AVOID A WINTER PARKING TICKET by observing city guidelines for plowing: If the day of the week is an even number then we park on the church side of the street. If the day of the week is an odd number then we park across from the church. This Sunday is an odd number, park across the street from the church.
WELCOME TO OUR VISITORS Whether you are new to Bangor or if you're just passing through -welcome! If you've come because you are curious about the Orthodox Church, its beliefs and worship, you are very welcome, too! Please don't hesitate to introduce yourself to someone you've never met and consider staying for some refreshments and fellowship after the morning service. If you would like to receive mailings or otherwise stay in touch, please leave your contact information (name, address, phone, email) with the person in the church office.
COMMEMORATIONS THIS WEEKToday, Sun, Dec 15 - St. Eleutherios, Bishop of Illyria; Mon, Dec 16 - St. Modestos, Archbishop of Jerusalem; Tues, Dec 17 - St. Dionysios of Zakynthos; Fri, Dec 20, St. Ignatios the God-Bearer; Sat, Dec 21 - St. Themistocles, martyr of Myra
PARISH COUNCIL ELECTIONS Your final opportunity to vote for Parish Council members is TODAY. Select four persons from the ballot. Those running are George Leakos; Seraphim (Tim) Kulikowski; Areti Baldwin and Grigori (Gary) Fearon. Sincere thanks to Basil (Cole) Brown and Jason Leighton who have served in parish council roles in the past--grateful to you all!
SUNDAY SCHOOL Mrs. Bucklin teaches class in the fellowship hall for ages 6+ immediately after Holy Communion. Parents are always welcome to sit in on the class.
UPDATED PRAYER REQUESTS Dr. Dave underwent surgery to repair his broken ankle last Wednesday. He has pain, as you might imagine, but it should lessen with healing. He needs to be off the foot for six weeks which will be a challenge. Pray for him and Donna as they navigate this new development. Dave still needs surgery to relieve back pain but getting past the ankle condition is needed right now. They appreciate your prayers! If they sense a need, we can organize a meal train at a later time. Remember, too, Dr. Allison's mother, Paula, who's navigating a serious medical condition. Also, Mona's dad, Fr. Anthony, a priest in Pakistan who is still hospitalized. Mona and Anthony just returned from a visit to see him. Pray that Mona's father recover his health, by the mercy of God. Please keep remembering two Orthodox sisters in Christ recovering from strokes (slow, but sure), Panagiota (Jaye) and Seraphima (Linnea). Maria reports that daughter Seraphima's progress is slow and steady. Her cognition is improving as time passes. She is yet to have feeling in her right hand, but can move her shoulder. She can move her right leg from the hip and circulation is improving to her right foot. We are so grateful for your continued prayer support. God bless you all! Please remember Panagiota (Jaye) who is doing well with her recovery. Pat E contains to thank everyone who prays for her as she copes with impaired eyesight. Her enthusiasm for serving Christ and the Church are an inspiration to us. Again, your prayers for these these brothers and sisters in Christ are of great assistance.
PRAYERS REQUESTED FOR THOSE LEARNING ABOUT OUR FAITH Please continue to support Dhesorae, Anita Rose and Vincent (mother & son), and Nicholas in your prayers. They are all learning more about the Orthodox Christian Faith with intent to unite themselves to the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church in due time. God bless and lead you, one and all!
MEMORY ETERNAL For those who've not yet seen it, here is the recent obituary for Sasha's father, Dimitri: https://remembermyjourney.com/memorials/dimitri-michael-saretzky?id=7neaAoWJ. Info on how to make a memorial gift is included in the obituary. Please pray for the Wlodkowski family--Paul, Sasha, Roman, Leo and Mila as they pass through this period of grief. Memory Eternal for God's servant, Dimitri!
OUR CHRISTMAS FAMILY Thank you to all who gave generously over the past three weeks to meet needs and bless our Christmas family this season! "Orthodox Mom" was thoroughly overwhelmed by such loving generosity from the St. George community. In order to help safeguard privacy, a more personal thank you from Orthodox Mom will be sent by email or text to parish members.
THANK YOU FOR KEEPING THE HEAT AND LIGHTS ON (AND MORE) HERE AT ST GEORGE We appreciate all of you who are faithfully fulfilling pledges to keep St. George in good stead for the cold weather months. Your love for God and for the church of St. George are known by Him--may your reward for faithfulness be from God's hand into eternity. And may dear St. George who watches and prays for us all ever remember you in his intercessions before God's throne. Gratefully, Donna Walter, Stewardship Chair
UPDATED FINANCIALS As of last Sunday, we had a deficit of-$4455. A special Christmas donation from all our parish families will enable us to come close to budget. God willing all things! We know the love and grace that generosity to our Christmas family has already drawn to this modest parish community. God grant us yet another blessing through His faithful! Thank you in advance!
THE NATIVITY FAST IS SLIGHTLY CHANGED as of December 12. It is Church tradition to scale back starting on the 12th and omit the option for eating fish during the Fast. Seafood is still fine. Basically, follow a vegan diet (plus seafood, if desired) until the Feast of Christ's Holy Nativity.
TODAY - DECORATORS WANTED After fellowship hour, we'd like to decorate the nave for the upcoming Feast. If you can stay and help make the church look festive for the coming holidays, it would be especially appreciated. All those decorations are in the quiet room upstairs.
UPCOMING HOLIDAY SERVICES We will continue with our tradition of celebrating the vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil for the Holy Nativity on Christmas Eve (5:30PM) and St. John Chrysostom's Divine Liturgy for Christ's Holy Nativity on Christmas morning (9AM / 10AM). The Christmas morning service is not a repeat of the Christmas Eve service. Rather, it is a continuation of the service which encompasses the entire Feast. For that reason we ask that you plan to attend both services, worshipping together, the truly awesome Incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
A CHRISTMAS EVE AFTERGLOW WILL FOLLOW THE VESPERAL DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. BASILOn Christmas Eve, please bring a festive dish (an appetizer, main, or side dish is suggested) for the afterglow table on Christmas Eve which we pray will be blessed and memorable. Thank you.
DO YOU START CELEBRATING YOUR BIRTHDAY A MONTH IN ADVANCE? Our consumer focused culture has molded a mindset over time that gets people into the habit of celebrating Christmas weeks before the festal occasion with rich excessive food and drink, gifts, parties, etc. Is the meaning reduced to what gifts are opened on Christmas morning? Is the holiday then over? As Orthodox, let's opt for celebrating on the First Day of Christmas, December 25, focused on the Holy Incarnation of Christ and enjoy the Twelve Holy Days of Christmas. What a beautiful time of year! Learn more here: https://otftd.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-twelve-days-of-christmas-arewhen.html.
NICE WAY TO HELP ST. GEORGE For an unspecified time, someone has offered to buy our bookshop stock as a donation so the church does not need to fund the stock purchases. That means whenever you buy from our bookshop St. George benefits a good bit. So please shop here and if there is a book or something else (icon, prayer rope, neck cross, bread seal, or the like) you're looking for, please let Pres. know so it can be ordered.
WE HAVE ORTHODOX CHRISTMAS CARDS in the bookshop. Assorted packages of 15 cards for $16.95.
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - Donations can be made online.
On the Sunday that occurs on or immediately after the eleventh of this month, we commemorate Christ's forefathers according to the flesh, both those that came before the Law, and those that lived after the giving of the Law.
Special commemoration is made of the Patriarch Abraham, to whom the promise was first given, when God said to him, "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed" (Gen. 22:18). This promise was given some two thousand years before Christ, when Abraham was seventy-five years of age. God called him and commanded him to forsake his country, parents, and kinsmen, and to depart to the land of the Canaanites. When he arrived there, God told him, "I will give this land to thy seed" (Gen. 12:7); for this cause, that land was called the "Promised Land," which later became the country of the Hebrew people, and which is also called Palestine by the historians. There, after the passage of twenty-four years, Abraham received God's law concerning circumcision. In the one hundredth year of his life, when Sarah was in her ninetieth year, they became the parents of Isaac. Having lived 175 years altogether, he reposed in peace, a venerable elder full of days.
December 15
Eleutherios the Hieromartyr, Bishop of Illyricum, and his mother Anthia
This Saint had Rome as his homeland. Having been orphaned of his father from childhood, he was taken by his mother Anthia to Anicetus, the Bishop of Rome (some call him Anencletus, or Anacletus), by whom he was instructed in the sacred letters (that is, the divine Scriptures). Though still very young in years, he was made Bishop of Illyricum by reason of his surpassing virtue, and by his teachings he converted many unbelievers to Christ. However, during a most harsh persecution that was raised against the Christians under Hadrian (reigned 117-138), the Saint was arrested by the tyrants. Enduring many torments for Christ, he was finally put to death by two soldiers about the year 126. As for his Christ-loving mother Anthia, while embracing the remains of her son and kissing them with maternal affection, she was also beheaded.
Prokeimenon. Seventh Tone. Psalm 115.5,3 (116.15,12). Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.
Verse: What shall I render to the Lord for all that he has given me?
The reading is from St. Paul's Second Letter to Timothy 1:8-18.
TIMOTHY, my son, do not be ashamed then of testifying to our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel in the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not in virtue of our works but in virtue of his own purpose and the grace which he gave us in Christ Jesus ages ago, and now has manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. For this gospel I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, and therefore I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
You are aware that all who are in Asia turned away from me, and among them Phygelos and Hermogenes. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphoros, for he often refreshed me; he was not ashamed of my chains, but when he arrived in Rome he searched for me eagerly and found me - may the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that Day and you well know all the service he rendered at Ephesos.
11th Sunday of Luke
The Reading is from Luke 14:16-24
The Lord said this parable: "A man once gave a great banquet, and invited many; and at the time of the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come; for all is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I go out and see it; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I must go to examine them; I pray you, have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder in anger said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and maimed and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and there is still room.' And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet. For many are called, but few are chosen.'"
