On August 15th, the Holy Orthodox Church celebrates the falling asleep of the Mother of God. This Great Feast is preceded by two weeks of fasting and prayer. Please take a look at our parish calendar to see the services our parish will be offering on an almost daily basis throughout the Dormition Fast.  

We encourage all faithful of our parish to make a pilgrimage to the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City to celebrate their patronal feast day. Holy Cross will not be offering the Divine Liturgy on the day of this Great Feast. Fr. Spyridon will be at the Monastery celebrating with the monastic community. We will be offering Great Vespers for the Transfiguration in our parish the night before (August 5th). Please see the end of the bulletin for the schedule of services at the monastery for their feast day.

Last Sunday was set by the Assembly of Bishops as "Prison Ministry Awareness Sunday." In nearly every Church service we pray a litany for prisoners and their salvation. The Church understands that no one is beyond repentance, that no one is beyond the Love and Grace of God. We ask that you continue to keep in your prayers all of those in prison. After all, our Lord himself was a prisoner. Last Sunday, July 28th and today, August 4th, our parish will be doing a special collection to support the Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry (OCPM, a ministry of the Assembly of Bishops). Please consider giving your financial support to help the Church bring the light of Christ into the darkness of prison. 

"I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me."

- Matthew 25:36

Proskomidi is the preparation before the Divine Liturgy. During Proskomidi the priest prays for all the people and prepares the gifts. This short service is generally done in the altar with no one but the priest and maybe a deacon. With the blessing of His Grace Bishop Andrei, Fr Spyridon will have an instructional Proskomidi on August 18th. This will allow everyone to see what happens in preparation for the Divine Liturgy. Please note that Divine Liturgy will end a little later than normal this day. 

Starting on September 11th, our parish will be offering a weekly bible study. Our bible study will start at 6 pm in the Church with prayer. Invite your friends!

Please avoid kissing the holy icons while wearing lipstick. The lipstick leaves a residue on the icons that can actually seep into the paint and permanently stain the icons. We also ask that you please remove your lipstick before partaking in communion. Wearing lipstick while taking communion results in the spoon and ultimately the body and blood of Christ being stained by the lipstick. 

Father Spyridon is available by appointment to serve your pastoral needs. Please do not hesitate to contact him via email or phone to set up appointments.  

You will now find commemoration slips at the candle stand. These slips are for people to be added to our parish prayer list. Names should be added of people who have recently fallen ill, pregnancies, newborns, or recently departed. If the person is not an Orthodox Christian, their name should be added only under the non-Orthodox spot. If there is someone you wish to have commemorated who departed this life more than 40 days ago, please give the name directly to Father and he will pray for them during Proskomedia. After filling out the commemoration slip, please place it in the small basket on the candle stand. The altar boys will collect them during Liturgy so that they can be added to our prayers.

Before the Divine Liturgy, the priest prays for the people. To assist with this, we ask that all parishioners create a list of living family members and a list of departed family members to be commemorated before the Divine Liturgy. Please note all names on the list must be Orthodox Christians.

Please keep the following in your prayers:

Living:

• Psa. Sarah and the child to be born of her
• Newborn Infant Susanna
• Mary Ann
• Virginia 
• Betty
• Helen
• Janet