St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church

“As the Holy Trinity, our God is One Being, although Three Persons, so, likewise, we ourselves must be one. As our God is indivisible, we also must be indivisible, as though we were one man, one mind, one will, one heart, one goodness, without the smallest admixture of malice – in a word, one pure love, as God is Love. “That they may be one, even as We are One” (John 17:22).”

St. John of Kronstadt

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

With all of the talk and anticipation surrounding our new church building, God willing that will be in our possession by this coming fall, I enjoyed a blessed experience today that is linked to our new location at the Atrium.

I was invited to participate in the annual Sandy City Interfaith Leaders Luncheon. The City Council hosts this event so that the faith leaders of the area can come together and celebrate the spiritual diversity of our anticipated community.

From the time of my theological studies, and well into my ordained ministry, I have always appreciated ecumenical dialogue, the opportunity to share our rich, Orthodox Christian traditions and to learn from the beliefs of like-minded religious leaders who represent differing faiths and confessions. Sitting around a table at the Hale Center Theater today, was no different.

You will be happy to know that there is a dynamic representation of world faiths and Christian creeds in the Sandy area. I considered it a gracious expression of Sandy’s continued embrace to invite me to this gathering, though we are not yet members of their community. Once again, they have sent the clear message that St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church is a welcomed addition to the fabric of their city.

Having served many years in Los Angeles, I was used to a diverse, interfaith community, with fellow pastors who’s desire to work together was stronger than any division that our differing beliefs could cause. My experiences in those settings was consistent with my interactions today. We all live in the same, general area. We are raising our families. We love our nation. We are obedient to the Lord.

We, as pastors, priests, and other religious leaders are blessed with the awesome responsibility to stand in front of our congregations. We represent the work of the Lord to the people. And to the Lord, we stand on behalf of the people.

Each and every one of us who sat together, sharing a meal and swapping pastoral stories, understood the great gift that has been given us, and shutter at the awesomeness of the responsibility that has been given us. We are all small, unimportant sinners who have been charged with tasks that can only be accomplished through God’s grace, through His will and for His purpose.

The other beautiful aspect of today’s gathering, besides meeting spiritual leaders of the area, was to have yet, another opportunity to meet and know our leaders at City Hall. They called this meeting and extended the invitation. The city opened its heart and presented the opportunity to celebrate the common thread which binds us: to serve.

All of us; civic leaders and religious leaders alike, will always have that in common. We are servants. Our mission, our calling, our vocation is to serve the needs of others. We do it joyfully, thankfully and with all the energy that can be called upon. Tonight, my heart is filled with gratitude towards God and for all the dear parishioners who call St. Anna our spiritual home.

You have heard me say this many times…I’ve written it…printed it…preached it…prayed about it: that we as a community will also be called to serve our greater community. Once we are firmly planted in a permanent home in the City of Sandy, we will be counted upon to be civic partners, Christian neighbors and fellow sojourners on this journey that is life. Not that we presently neglect these callings, but it will be different once we have our own address.

Please, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, pray for our present and future communities and all the people whom these cities represent. Pray for the people in the cities where you live and pray for the comfort and salvation of all people in all cities throughout the world.

Please pray for the spiritual leaders who are called to serve, that our hearts can remain pure and that our every action is honorable before the Lord. Please pray for the civic leaders at every level of government. Ask God to keep them grounded, humble, right-minded and without a lust for power.

Your bishop, your policeman, your priest, your mayor, your dog catcher and your clerk…we all represent those who are called to serve. Faith leaders of all backgrounds and confessions are called similarly, fulfilling the needs of their communities. And as St. John reminds us in the above-referenced quote, we are called to do it as one.

Doctrines, Theologies, Dogmas and Creeds can divide. Love and mutual respect will unite. This is the spirit that permeates our new city. I say with all humility; we’re going to fit in just fine.

With Much Love in Christ,

Fr. Anthony

“The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.”

St. John of Damascus

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There is a certain country that seems to be in the news quite a bit, these days. Our neighbor to the south has gained much attention since we share a border. What exactly we intend to do with that border is the subject of much debate, conflict and seems to be bringing out the worst in our humanity, rather than entertaining our level-best selves.

Honestly, however we secure our border with Mexico, and how ever we regulate who comes into our country, by what means, and for what purposes, there will also be a remaining truth that the Christian heart cannot (and should not) escape. And that is to say that the people who live in that, and any other country, are also “icons of the face of God.” White faces, black faces, red faces, brown faces, yellow faces, olive-complexion faces (such as my own) are all colors chosen by God to complement the pallet of His creative endeavor. Who is any one person, of any one color, to designate himself above any other?

The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.

Please be keenly aware, as I venture into these waters, that this message is not a political statement in any way. It serves more like a humanitarian announcement; an introduction to a blessed opportunity. This coming summer, we at St. Anna’s have a unique opportunity to engage in our own Border Crossing. I intend, through God’s grace and loving mercy, to lead another mission team to build a home for Project Mexico. Yes, we are going to the southern border, we are going to cross over. We will be sojourners in another land. We will be visitors among friends. We will be deliverers of mercy and we will be witnesses for Christ.

Project Mexico, together with St. Innocent’s Orphanage is a ministry of the Orthodox Church which works to provide a safe home and environment for orphan boys, as well as the building of homes for poor families who have acquired small (and I mean very small) parcels of land, but have no means to construct a home. This is where we come in.

The Key Information is this:

• WHAT: Home Building Mission to Project Mexico
• WHEN: June 27th through July 3rd, 2019
• COST: Approximately $1,000 (Personal and collective fund raising will offset the cost.)
• INFO: There will be an Information Meeting on Tuesday, March 12th at 7:00 pm in the church.

We have 12 spots open for our trip. We will be participating together with the kind folks from the Greek Orthodox Church of the Nativity in Castro Valley, California, together with my friend, Fr. Niko Bekris. He is taking his parish youth to engage in this act of Christian love. I encourage our young adults and older teenagers to pray about and consider joining us. The work is indescribably rewarding as you look upon a completed home, participate in it’s blessing, and engage with the family who will move in after we leave.

Of course, to use the word “home,” it is a relative measure to say the least. It is actually the size of a large tool shed, per what many of us are accustomed. Families are moving out of trailers, boxes, and literal sheds as they take possession of a newly-constructed Project Mexico Home, thus receiving a portion of protection and security that they’ve never before experienced.

The whole earth is a living icon of the face of God.

Let’s remind ourselves that those who live in other places, who’s lives are different than our own, who’s circumstances are unrecognizable to us, share an equal favor before the Lord. Participating in a trip such as this is a life-changing experience. The lessons of humanity, humility and gratitude are brought to life in ways that can only be experienced while swinging a hammer in a foreign land.

Please consider joining us or allowing your child to participate. I intend to take three of our children with us.

This is not specifically a youth trip. All are welcome to participate. I am simply issuing a special challenge and invitation to our young people so they can learn to appreciate, from now, the multitude of gifts that have been bestowed upon them, and how they can begin to pay it forward.

Come to the meeting. Learn about Project Mexico. Become inspired. Cross a border. Appreciate that we up here, and those down there share a common characteristic; we are an icon of the face of God.

Wall…fence…whatever. We’re building a bridge. Well…actually, a little house. Same thing, right?

With Much Love in Christ,

Fr. Anthony

God Bless All Who Celebrate this Feast of St. Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople!

This great Father and Teacher of the Church was born in 329 in Arianzus, a village of the second district of Cappadocia, not far from Nazianzus. His father, who later became Bishop of Nazianzus, was named Gregory (commemorated Jan. 1), and his mother was named Nonna (Aug. 5); both are among the Saints, and so are his brother Caesarius (Mar. 9) and his sister Gorgona (Feb. 23). At first he studied in Caesarea of Palestine, then in Alexandria, and finally in Athens. As he was sailing from Alexandria to Athens, a violent sea storm put in peril not only his life but also his salvation, since he had not yet been baptized. With tears and fervour he besought God to spare him, vowing to dedicate his whole self to Him, and the tempest gave way to calm.

At Athens Saint Gregory was later joined by Saint Basil the Great, whom he already knew; but now their acquaintanceship grew into a lifelong brotherly love. Another fellow student of theirs in Athens was the young Prince Julian, who later as Emperor was called the Apostate because he denied Christ and did all in his power to restore paganism. Even in Athens, before Julian had thrown off the mask of piety; Saint Gregory saw what an unsettled mind he had, and said, “What an evil the Roman State is nourishing” (Orat. V, 24, PG 35:693).

After their studies at Athens, Gregory became Basil’s fellow ascetic, living the monastic life together with him for a time in the hermitages of Pontus.

His father ordained him presbyter of the Church of Nazianzus, and Saint Basil consecrated him Bishop of Sasima (or Zansima), which was in the archdiocese of Caesarea. This consecration was a source of great sorrow to Gregory, and a cause of misunderstanding between him and Basil; but his love for Basil remained unchanged, as can be plainly seen from his Funeral Oration on Saint Basil (Orat. XLIII).

About the Year 379, Saint Gregory came to the assistance of the Church of Constantinople, which had already been troubled for forty years by the Arians; by his supremely wise words and many labours he freed it from the corruption of heresy, and was elected Archbishop of that city by the Second Ecumenical Council, which assembled there in 381, and condemned Macedonius, Archbishop of Constantinople, the enemy of the Holy Spirit. When Saint Gregory came to Constantinople, the Arians had taken all the churches and he was forced to serve in a house chapel dedicated to Saint Anastasia the Martyr. From there he began to preach his famous five sermons on the Trinity, called the Triadica. When he left Constantinople two years later, the Arians did not have one church left to them in the city. Saint Meletius of Antioch (see Feb. 12), who was presiding over the Second Ecumenical Council, died in the course of it, and Saint Gregory was chosen in his stead; there he distinguished himself in his expositions of dogmatic theology.

Having governed the Church until 382, he delivered his farewell speech – the Syntacterion, in which he demonstrated the Divinity of the Son – before 150 bishops and the Emperor Theodosius the Great; in this speech he requested, and received from all, permission to retire from the see of Constantinople. He returned to Nazianzus, where he lived to the end of his life, and reposed in the Lord in 391, having lived some sixty-two years.

His extant writings, both prose and poems in every type of metre, demonstrate his lofty eloquence and his wondrous breadth of learning. In the beauty of his writings, he is considered to have surpassed the Greek writers of antiquity, and because of his God-inspired theological thought, he received the surname “Theologian.” Although he is sometimes called Gregory of Nazianzus, this title belongs properly to his father; he himself is known by the Church only as Gregory the Theologian. He is especially called “Trinitarian Theologian,” since in virtually every homily he refers to the Trinity and the one essence and nature of the Godhead. Hence, Alexius Anthorus dedicated the following verses to him:

Like an unwandering star beaming with splendour,
Thou bringest us by mystic teachings, O Father,
To the Trinity’s sunlike illumination,
O mouth breathing with fire, Gregory most mighty.

Apolytikion of Gregory the Theologian

First Tone

The pastoral flute of your theology conquered the trumpets of orators. For it called upon the depths of the Spirit and you were enriched with the beauty of words. Intercede to Christ our God, O Father Gregory, that our souls may be saved. (As presented by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America)