volume 23 issue 2 a publication of st. andrew orthodox
TRANSCRIPT
V. Rev. Josiah Trenham, Pastor Church Phone (951) 369-0309 ● Fax (951) 369-6609
For information and schedule of services, go to www.Saintandrew.net
To submit articles contact Lucy Hanna, editor, at [email protected] or Martha Metroka, field reporter, at [email protected]
Volume 23 Issue 2 February 2014
A Publication of St. Andrew Orthodox Church 4700 Canyon Crest Drive, Riverside, California 92507
Dear St. Andrew Parishioners
The Lord’s blessing be upon you.
The first month of the year has already passed us. As I
think of the remaining months in 2014 it is my sincere
wish that this year finds each of our people in greater
spiritual health. What is a standard by which to judge
the health of a parish as a whole? How can we know if
a parish is healthy before the Lord's eyes? In the past
our Archbishop JOSEPH has spoken to us about being
a healthy parish. What do we mean by this?
One of the ways we can know that a parish is healthy
is that a healthy parish keeps the feasts of the Church.
The Great Feasts of the Church Year are an expression
of the Lord God's own priorities for us. Each of us has
many goals and aspirations for the year 2014. The
Lord God also has goals and aspirations for us. The
Almighty has priorities for us, and these priorities are
to join Him in the company of the saints and angels in
celebrating His mighty acts and wondrous works as
expressed in the Great Feasts of the Church.
You have heard me say that whenever one of our parishioners is considering moving away I tell them to make sure
that they only move where there is a healthy parish community. Invariably they ask, "How will I know Father?" I
also answer by saying, "Look at their parish calendar." If a parish keeps the feasts, and does not ignore the Lord's
sacred summons into His presence on Theophany, Ascension, Transfiguration, etc. then we have a good indication
that this is a praying people, and a people concerned with fulfilling the Lord's priorities. If a parish only gathers on
Sundays this is a very bad sign. We are not a Sunday only folk as certain anti-church calendar Christians are. The
people of God have never been a Sunday only folk. In the Old Covenant our forebears worshipped every Sabbath
day in the synagogue, AND celebrated the Great Feasts of the Old Covenant: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles,
Hanukah, Purim, etc. We Christians of God's New Covenant do the same- we gather on each Lord's Day (Sunday)
and we gather to celebrate the Great Feasts of our salvation that fall on days other than Sundays.
This is the sacred rhythm. This is the way to be an evangelized and evangelizing people. Attached in this newsletter
is a copy of the Great Feasts for 2014! I encourage all of you to be healthy! Take the feasts and note them down in
your planner and let us keep the feasts!
I send you my love with this message
Fr Josiah
Page 2 Volume 23 Issue 2
Part 6 of 7 Read through the Bible in a year...
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Page 3 Volume 23 Issue 2
The Church is a theandric organization: divine because
she is the living body of Christ and human because she
is a particular human society. As a human hierarchical
organization, she is tied to the mystery of the
priesthood and the synod of bishops. The head of the
Church is Jesus Christ, the God-Man and her visible
head in the local church is the bishop, the image of
Christ locally.
The bishop is a
spiritual father and
shepherd, on the
model of Jesus
Christ, "the Good
Shepherd." He
shepherds his flock
"rightly dividing the
word of truth." Next to the bishop, there is the priest
and the deacon. The priest performs the mysteries such
as the divine liturgy and the mystery of baptism, except
for the mystery of chiertonia (ordination to the clergy).
The priest is a spiritual father and pastor for his parish.
As spiritual father he administers the mystery of
repentance and confession.
The deacon helps the bishop or the
priest in performing the mysteries and
in performing social work.
The priest, according to Saint John
Chrysostom, enjoys a service that
surpasses the service of the holy angels. This comes,
not from the priest's personal worthiness, but from the
divine grace that "in all times heals the sick and
perfects the lacking." Thus the Church becomes a
hospital where the Gospel of the Kingdom is
announced and where the bishop (or priest) pastors the
people of God as a spiritual guide and physician of
souls by means of the mystery of repentance and
confession and psychological and spiritual guidance.
It must be mentioned that the Church, in human terms,
is not made up of the clergy (the bishops, priests and
deacons) only, but also of the lay faithful. All of them
constitute the people of God, the communion of Jesus
Christ, the God-Man. According to St Dionysius the
Areopagite, the deacon is required to be free of
passions, the priest enlightened, and
the bishop united to God as "a saint."
This is true, but in practice we are all sinners struggling
through repentance for the salvation of our souls.
Hence we seek inspiration from the following
observations: that the clergy without exception remain
weak and sinful humans who themselves are also
struggling for the salvation of their souls. However,
they must, as much as possible, be a model for other
people and far from significant, scandalous sins. Thus
Saint Gregory the Theologian said that their work is
pedagogical in guiding souls to salvation.
From all this we understand that the
priest's work is not limited to
performing the mysteries (the
liturgy, baptism, marriage,
funerals...) in a routine manner, but
rather it also includes, as we
mentioned, teaching, guiding and
pastoring souls. He is not an
employee
but rather
a pastor
and father.
As we said above, this comes from the divine grace that
they receive at the time of the laying-on of hands. Last
but not least, the Church teaches in all wisdom that the
holy mysteries (such as the Eucharist) are active in the
faithful by virtue of the grace of priestly service, and
not by virtue of the purity of his soul and his general
behavior.
Met. Ephrem Kyriakos (Archdiocese of Tripoli, Lebanon) on the Priesthood
The Mystery of the Priesthood
Volume 23 Issue 2
THE ANTIOCHIAN WOMEN OF NORTH AMERICA:
Who are they? And what is their Focus and Purpose? By Lucy Hanna
Celebrating 40 years of Service
Page 4
The Answer to the first question is simple: Every Orthodox
woman, 18 years or older, who is a member of a parish of
the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North
America is an Antiochian Woman, regardless of ethnic
origin or ancestry and whether your parish has an
organized chapter or not.
The answer to the second question, while also simple, may
be a bit more lengthy. Women have a natural capacity to
love and nurture. This is what His Eminence Metropolitan
PHILIP capitalized on when he founded the National
Organization of Antiochian Women in 1973. Then, to help
us in our ministries he formed a committee to establish a
focus and a purpose for our organization as a roadmap to
guide us in a spirit of Christian leadership, awareness and
commitment, fostering love through charitable acts and
creating a sense of fellowship and understanding of our
heritage and traditions.
It has been said that the women are the backbone of all the
parishes throughout the Archdiocese. Besides teaching
Sunday School, singing in the choir, serving on the parish
council, running church bookstores, cleaning, cooking and
baking the Prosphora, they still have time to do charitable
and humanitarian work within their parishes, in their
communities and even for national and international
charities. One of the main purposes of having a national
organization is to guide women across the Archdiocese
focus on deserving charities. To accomplish this, we have
a North American Board who, with the guidance of the
Metropolitan, the overseeing Hierarch and the Spiritual
Advisor, investigate and find these deserving charities.
Then, in order to pass along the information, we have
counterparts on the diocesan level, who in turn pass along
the information to the parishes. It is therefore very
important to have women representatives from every parish
who are responsible to receive and distribute this
information. These would be the chapter board or officers.
Other materials trickled down from the NAB to the
chapters through the diocesan boards are the Religious
programs (the “Read the Bible in a Year” and the “Lives of
Women Saints” programs are two such past examples), the
DIAKONIA newsletter, humanitarian projects,
membership programs, etc. are others.
Some parishes feel that they don’t need an elected board to
do their charitable work. Of course, they don’t, but to
make matters more orderly, it is important for the diocesan
board to know who is to receive the information, in most
cases it is the “President”. It is important to have someone
in charge of the money collected from the fundraising
events for the charities. This would be the “Treasurer”
who will then send the money to the diocesan treasurer,
who in turn will send it to the NAB treasurer. The NAB
treasurer then writes a check for the total amounts received
from all dioceses to the Archdiocese for the Metropolitan
to oversee the distribution to the charities. To keep record
of all the decisions and plans, it is important to have
someone take notes. That would be the secretary. It is not
“titles” we are seeking, but rather an orderly process.
Among the many charitable acts of the Antiochian Women
are those that help our own women such as the annual
scholarships offered to women 25 years or older who are
members of the Antiochian Archdiocese and who need to
return to school to further their education. Others include
our annual projects, which are worthy causes for which we
have raised over 3 million dollars since 1975. These
projects are too many to list and they include Pastoral
Education, Balamand Seminary and University, Missions,
Orthodox Media, Seminarians, Antiochian Village,
Patriarchal Charities, St. George Hospital in Beirut,
International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC),
Orphanages, and Retired Clergy Housing, Children with
Special Needs, Convent of St. Thekla, Tornado Relief
Fund, and now our current project is “Helping the
Orphans of War in Syria”.
So, who are the Antiochian Women? They are all these
women who sacrificially give of their time, talent and
means to help the less fortunate. They are the women who
strive to emulate our Most Holy Mother, the Theotokos,
and all the Saints in doing charitable works. They are every
woman in the more than 300 parishes in our Archdiocese.
In our parish of St. Andrew, our Antiochian Women have
chosen the “Myrrhbearers” as their patron saints and thus
we call ourselves the Myrrhbearers of St. Andrew.
Once a year we hold a fund raiser for the Annual Project.
This year, as mentioned above, the project is “Helping the
Orphans of War in Syria”. We hold this fundraiser on
Palm Sunday by having a Fish Fry. The men of St. Andrew
help with the frying and all of you help by contributing to
the fund while enjoying a delicious fish meal. Please plan
on attending and supporting this worthwhile project on
Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014.
Through the prayers of our Mother the Most Holy
Theotokos, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us
and save us. Amen.
Page 5 Volume 23 Issue 2
West Coast Walk for Life, a huge success...
ST. ANDREW COMMUNITY NEWS...
Feast of the Presentation of our Lord into the Temple...
Thank you to “Team St. Andrew” who
represented us at the West Coast Walk
for Life in San Francisco on Saturday,
January 25th.
They joined the tens of thousands of
demonstrators who gathered at the Civic
Center Plaza in San Francisco, CA, for
the 10 annual West Coast anti-abortion
march and rally.
Notice their shirts which read “Keep
Calm and be a Mom”. We are proud of
you and wish we could have joined you.
The little (and big) boys of St. Andrew gathered at the Solea on Sunday, February 2nd, to receive a blessing
on the occasion of the entry of our Lord and a little child into the temple.
Page 6 Volume 23 Issue 2
Congressman Mark Takano visits St. Andrew...
New Babies born to St. Andrew Parishioners! God grant them many years!
Memory Eternal...
The community of St. Andrew was shocked at the loss of one of its beloved
members. Our sister in Christ, Sandra (Mary) Hensley, fell asleep in the
Lord on January 15 while recuperating from open-heart surgery at Kaiser
Ontario Hospital.
Sandra is the mother of Michael and Matthew Hensley, mother-in-law of
Amaly and Tammy Hensley and grandmother of Noah, Nicholas and
Joseph Hensley, all from St. Andrew as well. She is also the aunt of our
Rdr. Andrew Thomazin. May her memory be eternal and may God comfort
her husband Don and all the family.
Congratulations to Rdr.
Jeremy and Katherine
Phillips on the birth of their
son on February 5, 2014.
The little prince made his
entrance into the world
weighing 7 lbs., 8 oz., and
measuring 20” long.
Congratulations to Nicholaus
and Lisa Mueller on the birth
of their daughter on January
31, 2014. Following in her big
sister’s footsteps, the little
fashionista emerged weighing
7 lbs., 7 oz..
Congratulations to the Mayo family on the birth
of their daughter Karina Josephine on December
28, 2013. Baby Karina weighed 8 lb., 8 oz. at
birth and measured 21”. Her godmother will be
Olena Colosimo who is soon to be a member of
St. Andrew Church. No picture available at
time of printing.
On Sunday, January 19, St. Andrew hosted Congressman
Takano for lunch following the Divine Liturgy. During the
lunch, he addressed the congregation in the Fellowship hall
after which the parishioners had an opportunity to meet and
interact with their parish’s congressional representative.
Page 7 Volume 23 Issue 2
Special Orthodox Symposium at St. Andrew in Two Weeks...
Dear and Faithful Parishioners
Blessings!
Last year, we held our first Orthodox symposium at Saint Andrew, where our featured speaker was
Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia and our theme focused on prayer. Many of you came and enjoyed
our first experience of having a Ss. Cyril and Athanasius Institute Symposium here at our parish. I am hoping
that all of you will want to partake of this wonderful opportunity this year.
Our Riverside symposium for 2014 is now only two weeks away (22-23 February 2014), on an incredibly
important topic for our day: the suffering witness of Orthodoxy in the twenty-first century, and the role of the
Holy Martyrs in preparing Orthodox Christians of today for the struggles to face us in the coming generations.
We have, as last year, a wonderful line-up of speakers arranged for this two-day symposium, featuring
Hieromonk Calinic (Berger) of the Romanian Episcopate; Archimandrite Nathaniel (Symeonides) of the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America; Archpriest Lawrence Russell of the Orthodox Church in
America; and Hieromonk James (Corazza) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia — all of whom
will be examining the fierce struggles facing Christians in this new millennium, and the way that the martyric
voices of the Church urge Orthodox Christians on towards a deeper, more joyful and spiritual Life in Christ.
As in previous years, all registrations are handled through the Institute's web site, through a process that can
be handled in only a few minutes — and by registering on-line now you'll still receive a 20% discount off the
door price!
As there are only two weeks to go, I'd like to encourage you to register as quickly as possible so that we can
make appropriate arrangements for the number of people in attendance. You can register at
www.sforthodoxinstitute.org/feb2014
I also have the very good news of informing you that our father in God,
His Eminence, Archbishop Joseph, will be here on Saturday morning
Feb. 22nd to open the conference with his blessing and prayer, and to
deliver a short presentation on the present martyric trials of our much-
suffering Patriarchate of Antioch and All-the-East.
I look forward to seeing a great many of you at the symposium!
With love,
Father Josiah
Symposium Speakers:
Symposium Topic: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
They are our past, they speak to our
present. How shall the witness of the
Martyrs speak to the future of every
Orthodox Christian?