“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” – Hebrews 4:16
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we continue to celebrate the blessings of a New Year and remain, steadfastly in the days of Holy Theophany, I come to you, my dearly beloved in the Lord, asking for your prayers.
As you may have noticed for the past few month, I have seemingly suffered with cold symptoms, congestion and headaches. Pretty much non-stop since October. Many of you have been kind enough to offer your remedies, solutions, special tricks and formulas for improved health. Believe me, I tried them all. And I was always grateful for your prayers and concern.
As it turns out, a CT scan revealed what has been bothering me for all this time, and that is severely blocked and infected sinus’, especially in the left side of my head which is 100% affected. In order to gain some much-needed relief and to begin breathing again, surgery is required. That said, I need to offer some changes to the very Bulletin which is attached to this message. Therefore, please be advised that:
I will be having surgery on Tuesday, January 17th and will be out of the office until January 25th.
There will be no Divine Liturgies celebrated on Tuesday, January 17th (St. Anthony) and Wednesday, January 18th (St. Athanasios). I am sorry about this.
We will celebrate the Divine Liturgy in honor of both Saints Anthony and Athanasios on Monday Evening, January 16th at 6:00 pm.
There will be no Bible Study or Spirituality Classes next week. Again, I am sorry for this.
All other meetings/ministries will continue for the week, or so that I am recovering.
On Sunday, January 22nd, we will be blessed with Fr. Seraphim Johns from Pocatello, ID as our visiting priest.
Fr. Seraphim is a dynamic, young priest who has been assigned to the historic and lovely Greek Orthodox Community of Price, Utah, beginning February 1st. This will be St. Anna’s first opportunity to welcome him to Utah and to pray for his success and his ministry to the Orthodox faithful in Carbon County.
I thank you for your prayers and for your patience, these past many weeks, with me sounding much less than inspiring during the celebration of our divine services. God willing, I look forward to being healthy for the continuation of our House Blessings and into the precious time of Great Lent. I remain,
With Love in XC,
Fr. Anthony