St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church
Publish Date: 2025-03-09
Bulletin Contents
Parish News
Saints and Feasts
Gospel and Epistle Readings
Hymns of the Day
Bulletin Inserts:

Organization Icon
St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church

General Information

  • Phone:
  • (908) 968-4004
  • Fax:
  • (908) 968-4002
  • Street Address:

  • 85 Voorhees Corner Road,

  • Flemington, NJ 08822

Contact Information

St. Anna Office
staff

[email protected] | (908) 968-4004

Clergy
Father Jimmy Pavlow

[email protected] | (609) 498-4672

Corresponding Secretary
Paul Vespa

[email protected]

Services Schedule

Sunday Services:  Orthros 8:30 am; Divine Liturgy 9:30  am.  

Weekday Services:  See parish website calendar link for updates.

 

Past Bulletins


Parish News

Schedule of Services for Week of March 9, 2025

Fr. Jimmy will be away Monday 3/10 to Wednesday 3/12 for the Metropolis of NJ Clergy Retreat. 
There are no services during that period.
Sunday,      03/09    8:30 a.m.  Orthros / Divine Liturgy - Sunday of Orthodoxy
Friday,        03/14    7:00 p.m.  Salutations to the Theotokos

The coffee hour is being sponsored by Gerard A. Pelletier in honor of St Joseph the Betrothed and the 10th anniversary of chrismation on March 8, 2015.

Sunday School: Please bring an icon to commemorate the Sunday of Orthodoxy, March 9th. Our children will process around the church with their icons.

YAL: The Young Adult League will assist in PC duties on the second Sundays of the month (YAL Sundays). If you are of YAL age (18-35) and interested in participating or for more details about monthly meetings and get togethers, please reach out to Steven Tattoli at [email protected].

Email Spoofing: We have learned of several people getting fake emails from someone posing as Fr. Jimmy. As a rule, please ignore any emails that do not come from <role>@stannagoc.org. 

Procedure for Holy Communion:
Enter into the center aisle. Please wait until a member of the Parish Council calls your pew. The order is as follows:
-Any Newly illumined (newly Baptized, Chrismated)
- Choir
-Pew by pew per PC direction. Please wait until your pew is called. 
-Those remaining in the narthex. 

Sunday Fellowship Hour Sponsors: Please sponsor a fellowship hour to support the Saint Anna parish. The requested fellowship hour sponsorship donation is $50.

Donation statements were emailed out, if you did not receive or have questions, please email [email protected]. Our 2025 Stewardship drive is in progress, please complete your 2025 stewardship pledge to allow the parish council to properly plan for the year.

2025 Stewardship Status: We have 51 Pledges totaling $112,595 and $42,573 received to date.  We also have 7 families who have contributed $4,093 to date but have not submitted a stewardship card.  It is important that all families complete a stewardship card to be considered a steward.  Current Stewardship List and other stewardship information is posted in bulletin board by water cooler.  

House Blessings: This is the time when we normally schedule House Blessings.  If you would like Father Jimmy to come and bless your home, please email/call Father and the office by emailing [email protected] and/or calling (908) 968-4004.

Parish Council Updates:

Καλή Σαρακοστή: The Parish Council would like to express our prayerful wishes for a Blessed Lent to our fellow parishioners. If you would like to make a special contribution to the additional beautification needs of the Church during this period, please use the attached 2025 Easter Appeal Form. We thank you in advance for your generosity.

The next Parish General Assembly will occur on March 30th. Please see attached invitation and agenda for further information

Greek Independence Day Parade in Philadelphia, PA - Sunday April 6, 2025. The annual Greek Independence Day Parade is happening on Sunday April 6, 2025. Last year we had over 40 parishioners marching down the Ben Franklin Parkway. Let's try and top that number this year! Please use this link: app.wooclap.com/2025parade to reserve your spot on the bus or see Bill Johnson at fellowship hour. Cost per seat is $15 for adults and Children under the age of 18 ride for free. Final Reservation/Payment is due Sunday March 30.

Palm Sunday Luncheon - Sunday April 13, 2025. We will be having our annual Palm Sunday Fish Luncheon following the Palm Sunday Liturgy. For details, please see attachment. If you plan to attend, please use this link to register: app.wooclap.com/25PALMSUNDAY

PHILOPTOCHOS CORNER:  

We'd like to thank all of you who ordered Koliva for the last 3 Saturdays for the "Saturday of Souls".  May their Memory be eternal!

 Tsoureki from Agia Skepi is available to order for $18 from now to Sunday, March 23. Please see Arge or Zoi in the fellowship hall after liturgy to place your order. 

There will be a BRIEF General membership meeting after church next Sunday, March 16, in the center classroom, followed by the cleaning of the Church Nave and Narthex as our humble Lenten offering of love for our St. Anna church.

We are continuing with our membership drive till the end of March, you can help us by joining the St. Anna Philoptochos and raising our numbers, by becoming a warrior for "Friends of the Poor"!

“Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive.” – Acts 20:35

Save the Date: Our next senior Parea event is Tuesday, April 1st at 12:00. Also, Palm Crosses will be available on March 23 thru Palm Sunday. The cost is $10.  

YOUTH MINISTRY:

First Sundays are Youth Sundays at St. Anna. GOYA, HOPE & JOY (grades K-6th), and our Little Blessings (Pre-K and under) ministries will meet on the First Sunday of the month.

Sunday School: Please bring an icon to commemorate the Sunday of Orthodoxy, March 9th. Our children will process around the church with their icons.

YAL: The Young Adult League will assist in PC duties on the second Sundays of the month (YAL Sundays). If you are of YAL age (18-35) and interested in participating or for more details about monthly meetings and get togethers, please reach out to Steven Tattoli at [email protected].

GOYA: Last Saturday, our GOYAns represented St. Anna at Sights and Sounds in Westfield at Holy Trinity. They performed a fabulous Greek Dance routine, sang a song from Mama Mia in the English Singing group category, and submitted many sights. Billy Panayote placed 2nd in Ceramics and Hope Trumpy placed 1st in English monologue and 3rd in Junior Singing solo. We are proud of all of you! Thank you to Kelly Karaminas for teaching Greek Dance and Marisa Soteropoulos and Maria Georgeles for organizing the singing group. We are grateful to you all!

Greek School: Please contact Maria Sfondouris at  [email protected] with any questions.

ST. ANNA BOOKSTORE - Great Lent is quickly approaching. Stop by the bookstore and pick up a great read for your Lenten Journey.  Email questions to [email protected]. Here are some recommendations:

FOR CHILDREN: "Our Very First Easter"; "The Light"; and " The Miracle of the Red Egg".

FOR ADULTS: "The Crucifixion of the King of Glory" and "Great Lent: Journey to Pascha"

The second in our series of iconography classes at St Anna will be held Monday, March 31, through Friday, April 4, from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. each evening. The icon subject will be a version of the famous Christ Pantocrator (Christ Ruler of All) icon from St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mt. Sinai in Egypt. Although many ancient icons from the period were destroyed due to the iconoclast heresy, this one survived due to St. Catherine's remote location. It is therefore historically significant, and one of the oldest icons in existence (see PDF file attached for the image). No previous art experience is needed, and all supplies will be provided. The class fee will be $350 ($20 per hour, as before). For more information, or to register, please contact Gerard A. Pelletier ([email protected], 609-917-0990). (As no class will be offered during the summer, this may be our last class until Fall 2025.)

PARISH LINKS: 

St Anna Website: https://www.stannagoc.org/

St Anna Greek Orthodox Church Calendar: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/[email protected]&ctz=America/New_York 

For questions to the parish council: [email protected]

For general questions: [email protected]

To be added to the weekly bulletin email:  [email protected]

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Saints and Feasts

March 09

Sunday of Orthodoxy

For more than one hundred years the Church of Christ was troubled by the persecution of the Iconoclasts of evil belief, beginning in the reign of Leo the Isaurian (717-741) and ending in the reign of Theophilus (829-842). After Theophilus's death, his widow the Empress Theodora (celebrated Feb. 11), together with the Patriarch Methodius (June 14), established Orthodoxy anew. This ever-memorable Queen venerated the icon of the Mother of God in the presence of the Patriarch Methodius and the other confessors and righteous men, and openly cried out these holy words: "If anyone does not offer relative worship to the holy icons, not adoring them as though they were gods, but venerating them out of love as images of the archetype, let him be anathema." Then with common prayer and fasting during the whole first week of the Forty-day Fast, she asked God's forgiveness for her husband. After this, on the first Sunday of the Fast, she and her son, Michael the Emperor, made a procession with all the clergy and people and restored the holy icons, and again adorned the Church of Christ with them. This is the holy deed that all we the Orthodox commemorate today, and we call this radiant and venerable day the Sunday of Orthodoxy, that is, the triumph of true doctrine over heresy.

March 09

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebastia

These holy Martyrs, who came from various lands, were all soldiers under the same general. Taken into custody for their faith in Christ, and at first interrogated by cruel means, they were then stripped of their clothing and cast onto the frozen lake which is at Sebastia of Pontus, at a time when the harsh and freezing weather was at its worst. They endured the whole night naked in such circumstances, encouraging one another to be patient until the end. He that guarded them, named Aglaius, who was commanded to receive any of them that might deny Christ, had a vision in which he saw heavenly powers distributing crowns to all of the Martyrs, except one, who soon after abandoned the contest. Seeing this, Aglaius professed himself a Christian and joined the Martyrs on the lake, and the number of forty remained complete. In the morning, when they were almost dead from the cold, they were cast into fire, after which their remains were thrown into the river. Thus they finished the good course of martyrdom in 320, during the reign of Licinius. These are their names: Acacius, Aetius, Aglaius, Alexander, Angus, Athanasius, Candidus, Chudion, Claudius, Cyril, Cyrion, Dometian, Domnus, Ecdicius, Elias, Eunoicus, Eutyches, Eutychius, Flavius, Gaius, Gorgonius, Helianus, Heraclius, Hesychius, John, Lysimachus, Meliton, Nicholas, Philoctemon, Priscus, Sacerdon, Severian, Sisinius, Smaragdus, Theodulus, Theophilus, Valens, Valerius, Vivianus, and Xanthias.

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Gospel and Epistle Readings

Epistle Reading

Prokeimenon. Plagal 1st Tone. Psalm 11.7,1.
You, O Lord, shall keep us and preserve us.
Verse: Save me, O Lord, for the godly man has failed.

The reading is from St. Paul's Letter to the Hebrews 12:1-10.

BRETHREN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation which addresses you as sons? "My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives." It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers to discipline us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father.

Gospel Reading

Sunday of Orthodoxy
The Reading is from John 1:43-51

At that time, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And he found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael, and he said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him, and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

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Hymns of the Day

Resurrectional Apolytikion in the 4th Tone

Having learned the joyful proclamation of the Resurrection from the Angel, and having cast off the ancestral condemnation, the women disciples of the Lord spake to the Apostles exultantly: Death is despoiled and Christ God is risen, granting great mercy to the world.

Apolytikion for 40 Martyrs of Sebastia in the 1st Tone

Be Thou entreated for the sake of the sufferings of Thy Saints which they endured for Thee, O Lord, and do Thou heal all our pains, we pray, O Friend of man.

Apolytikion for Sun. of Orthodoxy in the 2nd Tone

We worship Thine immaculate icon, O Good One, asking the forgiveness of our failings, O Christ our God; for of Thine own will Thou wast well-pleased to ascend the Cross in the flesh, that Thou mightest deliver from slavery to the enemy those whom Thou hadst fashioned. Wherefore, we cry to Thee thankfully: Thou didst fill all things with joy, O our Saviour, when Thou camest to save the world.

Seasonal Kontakion in the Plagal 4th Tone

To you, Theotokos, invincible Defender, having been delivered from peril, I, your city, dedicate the victory festival as a thank offering. In your irresistible might, keep me safe from all trials, that I may call out to you: "Hail, unwedded bride!"
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Bulletin Inserts:

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