Jesus Christ teaches us to love and serve all people, regardless of their ethnicity or nationality. To understand this, we need to look no further than to the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Every time we celebrate the Divine Liturgy, it is offered "on behalf of all, and for all." As Orthodox Christians we stand against racism and bigotry. All human beings share one common identity as children of God. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatian 3:28)

To Our Guests
Throughout our services, we use the more formal "thy" and "thou" or what is commonly referred to as King Jamesean English.  The Lord's Prayer is recited as follows:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name,
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, as on earth as it is in heaven,
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the Evil One.

Please join us after Liturgy for refreshments and hospitality.

Pastoral Care - General Information

Emergency Sick Calls can be made at any time. Please call Fr Steven at (860) 322-2906, when a family member is admitted to the hospital.
Anointing in Sickness: The Sacrament of Unction is available in Church, the hospital, or your home, for anyone who is sick and suffering, however severe. 
Marriages and Baptisms require early planning, scheduling and selections of sponsors (crown bearers or godparents). See Father before booking dates and reception halls!
Funerals are celebrated for practicing Orthodox Christians. Please see Father for details. The Church opposes cremation; we cannot celebrate funerals for cremations.

Members of our Parish Council are:

Marlene Melesko - President
Sarah Senetcen - Member at Large
Boris Doph - Treasurer
Dierdre Cottergarfield - Vice President
Luba Martins - Secretary

Mission Statement
St. Alexis Orthodox Christian Church is a local English speaking community of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) on the shoreline of Connecticut.

St. Alexis exists to:

• Call all people to Christ
• Worship as a community 
• Experience the joy of Christ in our lives 
• Share this joy with those around us 
• Educate people about the Truth and Presence of Orthodoxy 
• We offer the love of Christ to those in need, both in word and action.

AED Use

Video instructions for the use of the Automated Electronic Defibulators can be found here:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Qas3q7O3mletF8ceJOq9g4uQzReii8GG&usp=drive_fs

Filesharing

https://sites.google.com/stalexischurch.net/parish/home

If you are asked to enter a username and password, please contact Fr Steven via email.

If you would like to update yourself on the current status of the Strategic Planning, please use the following link.

https://sites.google.com/stalexischurch.net/parish/strategic-planning

Again we pray that we may be made worthy of founding in our Diocese a monastery in honor
of our Most Holy Lady the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, let us pray to the Lord!

Pray for: All those confined to hospitals, nursing homes, and their own homes due to illness; for all those who serve in the armed forces; widows, orphans, prisoners, victims of violence, and refugees;

All those suffering chronic illness, financial hardship, loneliness, addictions, abuse, abandonment and despair; those who are homeless and dispossesed, those who are institutionalize, those who have no one to pray for them;

All Orthodox seminarians & families; all Orthodox monks and nuns, and all those considering monastic life; all Orthodox missionaries and their families.

All those who have perished due to hatred, intolerance, predjudice; pestilence and natural disaster; all those departed this life in the hope of the Resurrection.

Please let Fr. Steven know via email if you have more names for which to pray.

• Departed:  
• Clergy and their families: Fr Sergei B, Fr Vladimir, Fr Vladimir, Fr John, Fr Alexander
• ​Catechumen: Joshua Figueroa
• Individuals and Families: Luba, Suzanne, Rosemary,  Daniel & Dayna, Kristen, Victor, Susan, Gregory, Nina
• Birthdays and Name’s Days this Month: Michael Kuziak (8/4), Douglas Kuziak (8/12), Stasia PenkoffLedbeck (8/16), Samual Jankura (8/18), Kyle Hollis (8/23), Susan Egan (8/24), Anastasia Littlefield (8/30)
• Anniversaries this Month:  Valery and Jason Danilack-Federer (7/7) Anne & Fr Steven Hosking (8/24), Maureen and Dn Timothy Skuby (8/30)
• ​Expecting and Newborn:  
• Traveling: 
• Sick and those in distress: Nancy, Boris, Glenn, John, Joan, Sharon, William, Sharon, Alexander, Olga, Christine, Tatianna, Stormy, Vassily

Today’s commemorated feasts and saints

9th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST — Tone 8. Translation of the Relics of the Protomartyr and Archdeacon Stephen from Jerusalem to Constantinople (ca. 428), and the finding of the Relics of the Righteous Νikόdēmos, Gamaliel, and Abibas (ca. 428). Blessed Basil of Moscow, Fool-for-Christ (1552). Holy Fool Basil of Kamen (15th c.). Hieromartyr Stephen, Pope of Rome, and those with him (257).

Again we pray for those who have lost their lives because of the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East: that the Lord our God may look upon them with mercy, and give them rest where there is neither sickness, or sorrow, but life everlasting.

Again we pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, for those who are suffering, wounded, grieving, or displaced because of the wars in Ukraine and in the Middle East.

Again we pray for a cessation of the hostilities against Ukraine and the Middle East, and that reconciliation and peace will flourish there, we pray thee, hearken and have mercy.

Again we pray thee, O Lord our God: We are all called to be the branches of the spiritual vine that grew from the seeds of the Orthodox Faith that our missionary fathers, Herman and Innocent and their companions, planted and nurtured among the native peoples of Alaska, a vine that bears fruit to this day throughout our land, as we imitate the virtues of those husbandmen, of the many saints known only to God, of the Martyr Peter the Aleut, and of our Mother Olga of Kwethluk; through their intercessions, O Lord, hear us and have mercy!

Again we pray thee, O God our Savior: Look with favor upon us, the families and spiritual children of the peoples who came to our land from the old world and brought with them the Orthodox Faith, which they held fast and nurtured in their labors in the mines and mills and on the farms of this new land, and among the challenges of its great cities; we pray thee, O Lord, hear us and have mercy!

Again we pray thee, O Lord our God: We have thy Mother as the Protectress of Orthodox Christians in our North American lands; as we joyfully celebrate her patronage and her miracles, we pray thee, O Lord, through her intercessions, in all our challenges, hear us and have mercy!

Tone 8    Troparion    (Resurrection)
Thou didst descend from on high, O Merciful One!
Thou didst accept the three day burial to free us from our sufferings!//
O Lord, our Life and Resurrection, glory to Thee!

Tone 4    Troparion (St. Alexis)
O righteous Father Alexis, our heavenly intercessor and teacher, 
divine adornment of the Church of Christ! 
Entreat the Master of All to strengthen the Orthodox Faith in America, 
to grant peace to the world and to our souls great mercy.

Tone 4    Troparion    (St. Stephen)
Thy relics have risen from the depths of the earth,
like a treasury for the immortal life of all creation.
The Church, rejoicing in the grace that she receives from them,
dutifully honors thee, O Protomartyr Stephen.//
Preserve us from error and heresy by thy intercession!

Tone 8     Kontakion    (Resurrection)
By rising from the tomb, Thou didst raise the dead and resurrect Adam.
Eve exults in Thy Resurrection,//
and the world celebrates Thy rising from the dead, O greatly Merciful One!

Tone 5    Kontakion (St. Alexis)
Let us, the faithful praise the Priest Alexis, 
a bright beacon of Orthodoxy in America, a model of patience and humility, a worthy shepherd of the Flock of Christ. 
He called back the sheep who had been led astray 
and brought them by his preaching to the Heavenly Kingdom.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit

Tone 6    Kontakion    (St. Stephen)
Thou wast the first to be sown on the earth by the Heavenly Husbandman, O all-praised one, and wast the first to shed thy blood on the earth for Christ, O blessed one. Thou wast the first to receive the crown of victory from Him in heaven,// O Stephen, first of the suffering God-crowned martyrs.

now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

COMMUNION HYMN

Praise the Lord from the heavens, praise Him in the highest!  Alleluia (3X)

Tone 6    Kontakion (Steadfast Protectress)
Steadfast Protectress of Christians, 
Constant Advocate before the Creator; 
despise not the entreating cries of us sinners, 
but in your goodness come speedily to help us who call on you in faith. 
Hasten to hear our petition and to intercede for us, 
O Theotokos, for you always protect those who honor you!

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh
AT THE HEART OF THE STORM
5 August 1990

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.
I should like to begin with the words of Saint Paul. He tells us that we all who have heard the life-giving, the creative word of God are building our lives on a sure foundation, not only on the teaching of Christ, but on His presence, both invisible, and communicable in the Sacraments. This is a sure foundation of all life — ours, and that of the whole creation. But what do we build on this foundation? Some, the heroes of the spirit, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Martyrs, the Saints that cannot be shaken even by the storms of the History. Others have build of gold and silver that rust cannot destroy, that rust cannot spoil.
But do we belong to these? Or are we not rather those who are building on the foundation of Christ Who is a column and a pillar of truth and of life — are we not building of wood and of straw? As long as we live, as long as a storm doesn’t come, both wood and straw seem to be so secure; but then, comes a hurricane, then fire comes — and what is left of it? And it is not only physical fire and physical hurricanes that destroy: History is made of fire, a fire of judgement; and remember the words that the judgement of God begins within His Church, and this Judgement is the judgement by fire. And History is like a storm...
What is left then — is it there any hope for us? There is! Because Paul who has given us a very stern warning lest we lightmindedly built on a Foundation which is Holy something which is unholy, unworthy of this foundation, he tells us, Yes, your works may go up in flames, but you may stay... And why? How can we? Aren't we judged simply by the final reckoning on our life, on what we have built? Perhaps today's Gospel can give us some vision of what may happen.
The Apostles left Christ to cross the sea of Genesareth. The weather was good, the sea was calm, they hoped for a safe crossing. And then the wind came down, and the storm abated, and the waves rose, and they felt that the little skiff in which they were crossing the Lake had become a possible grave for them, a cold, watery grave. They fought as they could; but they could do nothing against the raging sea and the furious wind.
And at that moment they saw Christ walking on the sea, walking on the waters, at the very heart of the storm, in the eye of the hurricane. And they cried out in horror because they thought, This could be nothing but a ghost — God could not be in the midst of the storm, a storm that spelt death to them, destruction. If God was there, there should be peace, stillness, safety for themselves... And yet, God was at the heart of the storm, as He is at the heart of all the historical storm which rages all around us and tosses us about, and frightens us so much, and brings us to the brink of death.
And they cried in terror. And then, they heard a voice; a voice that unmistakably that of Christ: It is I! — don't be afraid!
And a degree of peace came upon them; and Peter turned to Christ, and said, If it is Thou — let me come to You on the waves!.. And Christ said, ‘Come! Enter into the storm, don’t try to escape it, don’t look for safety in this small, frail skiff that can be broken to pieces by the waves, drowned — don't count on that! Walk into the storm, walk on the raging waves!..
And as long as Peter was looking at nothing but Christ, to be with Him wherever Christ found Himself, he could walk. But he became aware of himself; at that moment he became aware of the storm, he was aware of the fact that he could die in a moment, helpless, drowned. And terror seized him, and he cried to Christ again, ‘Lord, save me !’— and the Lord stretched out His hand.
In another passage of the Gospel we are told, ‘And at that moment they discovered that they were all near the shore’ — they were at the end of the journey, while terror made them think that they were in the power of death...
Isn't that something which we can learn, each of us, from the circumstances of life? Let us ask ourselves whether on the unshakeable foundation of Christ we are building of stone, of gold, of silver — or only of perishable things? Let us ask ourselves whether it is with Christ, with God that we want to be in the midst of the storm, at the heart of the storm, fearless, because there is the place where He is — or whether we look for salvation in the little boat that is being drowned.
Let us reflect on this; and let us walk again into life with new hope, with a new sense of responsibility, but with the certainty that all things are possible unto us in the power of Christ Who sustains us. Amen.