Sunday of Orthodoxy at St. George!

Glory be to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!

As a parish, we’ve had a great start to the holy fast; I pray that you, as individuals and families has started well, also. Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint… so there’s still time to get on the right track!

We have a wonderful weekend on tap, but first, here’s what is going onfor the remainder of Clean Week:

• Tonight, Clean Wednesday (2/25)
  • 5:20PM 9th Hour and Typika
  • 6PM Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
  • 7:15ish Lenten Pot-Luck
  • 8PM(ish) Great Compline w/ the 3rd part of the Great Canon
    
• Clean Thursday/ Feast of St. Porphyrios of Gaza
  • 7PM Great Compline w/ 4th part of the Great Canon
    
• Clean Friday
  • NO Lenten Dinner this week
  • 7PM Small Compline with 1st part of the Akathist Hymn

This weekend, being the first weekend of the Fast, has a lot going on as usual. The Council of Orthodox Christian Churches on the Niagara Frontier (COCCNF) brings in a special speaker for the Sunday of Orthodoxy. The speaker also supplies us with a retreat on Saturday morning.

This year’s speaker is Deacon Seraphim (Richard) Rohlin, a deacon assigned to the OCA’s cathedral in Dallas. He is a software developer, data scientist, Germanic philologist, and prominent podcaster for Ancient Faith Ministries. His focus is on medieval literature, folklore, and the “sacramental imagination.” You may have seen or heard him with Jonathan Pageau or Fr. Andrew Damick. He has authored a book with Fr. Damick, The Wolf and the Cross: An Orthodox Pilgrim’s History of Lithuania. He and his wife are raising 6 children.

Here is the schedule for the weekend:

• SS Theodore Saturday
  • Lenten Retreat at Annunciations Parish’s “Family Life Center,” 5992 Genesee St., Lancaster
    • 10AM Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom
    • 11:30(ish) Lenten Breakfast
    • 12:15PM. Talk #1 : Word vs. Image: Why People Destroy Icons
      • The Sunday of Orthodoxy celebrates the “triumph” of Orthodoxy over all heresies that beset it during the first millennium of the Church, but in particular its triumph over Iconoclasm as the sum of all heresies. In the West, although there was no great iconoclastic movement before the Reformation, key differences in the way the role of images were understood has led to confusion about the role of images which still afflicts our pornographic-and-yet-iconoclastic culture to this day.
    • 1:15PM Break
    • 1:30PM Talk #2: Seeing the Face of God: Why we Make and Venerate Icons
      • Picking up where we left off in the previous lecture, Dcn. Seraphim will turn to the question of the Church’s practice of making and venerating icons. Is it truly apostolic? Is it really necessary as a dogma of the faith?
    • 3PM Great Vespers
      • NOTE: There will be NO Vespers at St. George this evening
        
• Sunday of Orthodoxy
  • 9AM Sunday Orthros
  • 10AM Divine Liturgy w/Procession of Icons
    • Homily by Dcn. Seraphim
    • NO Children’s sermon this week
  • Lenten Family Potluck
    
  • Sunday of Orthodoxy Pan-Orthodox Vespers
    • AT St. Mary’s Carpatho-Rusyn Orthodox Church, 940 Losson Rd., Cheektowaga
    • 5PM Sunday Night Lenten Vespers w/ Procession of Icons
    • 6PM Food, Fellowship & Keynote Address by Dcn. Seraphim:
      • The Dove of Heaven and the Raven of the North: Two Celtic Saint Stories

May it be blessed!