Liturgics & Calendar

St. ’s Orthodox Christian Church Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America — His Eminence Metropolitan , Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of all North America — His Grace THOMAS, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Middle Atlantic — Archpriest John Nosal, Pastor

Sunday, January 7, 2018 To all who are present with us this morning, Welcome! Thank you for being here! Please join us for “coffee and…” in the Fellowship Hall following Divine Liturgy.

You May Find the Text of the Divine Liturgy beginning on the bottom of page 91 of the Service Book (gold embossed cross on the reddish brown cover) or in the green-spiral-bound book; sheet music can be found in the 8.5” x 11” large, spiral-bound booklet. At the Kiss of Peace our practice is for each of us to greet the person to our right and left with the bowing of our head, hands held in a prayerful clasp or crossed on the chest, while offering each other the seasonal Christian greeting, “Christ is in our midst!” and responding, “He is and shall be!” Please remember that Holy Communion is reserved for those Chrismated Orthodox Christians who have appropriately prepared themselves through prayer, and Confession to receive the Holy Mysteries of the Church. The bread (anti’doron, which means ‘in place’ of the gifts) which we share after Communion and at the end of the Liturgy is for all. Being mindful we are in church, let us always remember to… ...be quiet and attentive. Let us sing, pray, stand, sit, kneel and respond where responses are indicated. Let us not talk, look around, text message, play games, etc.. Especially, let us work at this in the Communion line and when in line to venerate the Cross and depart. If we cannot hear the post- Communion prayers being chanted during our church departure, we are way too noisy. ...refrain from eating, drinking or chewing gum (most obviously and especially if you will be receiving Holy Communion). ...stay put. Except in rare cases, there are few of us who cannot stay in one location for two hours (actually less, for most of us). Sunday, January 7, 2018 Greeting: Christ is in our midst! Response: He is and shall be! Synaxis of the Holy Prophet, Forerunner & Baptist John; New- Athanasios of Attalia; Venerable Brannock of Braunton. ______Sunday Prayer Offerings THE HOLY BREAD OF OBLATION is offered...... by GUST and VALERIE Flizanes in memory of ANNA and ANTHONY Flizanes, FRANK Ciavarra, Aunt , ANN Stanley, ERIC Kos, CHRISTINA Gudzan, Kh. STEFANIE Yazge and godmother AUNT IRENE; and for the health of BRIAN, JJ and BRIAN, mother HELEN, MARY Haiden, HARRIET Mirilovich, their family, friends, and all the parishioners of Michael’s Church. PRAYERS OF OBLATION are offered… ...in memory of our fathers in Christ, Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba and Bishop ANTOUN Khouri, Archimandrites GEORGE M. Corry and JOHN Namie, Archpriests JOHN (and Khourieh JEAN) Chromiak, PETER (and Matushka JOSEPHINE) Felenchak, ANTHONY Bell, JAMES Meena, JOSEPH Chernushin and Priest JOHN Paul Pro. ...in memory of INA by Ray and Dana (Charley) Whitesell. ...in memory of Kh. STEFANIE Yazge by Shirles and Charles King. ...in memory of NORMA Nicholas by Charles J. Kudlik. ...in memory of DIANA Roberts by Dina Papas. ...in memory of GEORGE and MARIETTE Charabaty by Zeina Maalouf. ...in memory of the ABRAHAM family: GEORGE, PEDRO, EDDIE, MILLER, BILL, ROSE and MARGARET JEAN by Tim Fedele. ...in memory of Charley by Ray and Dana Whitesell. ...in memory of our dad, JOSEPH Abraham by the Badal, the Abraham, the Rollin, the Wallen and the Barton families. ...in memory of recently departed FRANK Nataros (Jennifer Sacksen’s father). ...in memory of the recently departed JEAN Joseph (Bishop THOMAS’ mother). MANY YEARS and...... Happy Birthday to: BRENDON Derr (1/8), RICHARD Joseph (1/9), HEATHER Bitar (1/10), DENNIS Eyler (1/10), Carlini (1/11), STEPHEN Koury (1/11), ALECSANDAR Varsamis (1/11), MONICA Mansour (1/12), JOSHUA DiFlorio (1/13), SOPHIA Koury (1/13), BETH Utterback (1/13). ...Happy Chrismation Day to: SHELBY Laffin (1/8), NICHOLAS Burczyk (1/10), TRAVIS Laffin (1/12), SIMONE Donahey (1/13). ______RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION IN TONE 6 When Mary stood at Thy grave, looking for Thy sacred body, angelic powers shone above Thy revered tomb; and the soldiers who were to keep guard became as dead men. Thou led Hades captive and wast not tempted thereby. Thou didst meet the Virgin and didst give life to the world, O Thou, Who art risen from the dead, O Lord, glory to Thee. APOLYTIKION OF THEOPHANY IN TONE 1 When Thou, O Lord, wast baptized in the Jordan, the worship of the Trinity wast made manifest; for the voice of the Father bore witness to Thee, calling Thee His beloved Son. And the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of His word. O Christ our God, Who hath revealed Thyself and enlightened the world, glory to Thee. APOLYTIKION OF IN TONE 2 The memory of the righteous is celebrated with songs of praise, but the Lord’s testimony is sufficient for thee, O Forerunner. Thou wast shown indeed to be the most honorable of the prophets, for in the waters thou didst baptize Him Who had been proclaimed. After suffering with joy in behalf of the truth, thou didst proclaim even to those in Hades the God Who appeared in the flesh, Who takest away the sin of the world, and granteth us the Great Mercy. APOLYTIKION OF THE ARCHANGELS IN TONE 4 O ye foremost of the heavenly hosts we beseech thee, though we are unworthy. Pray that we may be encompassed with the of thine unearthly glory; preserving us who kneel and cry endlessly, Deliver us from oppression since you are the princes of the highest Power. KONTAKION OF THEOPHANY IN TONE 4 On this day Thou hast appeared unto the whole world, and Thy light, O Sovereign Lord, is signed on us who sing Thy praise and chant with knowledge: Thou hast now come, Thou hast appeared, O Thou Light unapproachable. The Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (19:1-8) In those days, while was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the One Who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. There were about twelve of them in all. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, arguing and pleading about the Kingdom of God. The Holy Gospel according to St. John (1:29-34) At that time, John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! This is He of Whom I said, ‘After me comes a man Who ranks before me, for He was before me.’ I myself did not know Him; but for this I came baptizing with water, that He might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness, “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on Him. I myself did not know Him; but He Who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on Whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is He Who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” MEGALYNARION OF THE LEAVE-TAKING IN TONE 1 Magnify, O my soul, the Maiden who delivered us from the curse. O the wonder of thy super-intelligent birth-giving, thou all-pure bride, the blessed Mother through whom we have received perfect salvation, we indite a fitting song, offering as a gift the song of gratitude. KOINONIKON (COMMUNION HYMN) IN TONE 8 The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance; he shall not fear evil tidings. ______

January 7 thru January 13 January 14 thru January 20 Sunday, January 7 Sunday, January 14 - 8:45 AM - MATINS - 8:45 AM - MATINS - 9:30 AM - Choir Rehearsal - 9:30 AM - Choir Rehearsal - 10:00 AM - DIVINE LITURGY - 10:00 AM - DIVINE LITURGY take a - Prayer for 2018 - Church School poinsettia Parish Council - Annual General Parish home - Outdoor Blessing of the Meeting, continued Waters at Twin Lakes Tuesday, January 16 Monday, January 8 - 6:30 PM - Executive Board Meeting - 9:00 AM - DIVINE LITURGY - 7:00 PM - Parish Council Meeting Atticus and Cyrus, Wednesday, January 17 patriarchs of - 9:00 AM - DIVINE LITURGY Wednesday, Jan. 10 Anthony the Great - 9:00 AM - DIVINE LITURGY Thursday, January 18 - 9:00 AM - DIVINE LITURGY Saturday, January 13 Athanasios and Cyril of - 5:15 PM - Vespers Chant Practice - 7:00 PM - Choir Rehearsal - 6:00 PM - GREAT VESPERS Saturday, January 20 ______- 5:15 PM - Vespers Chant Practice - 6:00 PM - GREAT VESPERS Women, please remember to see ______Michelle Gajewski today to reserve and pay for your seat at the Great Lent begins on Monday, Antiochian Women’s Post-Holiday February 19. (This gives six Luncheon at Rodney’s in Irwin on weeks for the traditional House January 21. The cost is $20. Blessing season.) Great and The deadline to take care of this Holy Pascha falls on April 8. business is next Sunday, Jan. 14. (Western Easter is on April 1.)