Sing praises to our God, sing praises. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church Clap your hands, all you nations. 1250 Oakdale Avenue, West Saint Paul, Minnesota 55118 Parish Website: http://www.saintgeorge-church.org The Reading from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Galatians. (1:11-19) rethren, I would have you know that the Gospel which was preached by me is not man’s Church Phone: 651-457-0854 gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the The Most Reverend Metropolitan JOSEPH, Archbishop of New York, B Church of God violently and tried to destroy it; and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my Metropolitan of all North America own age among my people; so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers. But when Right Reverend Bishop ANTHONY, Auxiliary Bishop He Who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through His grace, was pleased to Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest reveal His Son to me, in order that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with Right Reverend John Mangels, Pastor flesh and blood, nor did I go up to to those who were Apostles before me, but I went Reverend Father John Chagnon, attached Very Reverend Archpriest Paul Hodge, attached away into Arabia; and again I returned to Damascus. Reverend Deacon John Mikhail, attached Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days. But I saw none of the other Apostles except James the Lord’s brother. Very Reverend Archpriest Thomas Begley, retired Rt. Reverend Archimandrite Duane Pederson, retired Reverend Father Daniel Simon, retired GOSPEL: Pastor’s email: [email protected] Pastor’s Cell: 303-520-0981 Signing up for services: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0444A8AC23ABF85-stgeorge The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (8:26-39) t that time, Jesus arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee. And as Sunday, October 25, 2020 He stepped out on land, there met Him a man from the city who had demons; for a long time A he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but among the tombs. When he saw Jesus, Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost and Sixth Sunday of Luke he cried out and fell down before him, and said with a loud voice, “What hast Thou to do with me, Martyrs Marcian and Martyrios the Notaries Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beseech Thee, do not torment me.” For Jesus had commanded Tone 3 Eothinon 9 the unclean spirit to come out of the man. [For many a time it had seized him; he was kept under guard, and bound with chains and fetters, but he broke the bonds and was driven by the demon into Commemoration: Martyrs Valerios and Chrysaphios; Tabitha the merciful, raised from the dead by the the desert.] Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion”; for many demons apostle Peter; translation of Venerable Sabbas the Sanctified & Venerable John of Beverly had entered him. And they begged Jesus not to command them to depart into the abyss. Now a large herd of swine was feeding there on the hillside; and they begged Jesus to let them THE DIVINE LITURGY OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM enter these. So He gave them leave. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION IN TONE THREE When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and in the country. Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad, for the Lord hath done a mighty act with His own Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus, and found the man from arm. He hath trampled down death by death, and become the first-born from the dead. He hath whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind; and they were delivered us from the depths of Hades, granting the world the Great Mercy. afraid. And those who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gadarenes asked Jesus to depart from APOLYTIKION OF SS. MARCIAN AND MARTYRIOS IN TONE FOUR them; for they were seized with great fear; so He got into the boat and returned. The man from Thy Martyrs, O Lord, in their courageous contest for Thee, * received as the prize the crowns of whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with Jesus; but Jesus sent him away, saying, incorruption and life from Thee, our immortal God. * For since they possessed Thy strength, they “Return to your home, and declare all that God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming cast down the tyrants * and wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption. * O Christ throughout the whole city all that Jesus had done for him. God, by their prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful. HOLY BREAD Now sing the apolytikion of the patron saint Holy Bread is offered for the health and welfare of Willy, Pat, Ben, Amber, Ole, Mabel, Iler, Artie and Nate Percy, Dan and Ron Neimy and Sue Adams and their familes, all Covid 19 victims, their KONTAKION IN TONE TWO families and all St. George parishioners. O protection of Christians that cannot be put to shame, mediation unto the Creator most constant, O despise not the suppliant voices of those who have sinned; but be thou quick, O good one, to In loving memory of Peter and Rosa Neimy and Paul Mismash and all departed members of St. come unto our aid, who in faith cry unto thee: Hasten to intercession, and speed thou to make George Parish. supplication, thou who dost ever protect, O Theotokos, them that honor thee. MEMORIAL ere will be a memorial service for the repose of the souls of Peter (20yrs) and Rosa (9mos) EPISTLE: Neimy. May their memory be Eternal! BAKE SALE—OCTOBER 31 ELCOME to all our guests and visitors. We are delighted to have you visiting and We are doing very well on sales but we want to sell out! Please help us advertise by taking fliers worshipping with us this morning and hope that you return soon. We invite you to and distributing them as well as letting you friends know on FACEBOOK and social media. If you W participate in the Divine Liturgy, but, sadly, due to the divisions in Christianity, are able to help us by delivering the food to our curbside patrons on Saturday, October 31, please only baptized/chrismated members of the Orthodox Church who have made their let Mary Rudquist ([email protected] or 651-890-6817) know so she can get a schedule to- Confession before an Orthodox and prepared themselves by fasting may re- gether. Shop online now at http://mideastfest.com/shop/ and pick up on Oct. 31, 9am-6pm at St. ceive Holy Communion. Please come forward after Liturgy to venerate the Cross and George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in West St. Paul. All sales made and paid for partake of the Antidoron-Holy Bread. Please turn off your cell phones and all electronic online. We are committed to following all local COVID-19 safety guidelines. devices. All sales made and paid for online. We are committed to following all local COVID-19 safety guidelines. See and share fliers on the Candle Table.

ANNOUNCEMENTS THIS WEEK AT ST. GEORGE PRAY FOR THE SICK Please pray for Elizabeth Swanson, Lorraine Hartwig, Ethen Leff, Elizabeth Henry, Father John UPCOMING SERVICE Chagnon, Boulos Bitar, Mary Rudquist, James and Emily, Corrie Fox, Hanna Colliander, Lauretta • Saturday, October 31, Great Vespers at 5:00pm Villareal, Genevieve Lehnen, Jim Etoll, Mike Etoll, Dwight Johnson, George & Ellie Saba, Anna • Sunday, November 1, Orthros at 9:00am Windsor, Peter Hafiz, Fr. Duane, John and John Etoll, Wally, Maria, Allen, Nick, Jackson & Hunter • Sunday, November 1, Divine Liturgy at 10:00am Golden, Yasmin Kakish, Carol Haddad, Camille Goll, Kh. Vergin Khoury, Margaret Boalbey, Norm Holmes, Phyllis Hodge, Lamese McDowell, Edgard Siouffy, Berhane Haliemichael, Fr. Dan UPDATED ANNOUNCEMENT CONCERNING CHURCH SERVICES, ETC. & Eileen Simon, Joseph Kammeyer, Alexander Emmanoulakis, Marilyn Perry, Nancy Maker, Governor Waltz issued a new Emergency Executive Order regarding the use of face masks in Mike & Sandy Brown, Natalie Mozey, Sarah Vanlerberghe, Alan, Mary Poulsen, Mervat and Ab- Church. From now until we hear otherwise, Face Masks shall be used in Church. Please refer to igail Lotfalla & Samira Shehata. the Update, I sent out on Friday, July 24 for more information. As the Governor said, if someone If you are ill or having surgery and wish to be remembered in the Liturgy and daily prayers is not wearing a mask we must assume they have a reason and not make a scene and certainly not of the priest, please contact Fr. Mangels. shame people. is is the House of God. With the new directives from Metropolitan Joseph and the Emergency Executive Order 20- BULLETIN & NEWSLETTER ANNOUNCEMENT PROCEDURE 62 of Governor Waltz, we have been allowed to increase the number of people attending Divine ANY announcement in the weekly bulletin and Newsletter is subject to approval by Fr. Man- Services to 25% of capacity with people practicing social distancing. Please go online to gels/and the Council. It is important to notify Brigitte by e-mail ([email protected]) or https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0444A8AC23ABF85-stgeorge to sign up for the Services. phone with all your bulletin information by NOON Wednesday of the week before you offer the We have 50 slots available for each Service. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR TWO SUNDAYS Holy Bread in order to print the bulletin in a timely manner. Newsletter Deadline: 9/17/2020 IN A ROW. We must let people come back to the Church. Look on the signup sheet early on Sunday morning and if there is room, then you can sign up again. e Services continue to be HOLY BREAD LIST available via Livestreaming on YouTube thanks to the efforts of Heath Nelson, Mike Varian and Nov. 01, Tanya O’Brien James Baker! Nov. 08, Kakish Family ose who might be afraid to come back to Church in a larger setting can sign up to receive Nov. 15, Brown/Lukanen Families Holy Communion after all Services. We are able to have small gatherings at the Church as long as Nov. 20, (Entry of Blessed Virgin Mary into Temple) masks are used and social distancing is observed. We still do not have permission to use the Parish Nov. 22, Joan Alevizos Hall for Coffee Hours, etc. If you have any questions, concerns, or needs, please contact Father Nov. 29, John Mangels at 303-520-0981 or [email protected].

To schedule Holy Bread and/or memorial, contact Joan Alevizos (651-453-1894). It is completely MEMORY ETERNAL! proper to offer more than one memorial or Holy Bread on the same Sunday. When signing up for Early this past Friday morning, our dear brother in Christ Joe Etoll fell asleep in the Lord. God rest Holy Bread, please indicate “yes” or “no” if you will also be providing coffee hour. Coffee hour his soul! We express our deepest sympathy and condolences to Debbie, Mike, Nancy (Coco) and Due to the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, Coffee Hour has been suspended in the Parish Dyana and their family. We will have more information on the Funeral coming soon. Hall. BEGLEY BABY SHOWER OCTOBER: ORTHODOX SEMINARY MONTH Dear Ladies, you are invited to a virtual baby shower for Katrina. She is having her first child, a Traditionally, throughout the Month of October, we take a SECOND OFFERING for the support of the baby girl. See details at http://evite.me/uE6HTebEfu Orthodox Schools of Theology in this country where our future and leaders are trained. A letter will be read today from Metropolitan Joseph regarding this special offering. Thank you in AID TO THE PEOPLE OF BEIRUT advance for your kind support of our Seminaries! Please earmark your contribution “Seminaries” Following the tragic explosion in the city of Beirut, Antiochian Orthodox Christians from around so that it goes to the right place. We will continue the offering through November. the world are being asked to help with prayers and financial offerings. You can make an offering using this link provided by Metropolitan Joseph: https://antiochian.networkforgood.com/pro- 3. From your online bank account, schedule Bill Pay and a paper check will be written to the jects/106179-financial-aid-following- Beirut-explosion Thanks to all of you who have contributed church. to this worthy effort. 4. A paper check can be written and mailed to the church. 5. When you come to Church, the collection tray will not be passed. Please leave your offering CHURCH SCHOOL in the plate on the Candle Table before or after Services. A reminder with Zoom link will be emailed to families. See Christina Worrall if you have questions PROFOUND THANKS TO ALL OF YOU! or comments. Keep the faith!!! Please use the Church Sign Up Genius to let us know your children will be attending: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0444a8ac23abf85-stgeorge. ANTIOCHIAN WOMEN This is a beautiful snowy day to announce and congratulate our Antiochian Officers. The Antio- SCHOOL SUPPLY DRIVE chian Women Officers for the coming 2 years are Mervat Lotfalla as President, Rahwa Tesfe as Thank you to everyone who donated to this year’s School Supply Drive. We collected many items Vice President, Katherine Price as Treasurer, and Beverly Zaine as Secretary. We are excited to filling 5 shopping bags that were delivered to our neighborhood elementary school. They were very announce the Officers to you and wish them the very best. As you know a notice was in the Church appreciative of our donations! -Jennifer Buddensiek bulletin for a month asking for ladies 18 years and over who are eligible to serve as an Officer. The deadline was October 15th. Thank you to the Officers and all the ladies of St. George who serve ST GEORGE BOOKSTORE NEWS the Church in so many ways. We are so blessed at St. George Church. Your sister in Christ, Sue e Bookstore has a new look! Featured books from now till the end of November are Mother Perry Alexandra’s books on her life and e Holy Angels, which is the book the Ladies are featuring in Book Club, Round 3! The St. George Ladies will be hosting our final online book club featuring their book club. e store offers many new books and has been stocked for the upcoming holidays. “The Holy Angels” by Mother Alexandra on Thursday, November 19 at 7:00 p.m. We will cover the third section of the book, The Angels in the Christian Church. If you don’t already have It is no small struggle to be freed from pride. Such freedom is to be The Church Fathers Speak: the book, you can purchase one in our church bookstore. If you would like to sign up for this ses- obtained by the inner practice of the virtues and by more frequent prayer. The sign that you have sion, contact Lisa Hartwig at [email protected] or Cindy Karos at [email protected]. attained it is that you no longer harbor rancor against anybody who abuses or has abused you. St. Maximos the Confessor (+662) Wisdom from the Church Fathers: Silence greatly helps in the spiritual life. Practice it for at least a few minutes each day in order to test oneself, identify passions, and cut them off to purify the INTRO TO ORTHODOXY, PAN-ORTHODOX CATECHISM heart. Find a quiet room to pray and study in secret. Spiritual study greatly helps prayer by warming Our 12-week Fall 2020 catechism class on the basics of Eastern Orthodox Christianity will be on the soul and transporting the mind to the spiritual realm. Even as little as ten minutes for prayer and Tuesday evenings 7-9 pm. The course is open to all, especially inquirers, and those interested in two minutes for reading is very beneficial. St. Paisios the Athonite (+1994) converting to Orthodoxy. Classes will be held virtually via Zoom. If we move to in-person, classes will take place here at St. George. See link for schedule; register online FOCUS MN at https://forms.gle/JuYZfmJGMWEUPpfE6. Feel free to join us for individual classes without reg- Check out the FOCUS website focusmn.weebly.com or contact either Vera (651-324-2705) or istering. Judy (612-490-8611) to see what their needs are.

Think About It: What I see around me would drive me insane if I did not know that no matter what happens, God will have the last word. St. Paisios the Athonite (+1994) HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED If anyone, particularly our older or shut-in parishioners needs help with anything, please call either CHURCH SUPPORT DURING THIS TIME Fr. John or George/Brigitte Khoury. We have a number of parishioners who are willing to help ank you so much for your continued support of your parish during this time! We are very much with bringing food or supplies to you. It is important that we follow the guidelines that have been aware of what a hardship this crisis is putting on people throughout the country. If you are able, given us but in an emergency or time of need, don’t hesitate to call. please continue to financially support your Church during this time. Your weekly/monthly contri- bution can be mailed to the Church so that we can keep up with our commitments. Many, many MISCELLANEOUS thanks! If you order something for the church or have an order sent to the church instead of your home, e Parish Council has approved numerous ways to donate to St. George. please make arrangements to be there for delivery! 1. Venmo is a free secure app that can be downloaded and installed on a mobile phone. Donors that install the Venmo app can directly transfer money from their bank account to St. George's Wisdom from the Church Fathers: What is it that I love when I love you? Not the beauty of a body Old National Bank account with no fees incurred. However, if a credit card transaction is used or the comeliness of time. Nor the luster of the light pleasing to the eyes, nor the sweet melodies of by the donor, the donor will incur a 3% fee. Venmo your donation to @stgeorgeaoc. e all manner of songs, nor the fragrance of flowers, ointments and spices, not manna and honey, nor church is automatically emailed a notification of your donation. limbs welcome to the embrace of the flesh - I do not love these when I love my God. And yet there 2. From your online bank account, do an External Transfer directly to the church's Old National is a kind of light, a kind of voice, a kind of fragrance, a kind of food, a kind of embrace, when I Bank account. Info you will need: Routing Number 086300012 Account Num- love my God, who is the light, voice, fragrance, food, embrace of the inner man, where there shines ber 322042 Please send an email to [email protected] so that our Financial into the soul that which no place can contain, and there sounds forth that which time cannot end, Secretary can properly record your donation. where there is fragrance which no breeze disperses, taste which eating does not make less, and a clinging together which fulfillment does not terminate. It is this that I love when I love my God. St. Augustine of Hippo (+430) When we read a Gospel lesson like Luke 8:26-39 , the Gadarene Demoniac, we can easily get the impression that demons commonly haunt the earth and that demon possession is the most frequent problem confronting humanity. And that would be our impression if the only Scriptures we ever heard was the Sunday Gospel lessons of the Orthodox Church year. Yet if we study the Scriptures we note:

The word “demons” appears only 4 times in the entire Septuagint (Old Testament). How- ever it appears 35 times just in the 4 Gospels – but then only 6 times in the rest of the New Testament.

The word “demon” appears only in the book of Tobit in the Old Testament. It ap- pears 21 times in the 4 Gospels but nowhere else in the New Testament. The notion of being “possessed by demons” – occurs only in the New Testament – 4 times in the Gospels and once in Acts.

Demon possession is not mentioned in the entire Old Testament and in fact de- mons are almost never mentioned in the Old Testament. So, when we come to the Gospels and suddenly demons seem commonplace, we can ask: What happened? Why do demons suddenly abound?

One thing that does happen in Israel is the invasion of pagan deities. Following Alexander the Great’s conquering of Israel came the arrival of pagan Hellenism – Greek paganism which was the bane of Israel in the time of the Maccabees. Then the pagan Ro- man Empire conquered Israel. Pagan temples and pagan signs emerged everywhere in Israel. The Jewish people readily accommodated to this reality, even some accept- ing these gods/deities in their midst, but these gods were considered to be nothing more than demons by faithful Jews and early Christians. Demonic influence spread throughout Israel with the influence of pagan Greek and Roman culture. What we see in the Gospels reflects this concern – that people were being made sick by becoming accustomed to pagan religion, and making demonic ideas part of their daily existence. Demonic influence and demonic possession took over the region as the Jewish people adapted to their political and religious reality and then even adopted some of these pagan Greek ideas

In the Gospels, however, the demons themselves acknowledging the Lordship of Christ. These demons and the people they possess are telling Israel to return to and be faithful to the God of their ancestors. The people’s inability to recognize that The Lord is not just like one of the many gods was making them all mentally and spiritually ill. God was no longer the Lord of their lives, but rather they saw all gods as equal and thus all gods as demons. So they became possessed by demonic thinking. Jesus may have been very critical of Pharisaic Judaism and the religion of the temple priests, but He was not telling them paganism is a better alternative or a more acceptable alternative. Jesus came to rid the people of all false beliefs including wrong Jewish ideas as well as the pagan gods and demons.

Fr. Ted Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost and Sixth Sunday of Luke

October 25, 2020