Thirty-first Sunday After December 30, 2018 ST. NICHOLAS ORTHODOX “Let us therefore strive to preserve the holiness of our souls and to guard the purity of our bodies with all fervor”-St. Nicholas of

American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese | Ecumenical

Fr. Nicholas Mihaly, Pastor

1123 East Avenue Erie, PA 16503 H: (814) 453-4902 C: (203) 241-1027 [email protected]

More Information

Parish Website: www.stnicholaserie.org Weekly Schedule Sunday, December 30—9:30 AM; & Panachida Diocesan Website: for Dennis Kormos on the 40th Day of repose offered by Jim & www.acrod.org Nancy DeHaven Wednesday, January 2—6:30 PM; Moleben for the Nativity Fast , January 5—5:00 PM; www.facebook.com/ StNicholasErie/ Sunday, January 6—9:30 AM; Divine Liturgy Welcome! Confessions are available thirty minutes prior to Divine Liturgy on the If you are new to our parish, first Sunday of every month; thirty minutes before vespers on Saturday welcome! St. Nicholas is a evenings; or by appointment. welcoming Orthodox Christian parish. As a reminder, only those Orthodox Christians who have prepared themselves are invited to receive Communion. For all of our visitors, Orthodox or non-Orthodox, please join us for coffee downstairs; meet Fr. Nick & the parishioners!

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Youth Event; Re-Scheduled for January 26 Our parish children and teens will meet on Saturday, January 26 at 2:00 PM. We will be working on a stewardship project for the parish and enjoying each other’s company. on Tap Our next gathering of Orthodoxy on Tap will be on Saturday, January 12 at 2:00 PM at the Voodoo Brewery on State Street. Fr. Confessions Stephen Loposky will be our guest speaker.

Extra time for confessions Excuse Note during this Advent Season will Do you or your children need an excuse note to miss work or be available on the next two school for Christmas Day? Please see Fr. Nick and he’d be happy Sundays, December 30 & to write one for you to make sure that everyone is here to January 6, in addition to the celebrate the Christmas Divine Liturgy! usual times for . If these times do not work out for House Blessings 2019 you, please schedule a time with Fr. Nick for confession before The house blessing season is almost upon us! Following the feast Christmas Day. Celebrate the of and the Great Blessing of Water on January 19, Fr. birth of Christ with a clean Nick will be available for house blessings. Please see Fr. Nick to schedule a time to have your house blessed between January 20 & soul! March 1. More information regarding house blessings will be in Upcoming Events future bulletins.

• January 7-Christmas Day Blessing of Presque Isle Bay • January 12-Orthodoxy on Tap On Saturday, January 19, we will meet at Dobbins Landing for the • January 19-Blessing of Presque Second Annual Pan-Orthodox Blessing of the waters of Presque Isle Bay Isle Bay. The service will begin at 1:00 followed by a fellowship gathering at Voodoo Brewery on State Street. • January 26-Youth Event • March 11-Great Begins Birthdays & Anniversaries • April 28-Great & Holy PASCHA Dec

31 Helen Douglas

Jan

1 George & Leonna (Eddy) Vukmer-59th Anniversary

8 Irene Schwab

If you would like Many Years to be sung for you or a loved one, please let Fr. Nick know prior to the beginning of Divine Liturgy

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Parish Prayer List “Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.” James 5:16

For the Health of…Bishop Athanasius Akunda, Fr. John Baranik, Fr. Lawrence Barriger, Fr. James Gleason, Fr. John Gido, Fr. Tony Joseph, Fr. Robert Lucas Fr. Nicholas Palun, Fr. Michael Polanichka, Fr. Michael Rustick, Fr. Jonathan Tobias, Fr. John Zboyovski, Fr. Smoley, Pani Donna Smoley, Pani Connie Miloro, Pani Eleanor Pribish, George Arghyrou, Douglas Borkowski, Stephen Brancho, Emma Burkell, John Candia, Sandy Carlisle, Gail Collister, Robert Collister, James DeHaven, Mark DeHaven, Mary DeHaven, Peter Dimitriadis, Helen Douglas, Irene Fendya, Miko Jovanovich, John Kloss, Richard Koerner, Jean Kramer, Don Kuzmin, Olivia Kuzmin, Evelyn McCambridge, Mike McCambridge, Guy McIntyre, Orestes Mihaly, Serge Mihaly, Mark Mizak, Robert Perevuznik, Sr., Barbara Scheibeck, Richard Schrader, Irene Schwab, Elizabeth Skalko, Isabella Smith, Ignatius Thompson, Vicktor Volpe, Cheryl Walker, David Walker, Jake & Lauren, Steven, Katlyn Wyant, George Yurcan …through the prayers of St. Nectarios the Wonderworker & St. Panteleimon the Great-Martyr and Healer

For Expectant Mothers… Pani Eleni Stagon, Fucsko, Brenna Mihaly…through the prayers of St. Anna, the Mother of the Virgin Mary

For the Repose of…Pani Magdaline Blaschak, Pani Mary Kundla, Lawrence Beck, Helen Bires, Ann Burdick, Lousie Butts, Thomas Candia, Ann DiMarco, Anna Evanisko, Vera Fetchina, Alvin Irwin, John E. Kelley, Dennis Kormos, Kyle Lomme, Shane Murdock, Mildred Paproski, Rade Uzunovski …May their memories be eternal!

If you have someone you would like to be added to the prayer list, please see Fr. Nick

3 Thirty-first Sunday After Pentecost December 30, 2018 The Holy Supper on

By Fr. David Mastroberte Customs for this meal vary from region to The day before Christmas has been observed region, village to village, and family to family. as a day of among both Eastern and Here is a rough outline of some common tradi- Western Christians since the earliest centuries. tions among Carpatho-Rusyns: While the Roman Catholics broke with this • The table is covered with a white cloth, to ancient tradition by eliminating the Christmas remember the swaddling clothes of the Infant Eve fast after their Second Vatican Council in Jesus. Straw is placed either under or on the the 1960s, Orthodox Christians (as well as most tablecloth, as a reminder of the . Eastern Catholics) continue to keep Christmas • The meal begins after the first star appears, Eve as a strict-fast day: no meat or dairy are as a reminder of the star of . The eaten on this day, head of the as it is the final household signals day of the Nativity the start of the Fast. That being meal by saying said, Christmas “Christ is born!” Eve is not with all replying somber! “Glorify Him!” In the church’s •Before food is cycle of services, served, any the new day number of cus- begins at sunset toms might take —just as was the place. custom in the Old Participants may Testament. wash their hands, Fasting, however, as a sign of purity. doesn’t end until Some tie a rope midnight and, on around the table days when there is a Divine Liturgy, after legs to symbolize unity. Rural families even Liturgy and the reception of Holy Communion. bless the animals in the barn to recall the To balance the fact that Christmas has begun animals present at the birth of Christ. (These but the fast has not ended, many Christian days, some people bless their pets!) peoples of Central and Eastern Europe such as Carpatho-Rusyns, Ukrainians, Belarusians, • A candle is lit, to remember that Christ is the Slovaks and Poles, developed a festive-yet- Light of the World. Everyone then joins in a fasting meal known as the “Holy prayer like the Lord’s Prayer or the Tropar of Supper” (Svyaty Vecher) or “Veliya” (from Christmas “Your nativity, O Christ our God…” “vigil”). • A loaf of bread is cut and shared, since Jesus One possible origin of this dinner is the is the “Bread of Life.” This simple leavened common monastic practice of eating sweetened bread (made from flour, water, yeast, and boiled wheat kernals known as koliva—in perhaps a little salt, sugar, or oil) is similar to Slavonic, kutya—on days of fasting. This food is the “prosfora” used for Holy Communion. still made for Christmas Eve in some locales. (Wafers—oplatky—are used by Roman

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Catholics, since they use unleavened bread their own by gathering as a family on Christmas for Communion.) Eve to pray together, break bread, make a toast • Everyone gets a glass of wine and a toast is of wine, and share a fasting meal. This is a given, wishing good health for the new year. worthy way to begin the celebration of Our Lord’s Nativity. This Christmas Eve, make your • Some families share pieces of garlic dipped supper a Holy Supper! in honey—a symbol of accepting both the sweet and the bitter in life. Others dip the bread in honey. Our Journey to Bethlehem • After these preliminary actions, the meal itself begins. As noted before, it is a strict-fast The forty-day fast that precedes the celebration meal, so the foods are prepared without meat of Christmas, the Christ, is or dairy products. However, this doesn’t mean known commonly as Advent. Advent comes the foods aren’t plentiful and delicious! Some from the Latin word advenire—arrival. It’s also families serve 12 dishes, in honor of the 12 the root of the word adventure. Indeed, Advent apostles. Familiar dishes utilize the kinds of is an adventure, a spiritual adventure to the foods that could be preserved for the winter, manger and the cave. Just as St. Joseph and and include: a soup, of beans, mushrooms, the Virgin Mary had to travel to Bethlehem for cabbage, or other similar ingredients; Jesus Christ to be born, we too have to travel to bobaľky (bread dough made into small balls, Bethlehem in order to properly celebrate this baked, and seasoned with cabbage/ great feast. Let us take advantage of these next sauerkraut, or sweetened with honey, poppy eight days to properly prepare ourselves for the seeds, or ground nuts); pirohy (filled with Birth of Jesus Christ by continuing Metropolitan potato, cabbage, prunes, or apricots); beans, Gregory’s Evening Prayer Challenge; by mushrooms, or cabbage made with attending the Moleben for the Nativity Fast on zaprashka or roux; potatoes of some sort; Wednesday evening; by attending Vespers and rice-stuffed cabbage; seafood or fish. (This is Divine Liturgy on Saturday and Sunday; by not an exhaustive list!) fasting; and by charitable deeds. May our actions increase our love for each other and our • Dessert of fruit, nuts, and/or sweets con- God and decrease the animosity in our hearts. cludes the meal. The family then goes to Already, the hymns of Church speak of the church for the evening service. traveling Joseph and the Virgin Mary are This variety of custom and food shows that the making to the cave for the birth of Jesus Christ. exact details of this “holy supper” are less Let us use this next week, the week before our important than the celebration of Christmas, underlying concept: that to join Joseph and the meals can be sacred Virgin Mary on their occasions to celebrate travel to Bethlehem. By our Orthodox Christian increasing our spiritual faith in the home. endeavors, we will be Whether you grew up able to join the angels with this tradition or not, and the shepherds in the all Orthodox Christians manger gazing on our from all backgrounds Newborn King, Jesus can make this tradition Christ.

5 Thirty-first Sunday After Pentecost December 30, 2018 WEEKLY OFFERINGS – Sunday, December 23, 2018

DONOR $2.00 WEEKLY CANDLES FOR HEALTH GIVEN FOR Tamara Kloss Husband John Kloss John & Tamara Kloss Friend’s Husband John Phyllis Tarasovich Herself and Family Reader David & Debra Tarasovich Granddaughter Maya Egloff’s 13th Birthday, December 27 Theodore & Patricia Molly Themselves and Family Theodore & Patricia Molly John & Donna Novak Theodore & Patricia Molly Gloria Joelle Fosco Grandmother Emeline Laboda Joelle Fosco Her Boss Barbara Baker John Lipchik Jr. & Kathleen Boyce Uncle Peter & Aunt Marge Sima Kathleen Boyce Families of Brother John Lipchik Jr. and Husband Gary Boyce

DONOR $2.00 WEEKLY CANDLES FOR THE DECEASED GIVEN FOR John & Tamara Kloss Her Parents Very Rev. Proto. Ronald & Pani Dolores Hazuda Douglas & Jean LaBoda and Family His Father Michael LaBoda Douglas & Jean LaBoda and Family His Mother Virginia LaBoda George Yurcan Parents Wasyl & Aniela Yurcan and Deceased in Family Richard & Susanne Demchak Beloved Parents Joseph & Susan Demchak Dr. George & Kitty Kuzmishin Beloved Family Members Janet Belliveau Parents Douglas & Anne Liebel John Lipchik Jr. & Kathleen Boyce Parents John Sr. & Helena Lipchik David Lipchik Parents Steve & Ann Lipchik John Katsikes Memory of Loved Ones Phyllis Tarasovich Deceased in the Tarasovich and Kelley Families Reader David & Debra Tarasovich Grandson Carter Robert Egloff Reader David & Debra Tarasovich Her Mother Shirley’s Birthday, December 29

CATEGORY AMOUNT CATEGORY AMOUNT Candles 49.00 Social Hour 4.00 Loose Change 57.00 Pampered Chef Fundraiser 108.25 Regular Envelopes 312.00 Memorials* 25.00 Christmas Donations 25.00 15.00 Total Income 595.25

*Thank you to Louis & Pauline Berti for their donation in memory of Ann DiMarco.

ATTENDANCE Divine Liturgy for the Feast of St. Nicholas (Wed., Dec. 19): 10 to St. Nicholas (Fri., Dec. 21): 5 Divine Liturgy (Sun., Dec. 23): 31

6 Thirty-first Sunday After Pentecost December 30, 2018 5 2 S 2 9 12 19 26 16 23 F 1 8 15 22 7 T Page 1/1 Page 14 21 28 6 W 13 20 27 5 T 12 19 26 4 February 2019 M 11 18 25 Saturday S 3 10 17 24 S 5 5:00 PM Vespers Orthodoxy PM 2:00 on Tap DivineLitur- AM 9:30 o Feast the for gy Theophany 1:00 PM Blessing of Bay Isle Presque YouthActiv- PM 2:00 ity 12 19 26 F 4 11 18 25 4 1 3 T 11 18 25 10 17 24 31 2 9 W 16 23 30 1 8 T 15 22 29 January 2019 7 M 14 21 28 S 6 13 20 27 Friday S 1 8 15 22 29 F 7 14 21 28 6:30 PM Akathist for for Akathist PM 6:30 Nativitythe Night Holy PM 6:00 Service Vigil & Supper Theophany for 6 T 13 20 27 5 W 12 19 26 3 10 17 24 31 4 T 11 18 25 3 M December 2018 10 17 24 31 S 2 9 16 23 30 Thursday 2 9 16 23 30 Wednesday 6:30 PM Moleben for Fast Nativity the DivineLitur- AM 9:30 Stephen St. for gy 1 8 15 22 29 Tuesday 9:30 AM DivineLitur- AM 9:30 of Synaxis the for gy VirgintheMary Class Adult PM 6:00 Class Adult PM 6:00 EmmausPM 3:30 Kitchen Soup Class Adult PM 6:00 7 31 14 21 28 Monday 9:30 AM DivineLitur- AM 9:30 gy-ChristmasDay DivineLitur- AM 9:30 Circumci- the for gy Christ of sion 6 30 13 20 27 Sunday CHURCH 9:30 AM DivineLitur- AM 9:30 gy DivineLitur- AM 9:30 gy ChristmasPM 8:00 VigilEve DivineLitur- AM 9:30 gy DivineLitur- AM 9:30 gy DivineLitur- AM 9:30 gy January 2019 St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Tentative Calendar 7 Thirty-first Sunday After Pentecost December 30, 2018

St. Nicholas Orthodox Church Christmas Schedule 2019 1123 East Avenue Erie, PA 16503

Sunday, January 6; 9:30 AM-Divine Liturgy for the Sunday of the Holy Fathers & Christmas Eve

Sunday, January 6; 8:00 PM-Vigil Service on the Eve of the Nativity of Our Lord

Monday, January 7; 9:30 AM-Divine Liturgy for the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord

Tuesday, January 8; 9:30 AM-Divine Liturgy for the Synaxis of the Virgin Mary

Wednesday, January 9; 9:30 AM-Divine Liturgy for the Feast of St. Stephen

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Faith & Fellowship for Young Adult Orthodox Christians WHEN: Saturday, January 12, 2019; 2:00 PM

WHERE: VOODOO BREWERY ERIE; 101 Boston Store Place, Erie, PA 16501

WHAT: An evening of food, drinks & socializing with other Orthodox Young Adults with a presentation by Fr. Stephen Loposky, Administrator of Camp Nazareth

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