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 WEEKFeast of Holy Theophany, Monday 6 January, Synaxis of St. John the Forerunner, Tuesday, 7 January. Please pick up a new church wall calendar with more information on feast days, fasting seasons and Saints for the Day. You'll find those calendars on the candle stand in the narthex.
SUNDAY SCHOOLNo Sunday School today, January 5. Next Sunday, Mrs. Bucklin will begin teaching on the Acts of the Apostles. Mrs. Bucklin teaches this class in the fellowship hall for ages 6+ immediately after Holy Communion. Parents are always welcome to sit in on the class.
TODAY Sunday, January 5, is the Eve of Holy Theophany. It is a strict fast day in preparation for the Feast. Please keep that in mind when planning something to bring for the fellowship hour table. Please bring something fast-friendly, same as we would eat during Great Lent.
TOMORROW, Monday, January 6 - Feast of Holy Theophany This festal day will be celebrated with the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil beginning at 10AM. (We regret no Orthros preceding). Following immediately after will be the service of the Great Blessing of the Waters. Everyone is encouraged to bring a container to collect some Holy Water to take home. Right after that, those who can, will move to the Penobscot River waterfront to bless the waters there, as has been our yearly custom.
THE PARISH VASILOPITA will be cut next Sunday January 12. We will also have a special event during the fellowship hour to celebrate the calendar New Year and then distribute small gifts/treats to our Sunday School students. Thanks in advance to Pat Egan who is contributing a Vasilopita for next Sunday. A second Vasilopita would be welcome, also, and if it was a gluten free bread, more people could partake. A Vasilopita is a sweet bread with a coin baked inside. If you'd like to bake one, Pres. can send you a delicious recipe to follow, if you don't already have one. Contact her at [email protected].
NEXT SUNDAY--REQUEST FOR ALL PARISHIONERS: Please bring something to give our Sunday School students that morning during the fellowship hour--sweets or coins or small trinkets to treat up to 10 children. This reflects a yearly tradition that occurs in Greece on St. Basil's Feast, January 1. Thank you!
UPDATED PRAYER REQUESTS Cathy S recently had a scan done and is continuing to engage alternative ways to continue to heal her body without surgery. Pray that God lead her to a modality that will work well for her. It was good to see Anita Rose, one of our catechumens, who was able to attend church last Sunday after a recent surgery. She sends thanks to all who've prayed for her well-being. Dr. Dave is continuing to recover from surgery to repair his broken ankle. God give him strength and patience to weather the next three weeks without being able to put weight on that foot! Dr. Allison's mom, Paula, is getting along well even though she is managing a serious health condition. Please keep her in your prayers. Also, Mona's dad, Fr. Anthony, a priest in Pakistan is out of the hospital and recovering at home. His recovery may take awhile. Please keep remembering two Orthodox sisters in Christ recovering from strokes (slow, but sure), Panagiota (Jaye) and Seraphima (Linnea). Pat E continues to thank everyone who prays for her as she copes with impaired eyesight. Again, your prayers for these these brothers and sisters in Christ are of great assistance.
PRAYERS REQUESTED FOR OUR CATECHUMENS Please continue to support our catechumens Dhesorae, Anita Rose, Vincent, 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!
SINCEREST THANKS to our young adults and the Speronis family who decorated the nave for the holidays.
UPDATED FINANCIALS Almost a month ago, we had a deficit of -$4455. THE WORD WE'VE HEARD is that our church is expected to have ended 2024 in the black which is a reason for rejoicing! Figures will be available soon. Thank you from Parish Council to everyone who gave generously over the last year to maintain our beloved church!! May your reward be from God! Gratefully, your Stewardship Chair, Donna Walter
AN INVITATION TO JOIN the Akathist a Day for 30 Days Prayer Group Join in a prayer discipline that is edifying and allows us to develop friendship with God's holy ones--the Saints! Each day for 30 days a group of Orthodox Christians from around the world offer an akathist from a selection of akathists to various Saints. By doing so, we get to know more about their lives and miracles and more so, they get to know us, too. How can they not know us since we honor them regularly and ask their intercessions? Yes, the Saints are available to us, even if we seldom recognize it. One of the things they do is intercede before God's throne, so let us ask their kind assistance for ourselves and our loved ones. Want to know more? Contact Pres. Candace who hosts the group ([email protected] or 949.2913, area code 207) for the "how to." Our next 30 day cycle starts on Thursday, January 9.
WILL THE SAINTS REALLY HELP US? Yes, when we call on them in faith. Enjoy this edifying talk by Metropolitan Neophytos of Cyprus on this very topic (turn on closed captions for English translation): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8Yw9Rj83GA
THIS THURSDAY - GAME NIGHT! A WAY TO CHASE THE WINTER BLUES AND GET TO KNOW OTHERS BETTER Dhesorae has taken initiative to get a game night going here at St. George. It will meet once a month, the second Thursday of the month, starting in January. First game night will be THIS THURSDAY, January 9 at 6:30PM in the fellowship hall. There will be board games, card games, and chess! If anyone has a game that they enjoy and would like to play, feel free to bring it! We may look at changing the day in the future if there are scheduling conflicts and more people would like to join. Everyone is welcome!
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.Beautiful prayer ropes are coming from Ukraine soon!
FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE - Donations can be made online.
When the persecution of Diocletian broke out in 290, Saint Theopemptus, a bishop, was taken for his confession of Christ, and convicted Diocletian to his face for his error and ungodliness. Remaining unhurt after cruel tortures, he was given poison to drink, which had been prepared by a sorcerer named Theonas. Protected by divine grace from this also, he drew Theonas to Christ, and after other torments, was beheaded. Saint Theonas was cast into a pit and buried alive.
January 05
Syncletiki of Alexandria
Saint Syncletike was from Alexandria in Egypt. She lived eighty-three years in virginity and asceticism, and became the leader and teacher of many nuns. What Saint Anthony the Great was to men, she became to women: a model of mortification of the flesh, of patience in afflictions, and of wise instruction; for this, she is known a "Amma," a title corresponding to "Abba." Towards the end of her long life, she was stricken with an exceedingly painful disease, which she endured with faith and magnanimity. She reposed in the middle of the fourth century. It is said of Saint Syncletike that she was the virgin who hid Saint Athanasius from the Arians for more than a year in the environs of Alexandria, and it is to Saint Athanasius that her life is ascribed (PG 18:1488-1557).
January 06
The Theophany of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
About the beginning of our Lord's thirtieth year, John the Forerunner, who was some six months older than Our Saviour according to the flesh, and had lived in the wilderness since his childhood, received a command from God and came into the parts of the Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance unto the remission of sins. Then our Saviour also came from Galilee to the Jordan, and sought and received baptism though He was the Master and John was but a servant. Whereupon, there came to pass those marvellous deeds, great and beyond nature: the Heavens were opened, the Spirit descended in the form of a dove upon Him that was being baptized and the voice was heard from the Heavens hearing witness that this was the beloved Son of God, now baptized as a man (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:1-22). From these events the Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the great mystery of the Trinity were demonstrated. It is also from this that the present feast is called "Theophany," that is, the divine manifestation, God's appearance among men. On this venerable day the sacred mystery of Christian baptism was inaugurated; henceforth also began the saving preaching of the Kingdom of the Heavens.
Prokeimenon. Sixth Tone. Psalm 27.9,1. O Lord, save your people and bless your inheritance.
Verse: To you, O Lord, I have cried, O my God.
The reading is from St. Paul's Second Letter to Timothy 4:5-8.
TIMOTHY, my son, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry.
For I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Sunday before Epiphany
The Reading is from Mark 1:1-8
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way; the voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' John was baptizing in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And there went out to him all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel's hair, and had a leather girdle around his waist, and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
