St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I trust and pray you are well. God bless you always!

Since we are now in the full swing of Sunday School and the church (thankfully) is filling up, I’d like to reintroduce our Church Etiquette guide in the Sunday Bulletin. Those guidelines are published so that everyone’s worship experience is celebrated and with the least number of interruptions or distractions.

But in fairness, I have been asked, “why can’t we walk in at this time?” Or “why should we be standing at that time?” So, to clear things up, I offer this simple explanation as to why we do what we do, and don’t do what we don’t do, during the Divine Services of the Church – especially on Sunday mornings.

In the Bulletin, we remind the Faithful that we do not enter the church during certain times. These times include the entrances, processions, readings from the Epistle and the Gospel, the homily, the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer and the Nicene Creed, during the Consecration of the Holy Gifts, and pretty much any time the priest is facing the congregation and addressing them.

Wow. Admittedly, that is a long list of designated times of no movement during the services. But you will notice that these are areas of the service that are of a heightened importance and require an environment of sanctity and respect. For those who have already assembled to worship, it is incredibly distracting to move around or lose attention. Most especially, when the Gospel is being read, we all need to be highly aware of every spoken word of Scripture. We need to be listening intently and concentrating. That means even in the narthex, when the Gospel is being read, we need to be focused on the Word. And of course, it’s just common courtesy not to be walking in while people are listening to the sermon.

Please let’s also be equally aware, that it is just as distracting to leave the church during these times. Please refrain from going out during these times as well.

Standing in church is a posture that represents attentiveness, respect, and reverence. We stand during the receiving of Holy Communion because the Very Body and Blood of Christ are present in our midst. If the king is in the room, we do not sit casually. So, when the King is in the church, we stand attentively. I realize this is a new tradition or expectation to many of our new, faithful worshippers. But I believe that with time and practice, patience and endurance will follow. 

You will also notice the stanchion rope in the back of the church. This rope is placed there to reduce movement up and down the center aisle during worship services. The center aisle is used for censing and processions and should not be used unless an usher or parish council member removes the rope. Since the church is filling up, they will monitor seating and allow individuals to take those inside seats. But please, do not step over the rope to enter or exit the church.

I love the fact that we enjoy seeing each other in church. And Sunday mornings are the ideal times to catch up with our friends and family. But please, refrain from idol talk and especially laughter while inside the church. Standing in line for Communion, or for antidoron after church may seem like a great time to visit, but please remember, we are still assembled for worship at those times, and our most appropriate demeanor is still appreciated. 

If you are ever in church and not able to find a seat, and are required to stand in the back, please be careful not to lean against the west wall and scrape against the iconography. To be sure, the paint used is tough and hardy. But why test its limits? Please stand tall just away from the wall. 

Lastly, please remember that for any strange reason, that may require you to cross from one side of the church to the other during services, please do so from the back of the church, not in front.

While I realize that this little treatise sounds obnoxious with all the do’s and don’ts, but I offer it sincerely with the intent of heightening our awareness to proper etiquette while in the church. Thank you for receiving this information in the manner in which it was intended. I remain,

With Much Love in Christ, 

Fr. Anthony Savas
Protopresbyter

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The feast of the Dormition or Falling-asleep of the Theotokos is celebrated this coming Friday on the fifteenth of August. This feast, which is also sometimes called the Assumption, commemorates the death, resurrection and glorification of Christ’s mother. It proclaims that Mary has been “assumed” by God into the heavenly kingdom of Christ in the fullness of her spiritual and bodily existence.

As with the nativity of the Virgin and the feast of her entrance to the temple, there are no biblical or historical sources for this feast. The Tradition of the Church is that Mary died as all people die, not “voluntarily” as her Son, but by the necessity of her mortal human nature which is indivisibly bound up with the corruption of this world.

The Orthodox Church teaches that Mary is without personal sins. In the Gospel of the feast, however, in the liturgical services and in the Dormition icon, the Church proclaims as well that Mary truly needed to be saved by Christ as all human persons are saved from the trials, sufferings and death of this world; and that having truly died, she was raised up by her Son as the Mother of Life and participates already in the eternal life of paradise which is prepared and promised to all who “hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk11.27–28).

In giving birth, you preserved your virginity. In falling asleep you did not forsake the world, O Theotokos. You were translated to life, O Mother of Life, and by your prayers, you deliver our souls from death.

Apolytikion

Neither the tomb, nor death, could hold the Theotokos, who is constant in prayer and our firm hope in her intercessions. For being the Mother of Life, she was translated to life, by the One who dwelt in her virginal womb.

Kontakion

The services of the feast repeat the main theme, that the Mother of Life has “passed over into the heavenly joy, into the divine gladness and unending delight” of the Kingdom of her Son (Vesperal hymn). The Old Testament readings, as well as the gospel readings for the Vigil and the Divine Liturgy, are exactly the same as those for the feast of the Virgin’s nativity and her entrance into the Temple. Thus, at the Vigil we again hear Mary say: “My soul magnifies the Lord and my Spirit rejoices in God my Saviour” (Lk 1.47). At the Divine Liturgy we hear the letter to the Philippians where Saint Paul speaks of the self-emptying of Christ who condescends to human servitude and ignoble death in order to be “highly exalted by God his Father” (Phil 2.5–11). And once again we hear in the Gospel that Mary’s blessedness belongs to all who “hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11.27–28).

Thus, the feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos is the celebration of the fact that all men are “highly exalted” in the blessedness of the victorious Christ, and that this high exaltation has already been accomplished in Mary the Theotokos. The feast of the Dormition is the sign, the guarantee, and the celebration that Mary’s fate is, the destiny of all those of “low estate” whose souls magnify the Lord, whose spirits rejoice in God the Saviour, whose lives are totally dedicated to hearing and keeping the Word of God which is given to men in Mary’s child, the Saviour and Redeemer of the world.

Finally it must be stressed that, in all of the feasts of the Virgin Mother of God in the Church, the Orthodox Christians celebrate facts of their own lives in Christ and the Holy Spirit. What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience, and love. With her all people will be “blessed” to be “more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim” if they follow her example. All will have Christ born in them by the Holy Spirit. All will become temples of the living God. All will share in the eternal life of His Kingdom who live the life that Mary lived.

In this sense everything that is praised and glorified in Mary is a sign of what is offered to all persons in the life of the Church. It is for this reason that Mary, with the divine child Jesus within her, is called in the Orthodox Tradition the Image of the Church. For the assembly of the saved is those in whom Christ dwells.

It is the custom in some churches to bless flowers on the feast of the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos.

Services this week which precede the Dormition include Paraklesis Services that will take place this Monday and Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm Great Vespers for the Dormition of the Theotokos will be celebrated on Thursday evening at 7:00 pm, and services for the Dormition Itself will take place on Friday; the Orthros will begin at 9:00 am followed by the Divine Liturgy. 

Most Holy Theotokos Save Us! 

With Much Love in Christ,

Fr. Anthony Savas

Protopresbyter

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As we stand in the first days of the Dormition Fast, our attention is also drawn to the Feast of our Lord’s Transfiguration – the event of revealing Himself in the fullness of His Glory to the disciples upon Mount Tabor. This event, though taking place just before His Passion, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, is taken out of a chronological sequence and celebrated in August to coincide with the fullness of the fruits in their season. In the Mediterranean world, this is the time that grapevines are at their peak ripeness.  In the Transfiguration, the ministry of Christ had reached its full potential here on Earth and He was ready to enter into the fulfillment of the Father’s plan for salvation. This is the spiritual ripeness of Christ’s journey in the world. To acknowledge this connection, luscious grapes are blessed at the conclusion of the Transfiguration Divine Liturgy and distributed to the people.

For a fuller understanding of this all-important Festival in the life of Christ and within the Calendar of the Church, let us refer to the following writing of Fr. Thomas Hopko:

The transfiguration of Christ is one of the central events recorded in the gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized by His apostles as “the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the Living God,” He told them that “He must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things . . . and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Mt 16). The announcement of Christ’s approaching passion and death was met with indignation by the disciples. And then, after rebuking them, the Lord took Peter, James, and John “up to a high mountain”—by tradition Mount Tabor—and was “transfigured before them.”

. . . and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as snow and behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish I will make three booths here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My Beloved Son, with Whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces with awe. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead”.

Mt 17.1–92, see also Mk 9.1–9; Lk 9.28–36; 2 Pet 1.16–18

The Jewish Festival of Booths was a feast of the dwelling of God with men, and the transfiguration of Christ reveals how this dwelling takes place in and through the Messiah, the Son of God in human flesh. There is little doubt that Christ’s transfiguration took place at the time of the Festival of Booths, and that the celebration of the event in the Christian Church became the New Testamental fulfillment of the Old Testamental feast in a way similar to the feasts of Passover and Pentecost.

In the Transfiguration, the apostles see the glory of the Kingdom of God present in majesty in the person of Christ they see that “in Him, indeed, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,” that “in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily” (Col 1.19, 2.9). They see this before the crucifixion so that in the resurrection they might know Who it is Who has suffered for them, and what it is that this one, Who is God, has prepared for those who love Him. This is what the Church celebrates in the feast of the Transfiguration.

Thou wast transfigured on the mount. O Christ God, revealing Thy glory to Thy disciples as they could bear it. Let Thine everlasting light shine upon us sinners. Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to Thee.

Apolytikion of Holy Transfiguration

On the mountain wast Thou transfigured, O Christ God, and Thy disciples beheld Thy glory as far as they could see it; so that when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary, and would proclaim to the world that Thou art truly the Radiance of the Father.

Kontakion of Holy Transfiguration

Besides the fundamental meaning which the event of the Transfiguration has in the context of the life and mission of Christ, and in addition to the theme of the glory of God which is revealed in all of its divine splendor in the face of the Saviour, the presence of Moses and Elijah is also of great significance for the understanding and celebration of the feast. Many of the hymns refer to these two leading figures of the Old Covenant as do the three scripture readings of Vespers which tell of the manifestation of the glory of God to these holy men of old (Ex 24.12–18; 33.11–34.8; 1 Kg 19.3–16).

Moses and Elijah, according to the liturgical verses, are not only the greatest figures of the Old Testament who now come to worship the Son of God in glory, they also are not merely two of the holy men to whom God has revealed himself in the prefigurative theophanies of the Old Covenant of Israel. These two figures actually stand for the Old Testament itself: Moses for the Law and Elijah for the Prophets. And Christ is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets (Mt 5.17).

They also stand for the living and dead, for Moses died and his burial place is known, while Elijah was taken alive into heaven in order to appear again to announce the time of God’s salvation in Christ the Messiah.

Thus, in appearing with Jesus on the mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah show that the Messiah Saviour is here, and that He is the Son of God to Whom the Father Himself bears witness, the Lord of all creation, of the Old and New Testaments, of the living and the dead. The Transfiguration of Christ in itself is the fulfillment of all of the theophanies and manifestations of God, a fulfillment made perfect and complete in the person of Christ. The Transfiguration of Christ reveals to us our ultimate destiny as Christians, the ultimate destiny of all men and all creation to be transformed and glorified by the majestic splendor of God Himself.

There is little doubt that the feast of the Transfiguration of Christ belonged first to the pre-Easter season of the Church. It was perhaps celebrated on one of the Sundays of Lent, for besides certain historical evidence and the fact that today St Gregory Palamas, the great teacher of the Transfiguration of Christ, is commemorated during Lent, the event itself is one which is definitely connected with the approaching death and resurrection of the Saviour.

. . . for when they would behold Thee crucified, they would understand that Thy suffering was voluntary.

Kontakion

So dearly beloved in the Lord, please plan to attend Great Vespers for the Feast of the Transfiguration this Tuesday, August 5th at 7:00 pm, and the Orthros and Divine Liturgy on August 6th at 9:00 am and 10:00 am respectively. I remain,

With Much Love in Christ,

Fr. Anthony

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Did you miss me?!? I sure missed all of you these past three Sundays not praying with you at St. Anna. I greatly look forward to being back in our church for Sunday worship tomorrow. I trust and pray that you have enjoyed the blessings of the summer months. And I am also so grateful that so many of you turned out for our Maternal Feast Day celebration with Great Vespers and our Picnic this past Thursday evening. Thank you to our Philoptochos, Men’s Ministry and Parish Council who worked so hard to sponsor such an energized event. You know it’s a great celebration when you nearly run out of food and extra tables have to continually be rolled out and set up.

As we seek the intercessions of the Holy Ancestor of God, our Matron Saint Anna, let us also and most especially set our minds and hearts toward her precious daughter, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary. This coming Friday begins the Dormition Fast as we prepare for the commemoration of her falling asleep on August 15th.

St. Symeon of Thessalonica writes that, “The fast in August [Dormition fast] was established in honor of the Mother of God the Word; Who, foreknowing Her repose, ascetically labored and fasted for us as always, although She was holy and immaculate, and had no need for fasting. Thus, She especially prayed for us in preparation for being transported from this life to the future life, when Her blessed soul would be united through the Divine spirit with Her Son. Therefore, we also should fast and praise Her, emulating Her life, urging Her thereby to pray for us. Some, by the way, say that this fast was instituted on the occasion of two feasts—the Transfiguration and the Dormition. I also consider it necessary to remember these two feasts—one which gives us light, and the other which is merciful to us and intercedes for us.”

Isn’t it incredible to think about the establishment of this fasting period which precedes such a solemn occasion? It was started by her, herself in preparation of her departure from this life. We therefore imitate her pious grace and strength, preparing our minds, souls and bodies to contemplate the repose of the Theotokos, her departure from this earthly life, and her enthronement in heaven as an ever-intercessor on behalf of all of us. 

As many of you are aware, the Fast is accompanied by the celebration of the Small Paraklesis Services, celebrated on the Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays of the Fasting Period (from August 1-14). This year at St. Anna, there is no exception to that rule.  

Paraklesis Services will be celebrated at 7:00 pm on August 1, 4, 6, 8, 11 and 13. Great Vespers for the Dormition of the Theotokos will be celebrated on Thursday, August 14th at 7:00 pm. The Orthros and Divine Liturgy for the Dormition will be celebrated on Friday, August 15th at 9:00 am and 10:00 am. This is day will mark what is known as the “Summer Pascha.” Praise be to God!

Also connected to this sacred period, Great Vespers for the Transfiguration of Christ will be on Tuesday, August 5th at 7:00 pm with the Orthros and Liturgy the following day at the normal times. 

Lastly, my most beloved in the Lord, please know that we will honor our joyful tradition of celebrating the Paraklesis outdoors in our South Patio to begin the series of services. The first Paraklesis on Friday, August 1st will be the only service to be celebrated outdoors. Bring your lawn chairs. Enjoy the summer evening, praying in the beauty of creation. This tradition began as an affirmation of the practice of holding the Paraklesis Services in the courtyards and entry plazas of the churches in Greece. I love the above quote from St. Symeon of Thessalonica as I recall chanting the Paraklesis Services in outdoor settings in parishes throughout Thessaloniki as a young deacon. This was my reasoning for taking the service outside and enjoying the lovely setting of our grotto. 

There are folks who depend on our livestreaming in order to be connected to the worship of the church. This is why we’re only doing it once for we do not have streaming capabilities outdoors. So let’s make it a special occasion and inaugurate the season appropriately and enthusiastically. 

Well, once again, it is such a delight for me to have returned to our parish home and to the Altar at St. Anna. Let’s enjoy the remainder of the summer. And include the prayers of the Theotokos in the coming days, and in our entire lives. I remain,

With Much Love in Christ,

Fr. Anthony Savas
Protopresbyter