Sunday Services: Orthros 8:30 am; Divine Liturgy 9:30 am.
Weekday Services: See parish website calendar link for updates.
2022 Stewardship Status as of Feb. 5: we have 62 Pledges totaling $80,600 and $37,645 received to date. We also have 11 families who have contributed $4,920 to date but have not submitted a stewardship card. It is important that all families complete a stewardship card to be considered a steward. The current Stewardship List and other stewardship information are posted on the bulletin board by the water cooler. Statements for 2021 donations were emailed to all donors with emails on file (hard copy statements being mailed to those without emails). If you have any questions on your statement please see the treasurer or email treasurer@StAnnaGOC.org
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Parish Council Corner:
Philoptochos
As we begin a new year, Philoptochos has been reinvigorated to continue outreach where we can be of service to our St. Anna family as well as to our Hunterdon County community. Many parishioners (old and new friends) are Philoptochos members and enjoy this very important ministry of the church. If you are not a current member, Philoptochos invites you to become a member and welcomes your talents and support. For membership information and an enrollment form, please contact either Maria Tattoli at mtattoli@gmail.com or Arge Mardakis at mardakis@co.somerset.nj.us. We look forward to hearing from you.
Greek School Please contact Maria Sfondouris, Greek School Director with any questions (msfondouris@gmail.com). In-person classes resume on Monday, Feb. 7.
Sunday School will resume in-person today, Sunday, Feb 6. Please bring your children to this vital ministry as they learn more about their faith. All 7th to 12th graders are encouraged to participate in the parish Oratorical Festival! See note below.
Oratorical Festival: Our Parish Festival will be on Saturday, March 26. Please see Fr. A regarding details. Start time planned for 10 AM and concluding with lunch and awards. Topics can be found online at: https://www.goarch.org/-/st-john-chrysostom-oratorical-festival. PARENTS, PLEASE ENCOURAGE YOUR CHILDREN TO PARTICIPATE. FR. A IS AVAILABLE FOR ASSISTANCE. All Seniors that plan to apply for the St. Anna Scholarship in the spring must participate as part of the Scholarship requirements. Thank you.
Our sister in Christ, Andrea, needs our help. Please see the flyer below and help if you can. Thank you.
As for the thrice-blessed Photius, the great and most resplendent Father and teacher of the Church, the Confessor of the Faith and Equal to the Apostles, he lived during the years of the emperors Michael (the son of Theophilus), Basil the Macedonian, and Leo his son. He was the son of pious parents, Sergius and Irene, who suffered for the Faith under the Iconoclast Emperor Theophilus; he was also a nephew of Saint Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople (see Feb. 25). He was born in Constantinople, where he excelled in the foremost imperial ministries, while ever practicing a virtuous and godly life. An upright and honorable man of singular learning and erudition, he was raised to the apostolic, ecumenical, and patriarchal throne of Constantinople in the year 857.
The many struggles that this thrice-blessed one undertook for the Orthodox Faith against the Manichaeans, the Iconoclasts, and other heretics, and the attacks and assaults that he endured from Nicholas I, the haughty and ambitious Pope of Rome, and the great persecutions and distresses he suffered, are beyond number. Contending against the Latin error of the filioque, that is, the doctrine that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son, he demonstrated clearly with his Mystagogy on the Holy Spirit how the filioque destroys the unity and equality of the Trinity. He has left us many theological writings, panegyric homilies, and epistles, including one to Boris, the Sovereign of Bulgaria, in which he set forth for him the history and teachings of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. Having tended the Church of Christ in holiness and in an evangelical manner, and with fervent zeal having rooted out all the tares of every alien teaching, he departed to the Lord in the Monastery of the Armenians on February 6, 891.
Prokeimenon. 1st Tone. Psalm 48.3,1.
My mouth shall speak wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall bring forth understanding.
Verse: Hear this all you nations.
The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 7:26-28; 8:1-2.
Brethren, it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people; he did this once for all when he offered up himself. Indeed, the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect for ever. Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man but by the Lord.
Sunday of the Canaanite
The Reading is from Matthew 15:21-28
At that time, Jesus went to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and cried, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely possessed by a demon." But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." And he answered, "It is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.