Month: May 2022

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ is Risen!

Truly He is Risen!

Last Sunday, following the Divine Liturgy (and a wonderful lunch sponsored by amazing Russian and Ukranian members of parish family), we held our Spring Parish Assembly. Among other business, we shared the latest details on our building project. When I see you tomorrow morning for Sunday Divine Liturgy, we you will notice, even from now, significant progress.

I would like to share with you, the prayer I lifted up on behalf of our community, to begin the blessed process of transforming our massive space into sacred space.
Please, don’t just read the following words, pray them. Lift them up in your voice. Please speak to God through your heart. 

As of Monday, the mess began. And so does the fun, excitement and anticipation. By God’s grace, I offer this for your consideration…

Let us Pray to the Lord.

Lord Have Mercy.

O God Almighty, Who made the Heavens with wisdom and has established the earth upon its sure foundations, the Creator and Author of all men, look upon these Your servants, the parishioners of your St. Anna Church, dedicated to the ministry, witness and eternal memory of Your maternal grandmother. Grant these Your children to whom it has seemed good to build up a house of worship, in the dominion of Your Power, and to rear it by building; establish it upon a stable rock, and found it according to Your divine word in the Gospel, so that neither wind, nor flood, nor any other thing shall be able to harm it; graciously grant that we may bring it to completion, and deliver all us who shall wish to worship therein from every attack of the evil one.

You, O Lord, gave your instructions to build the Ark of the Covenant to house the tablets of Your Commandments.

You, O Lord, before the coming of the flood waters, gave your instructions to build the Ark of Noah, thus preserving life on Earth, awaiting Your redemption and mercy,

You, O Lord, gave the instructions upon which Your Temple was built in Jerusalem, so that your people would know You, Find You and worship You.

You, O Lord are the architect of life, the creator of existence, the designer of this word, the heavens and all that exists.

You are the builder of the Church. For You, O Lord, are the Church.

Lord God, bless our efforts as we begin the task of transforming the building, which in Your wisdom, and through the clear intercessions of St. Anna, has been received by your people.

Bless the hands of the craftsmen who are charged with the transformation of a Garden Center, to the Center of Your Garden. Allow us to find here, Your Kingdom. Allow us to walk through Your Garden Gates to find comfort, peace, refreshment, respite, clarity and grace.

Lord, keep the construction workers and all who will enter herein for the following many months, safe from and harm or injury.

Lord, please continue to inspire in us a spirit of sacrifice, generosity, and vision. Allow us to see to the end, a house dedicated to you: a dignified space of Orthodox worship. A place for fellowship and learning. A place for gathering as a Christian people of service and outreach.

Lord, let this transformed place, with bells tolling, and voices singing, be a source of witness to the greater community. Let the people see a transfigured space and divinely purposed grounds, that your face may shine upon them. Let them be introduced to You through the efforts we are about to undertake. 

Lord Christ our God, You have guided us to this place. Inspire and strengthen us. Grant us patience and understanding in the coming months as our spiritual lives will no doubt be inconvenienced and disrupted at times. Let the challenges of each passing day not cause us frustration or resentment, but rather show us the greater and ultimate purpose that will be revealed in the end.

Lord, never let our spirit of gratitude ebb or fade. We are grateful for all of the abundant gifts that You have showered down upon us. Keep us mindful that You are the one and only reason we have embarked on such an ambitious journey.

Lord, allow us to enjoy every milestone, point of progression and completed task in our church construction project. Every new wall, stone, door, tile and hinge will be placed to bring You glory.

Lord. We ask of You. Bless the beginning steps of this effort.

For Yours is the dominion, and Yours is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory, of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, both now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

Christ is Risen From the Dead, Trampling Down Death by Death, and upon Those in the Tombs He is Bestowing Life. Truly the Lord is Risen!

With Much Love and Gratitude in our Risen Lord,

Fr. Anthony Savas
Protopresbyter

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

I hope, pray and trust that these days of the Resurrection bring you joy, hope and inspiration. We are heading into the summer with much anticipation, many changes to our physical campus, and a continued sense of urgency to keep us gathered together as a family in Christ. We are one family in Christ.

A couple months ago, we started to notice an increase in church attendance and ministry activities. This is a great blessing.  Seeing faces from a pandemic ago as Holy Week and Pascha emerged made us all feel very happy. What can make us feel better as a faith community, than rekindled relationships?  We’ve also been blessed to meet many new visitors, inquirers and families who have recently moved into the area.

But I want to make something very clear and publicly known that neither myself nor our parish council take a single family or individual for granted. Our St. Anna parish is barely eight years old. Even in these few years, people have come and gone, attended and moved, bought in, bowed out. Especially as we headed into the pandemic. This reality was certainly not unique to our parish. No matter your industry, institution, enterprise, or otherwise, disbursement, displacement and disappearance has been a harsh reality. 

As a pastor, my vocation and life’s work is relationships. I try to foster stronger ones, strive to mend broken ones, and hope to create new ones. That is, relationships between you and me, you and each other, and absolutely, positively, most-importantly, between all of us and God. During the rest of the Spring and into the Summer, you will really see how serious I and your parish council are about the good health of our relationships. 

Parish Council President, Steve Simos and I have identified several, distinct ministry and demographic groups within our St. Anna parish. Working with our parish council, we are going to be planning and hosting several open houses with these individual groups. That way, we can listen to the exact reasons we may have drifted these last couple years. We can learn what to do better as a parish, irregardless of pandemic-related issues. We want active feedback and hope for a strong and shared commitment to the spiritual well being of our community. We can all work together with a shared vision for our immediate and long-range future.

Much investment in time and resources are being dedicated to just that – our future, with the build out of our sanctuary and facilities. The exterior of the church will soon be unmistakably recognizable as an Orthodox Christian church.

Again, will it look like a post card from the Greek Islands? No.

Will it have whitewashed walls and a blue dome? No.

Will it convey traditional and defined characteristics of a Greek Orthodox house of worship? Absolutely!

And of course, that’s just the outside. Inside the sanctuary itself, there will be no question about the sacred atmosphere of which we are accustomed. 

Just like our building is transforming somewhat on the outside, but especially on the inside, this is what must take place within each one of us, as well. Every individual person and family, lay people and clergy, young and old, cradle Orthodox and adult converts, must be inspired to grow, expand and change. All of us!

Just like the physical structure of our church, the spiritual structure of our parish must be transfigured as well – ministries, classes, gatherings, parish communications, outreach, individual witness and worship – they all need sharpening in delivery and in participation. What a blessed opportunity for us to press upward and forward.
I hope to mirror our spiritual transformation with our physical transformation. Otherwise, what would be the point of repurposing our building in the first place?

Doing all of this just off a disruption of coronavirus’ magnitude is, what I believe, perfectly timed. We’re going to make lemonade out of a two-year lemon!

Even though the actual Feast of Pascha has come and gone, we are still very much in the days of the Resurrection. We find warmth in the glow which continues to radiate from Christ’s empty tomb. In the life of the Church, these are the happiest, most joy-filled days. Let Pascha, the Feast of Renewal, the Feast of Restoration, the Feast of Transformation come alive in the change of our building and the change in our hearts. Let the expansion of our building parallel the expansion of our horizons. Let the beautification of our space make our souls, once again, white as snow.

Dear and lovely people of our St. Anna family. Congratulations on all you’ve accomplished. God bless you for your vision and focus. Let me, once again thank you for your unyielding commitment and sustained generosity.

When you are called upon to participate in your Open House(s), please don’t hesitate or hold back. Get ready! Changes are coming. In brick and mortar. And in hearts and souls.

With Much Love in our Risen Lord,

Fr. Anthony Savas
Protopresbyter