The Forerunner

weekly bulletin of St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church Orthodox Church in America (OCA) – Archdiocese of Pittsburgh His Eminence, Most Rev. Melchisedek 601 Boone Avenue, Canonsburg, PA 15317 724-745-8216 – www.frunner.org – www.facebook.com/frunneroca/ Preaching the Gospel of Christ to Canonsburg, the Chartiers Valley, Washington, and Beyond! May 9th, AD 2021 CHRIST IS RISEN! KHRISTOS VOSKRESE! CHRISTOS ANESTI! The Sunday after Pascha - Antipascha: St. Thomas Sunday

Home Parish of the Ever-Memorable Met. Theodosius, (+10/19) May his memory be eternal! Вѣчная память! Rector, Fr. John Joseph Kotalik 425-503-2891 – [email protected] Attached Clergy: Protodeacon John Oleynik, 724-366-0678 Deacon Theodosius Onest, 724-809-3491 Parish President & Warden, Mr. Kiprian Yarosh, 724-743-0231 Interim Choir Director, Mrs. Diane Yarosh; Cantor, Lara Galis

The Orthodox Church humbly claims to be the One Church of Jesus Christ, founded on the Apostolic Witness to our Lord, born on the day of , and for 2,000 years making known to men, women, and children the path to salvation through repentance and faith in Christ.

All Services are Live-Streamed Online on our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/StJohntheBaptistOrthodoxChurchCanonsburg/live Upcoming Schedule

May 9, Sunday – Live-Stream Only: -Noon, Blessing of Graves @ Parish Cemetery & Oak Spring Cemetery (will be postponed to June 6th if weather does not permit) May 11, Tuesday (Radonitsa – the Day of Rejoicing) – Live-Stream Only: -6:30 PM, General Pannikhida (Memorial Service) for the Month of May May 12, Wednesday – Live-Stream Only: -6:30 PM, Moleben in Time of Pestilence, followed by Confession May 15, Saturday: -NO – FR. JOHN & WVU FOR BROTHER-IN-LAW’S GRADUATION May 16, Sunday: -9:30 AM, -1130 AM, Memorial for Jeffry Backner (delayed because of & Pascha) May 17, Monday: -FR. JOHN ON PILGRIMAGE TO ST. GREGORY PALAMAS MONASTERY, PERRYSVILLE, OH May 20, Thursday: FR. JOHN RETURNING FROM PILGRIMAGE -7:30 PM, Parish Council Meeting May 22, Saturday: -NO VESPERS – FR. JOHN @ STATE COLLEGE FOR YODER/BOOTH WEDDING May 23, Sunday: -9:30 AM, Divine Liturgy w/ Fr. Bob Prepelka -FR. JOHN & MAT. JANINE RETURNING FROM WEDDING (PM OR MONDAY AM) May 25, Tuesday: -6:30 PM, Vespers, followed by Confession May 26, Wednesday (Midfeast of Pentecost): -9:00 AM, Divine Liturgy -6:30 PM, Moleben in Time of Pestilence, followed by Confession May 29, Saturday: -6:00 PM, Vespers, followed by Confession May 30, Sunday: -9:30 AM, Divine Liturgy followed by Pannikhida for Veterans @ Memorial Bell Parish Life Amid Coronavirus – EFFECTIVE 5/3 • All services are open to all parishioners and visitors. • Masks must be worn at all times except for when receiving Holy Communion. Serving clergy will remain maskless, but will put on masks whenever possible. • On Sunday mornings, if needed, ushers will help assist you in finding a seat,. We will continue to maintain social distancing of 3 feet between families. • If you would like to volunteer to be an usher, please contact Mat. Myra Oleynik: [email protected]. • For other services, we ask that you practice social distancing. Please maintain the new diocesan guideline of 3 feet between families. • If you would like to get on the singing rotation, please contact Joseph Helinski: [email protected]. The choir is being split into two groups. • For those uncomfortable coming to church, remember that all services continue to be live-streamed, confessions can be heard over the phone, and Communion can be offered by appointment. Visitors are always welcome upstairs; please invite them!

Communion Appointments For those uncomfortable coming to Church amid the Coronavirus pandemic, Fr. John is able to offer the Reserved Sacrament for the Sick. Please contact Fr. John to make an appointment, with mornings preferred. Fr. John can come your house, but if you are comfortable coming to the church this is greatly preferred. Parish Stewardship We thank our dedicated parishioners for their continued donations in this trying time; the parish still has bills and it is only by our sacrificial offerings that we can continue to meet our financial responsibilities. If unable or uncomfortable coming to church, please mail your donation. Additionally, you can now give online: go to tithe.ly and search for St. John Orthodox Church – Canonsburg. St. Thomas Sunday Special Collection – Moved to 5/16 We will be having a special collection on Sunday, May 9 May 16 to benefit our parish cemetery in Strabane. Donations may be made through Tithe.ly or an envelope available in the narthex. Fundability Our parish scrip program – Fundability – is still taking orders. Please call or text Wendy Petronka at 724-255-5046 or email her at [email protected] in order to place your order and to arrange to get your gift cards. One of our dedicated Fundability helpers will be available after our weekend Liturgies too! Food Drive Chronic hunger is always a problem in the United States and Washington County, but the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic have made the issue worse. Even before the pandemic, Washington County had a food insecurity rate of over 10% and now, with the unemployment rate of 12.8% (an 8.3% increase from last year and above the national average of 7.4%); that rate is rising, so the Outreach Committee is hosting an on-going food drive to support our community. Please consider purchasing one or two non- perishable food items when you shop. You can drop off the items in the narthex the next time you are in church, and Committee members will deliver it to area food banks. If you’d like to contribute in other ways, baby supplies (diapers, wipes, & formula) and toiletries are also needed. Any financial donations are welcome too! If you have questions, please contact Julianna Cario: 724-263-1046. Lenten Soup Outreach The Outreach Committee is hosting a soup outreach for Great , stemming from the idea of the quiet companionship of having soup after Presanctified Liturgy. We will have soup for sale with a “Take one. Give one.” message to encourage people who have never been to our church (or haven’t been in a while) to come to services. To begin, we’re asking for volunteers to sign up to make 10 quarts of soup by Sunday, March 14. The committee will provide to-go containers and labels. Please sign up in the narthex! Reading the Hours With Rd. Michael Galis’ coming baby, we’ll soon need some help in reading the Hours before Divine Liturgy, which also gives us the opportunity to take another step back towards “normal”. The Hours begin at 9:10, and help us to enter into prayer before the Divine Liturgy, as well as to help the faithful to enter into a space of prayer when they are arriving to church. If you would like to get on this schedule – whether you have read in the past or would like to start reading for the first time – please email Fr. John. St. Thomas Sunday Grave Blessing – Moved to 6/6 Due to the solemnity of our Lord’s Passion and the intense focus on the joy of Christ’s Resurrection during , all services for the departed are forbidden from Matins of Holy Thursday (on evening) until after Sunday evening Vespers on St. Thomas Sunday: this includes all Pannikhida and Parastas services, with the singular exception of funerals, which obviously cannot be postponed. Likewise, weddings – forbidden since Meatfare Sunday – can resume after St. Thomas Sunday. However, since the earliest days of the Church (spoken about in St. ’s homily for the day, c. AD 400), we have waited until the Tuesday after St. Thomas Sunday to bring the good news of the Resurrection to the Dead. This is because Monday is a fast day for monks and nuns (not just Wednesdays and Fridays as with laypeople), and so the entire Church waits so that so we might all proclaim ‘Christ is risen!’ to the dead as with one triumphant voice throughout the world. In particular, the Russian Church celebrates this Tuesday after St. Thomas Sunday with great joy, as various pagan Slavic customs for the start of spring were baptized and incorporated into the day’s celebration. Accordingly, it was given the name ‘Rádonitsa’: Day of Rejoicing. In addition to blessing the graves, the faithful would hold feasts among the tombstones, children would laugh and play, and the leftovers from the Paschal feast the week before would be placed on the graves of the dead. However, given the difficulties of the modern world, it is the long-standing custom of most parishes in America to transfer our celebration of the Resurrection among the dead to St. Thomas Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy, as most people no longer have the ability to follow the ancient tradition due to work responsibilities during the week. Despite this, many parishes across the OCA have begun to have daytime picnics in their parish cemeteries/sections as a way of keeping – or restoring – the ancient custom. If this is something anyone would like to do in future years, please let Fr. John know!

Did You Know Radonitsa is Also Russian ‘In-Laws Day’? As weddings are forbidden from Meatfare Sunday until St. Thomas Sunday, this week is historically filled with the countless weddings of those waiting to be wed since before Lent. In many places, Radonitsa was very much the day of weddings in particular, with families going to the church to celebrate these weddings after having borne of the joy of the Resurrection to the dead. In medieval Russia, Radonitsa – and Thomas Week more broadly – was thus seen as THE day/season for weddings. Because of this, Russians would remember their own weddings on this day (even if wed at another time of the year) with an interesting custom: they would give gifts to their in-laws! This was to thank one’s in-laws – one’s God-given family! – for the priceless gift which one received from them on one’s own wedding day: a wonderful and goodly spouse! While this custom disappeared among the Russian-American immigrants along with the other traditional Radonitsa celebrations, and among those in Russia due to Bolshevism, we can at least take the opportunity to offer some much-needed thanks to our in-laws for having given us our wonderful husband/wife!

Memory Eternal! – Вѣчная память! – Věčnaja pamjat! Newly Departed (Parishioners in Bold): Apr. Antonio Perdomo (4/1) Rose Lazorchak (4/2) Apr. Nilus Lerro (4/28) Anniversaries of the Departed: Philip Pastrick (5/3/1994) Vasily Reshvisky (5/4/1922) Henry Pirih (5/4/2010) Peter Borsos (5/5/1970) George Puskarich (5/6/1986) Theodore Lisenko (5/7/1925) Wasil Lasobek (5/7/1960) Andrew Skirchak (5/7/1968) Henry Pirih (5/7/1999) Daria Ermakoff (5/9/1963) John Taper (5/9/1972) Helen Bobble (5/9/1993) Apr. Paul Lazor (5/9/2020) Frank Maddox (5/9/2020) Vasily Kharasty (5/11/1946) Mary Popovich (5/11/1985) John Paul Kirr (5/12/1948) Andrew Mokricky (5/12/1968) William “Chip” Lazorchak (5/12/2009) Helen Koman (5/14/2004) Anna Koppy (5/14/2004) Michael Gontz (5/14/2010) Many Years! – Многая лѣта! – Mnohaja i blahaja lěta! Namedays: John Nicholas Oleynik (5/8) Rd. John Thompson (5/8) Christopher Petronka (5/9) Christopher Weber (5/9) Simon Killmeyer (5/10) Taisa Zupancic (5/10) Birthdays: John Nicholas Oleynik (5/3) Taisa Zupancic (5/4) Don Marsico (5/9) Eva Chupinsky (5/14) Anna Marie Spetek (5/14) Brandon Mayberry (5/15) David Alpaugh (5/15) Layla Killmeyer (5/16) Anniversaries: Sdn. Thomas & Cynthia Havrilak (5/5/1985) Richard & Sonia Blaha (5/15/1988) We pray for the health and salvation of: All those suffering from the Alfred (Davis) Anita (Prince) Coronavirus Matthew (Emerson) Gabor (Prince) Abp. Benjamin (Peterson) Seth (Farley) Anastasia (Rudolph) Igumen Patrick (Carpenter) Todd (Geer) Carol (Russo) Apr. George & Chelsea (Geer) Gregory (Sakovich) Pres. Dianthe (Livanos) Harry (Horosky) Suzie (Soloviev) Apr. John (Reeves) Janet (Horosky) Meretta (Stockman) Apr. Michael (Hatrak) Gregory (Kachmarsky) Carol (Sweda) Apr. Joseph (Lucas) Robert (Kalakewich) Luis (Thompson) Dn. Theodosius (Onest) Denise (Kalakewich) Richard & Joan (Trombetta) Mat. Elizabeth (Frase) Layla (Killmeyer) Jayme (Verslype) Mat. Natasha (Lazor) Mark (Korabelnikov) Mary Kay (Weber) Mat. Kelly Elizabeth (Oleynik) Tamara (Lawrence) Christopher (Wright) Mat. Alexandra (Safchuk) Shirley (Lazorchak) Diane (Yarosh) Mat. Susanne (Senyo) Janice (Lenart) Joseph & Mary Ann Diane (Arcoletti) Donald (Marsico) (Zupancic) John “Jack” (Boschuk) Jeremiah & Kseniia (Martin) Rd. Michael, Ilariana, and the Gregory & Gwen (Bushko) Albert (Maruskin) child to be born of her Elijah, Daniel, Joseph, & Brandon (Mayberry) (Galis) Thomas (Cario) Gregg (Nescott) Jonathan & Courtney, and the Judy Anne (Carpenter) Peter (Petronka) child to be born of her Eva (Chupinsky) Mary (Pirih) (Stadelman)