anno IV, Indictionis LIII -that is, the fourth year of the fifty-third Indiction. From this, we can deduce the aforementioned year (3 B.C.) by multiplying the fifty-two complete Indictions by the number of years in each (15), and adding the three years of the fifty-third Indiction. There are three types of Indictions: 1) That which was introduced in the West, and which is called Imperial, or Caesarean, or Constantinian, and which begins on the 24th of September; 2) The so-called Papal Indiction, which begins on the 1st of January; and 3) The Constantinopolitan, which was adopted by the Patriarchs of that city after the fall of the Eastern Empire in 1453. This Indiction is indicated in their own hand on the decrees they issue, without the numeration of the fifteen years. This Indiction begins on the 1st of September and is observed with special ceremony in the Church. Since the completion of each year takes place, as it were, with the harvest and gathering of the crops into storehouses, and we begin anew from henceforth the sowing of seed in the earth for the production of future crops, September is considered the beginning of the New Year. The Church also keeps festival this day, beseeching God for fair weather, seasonable rains, and an abundance of the fruits of the earth. The Holy Scriptures (Lev. 23:24-5 and Num. 29:1-2) also testify that the people of Israel celebrated the feast of the Blowing of the Trumpets on this day, offering hymns of thanksgiving. In addition to all the aforesaid, on this feast we also commemorate our Saviour's entry into the synagogue in Nazareth, where He was given the book of the Prophet Esaias to read, and He opened it and found the place where it is written, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, for which cause He hath anointed Me..." (Luke 4:16-30).

It should be noted that to the present day, the Church has always celebrated the beginning of the New Year on September 1. This was the custom in Constantinople until its fall in 1453 and in Russia until the reign of Peter I. September 1 is still festively celebrated as the New Year at the Patriarchate of Constantinople; among the Jews also the New Year, although reckoned according to a moveable calendar, usually falls in September. The service of the Menaion for January 1 is for our Lord's Circumcision and for the memorial of Saint Basil the Great, without any mention of its being the beginning of a new year.


Joshua
September 01

Jesus (Joshua) of Navi

Jesus (Joshua) of Navi was born of the tribe of Ephraim in Egypt, in the seventeenth century before Christ. When he was eighty-five years of age, he became Moses' successor. He restrained the River Jordan's flow and allowed the Israelites to cross on foot. He caused the sun to stop in its course when he was waging war against the Amorites. He divided the Promised Land among the Twelve Tribes of Israel and governed them for twenty-five years. He wrote the Old Testament book that bears his name, and having lived 110 years in all, he reposed in the sixteenth century before Christ. His name means "God saves."


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Wisdom of the Fathers

'But I say to you,' the Lord says, 'love your enemies; do good to those who hate you, pray for those who persecute you.' Why did he command these things? So that he might free you from hatred, sadness, anger and grudges, and might grant you the greatest possession of all, perfect love, which is impossible to possess except by the one you loves all equally in imitation of God.
St. Maximos the Confessor
Unknown, 7th century

Spiritual delight is not enjoyment found in things that exists outside the soul.
St. Isaac of Syria
Unknown , 7th century

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