Good Evening, Dearly Beloved in the Lord,
I thank you for your prayers and well wishes this past, almost two weeks. Your positive energy and love have helped me more than you will ever know. I look forward to resuming my pastoral duties very soon. God willing, I will be with you this Sunday for the celebration of the Divine Liturgy and the swearing in of our 2017 Parish Council. Please be aware that our JOY Ministry will meet after Sunday School and the participants of the St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival will meet with their coaches, exchange ideas and begin their creative process, also this Sunday. For those of you who have submitted your House Blessing Forms, please know that I will be contacting you within the next few weeks to continue this sacred Tradition.
As we continue into a very busy time of the year, with our many ministries in full swing, I pray that the good Lord blesses all of your homes with abundant joy, continued health and fervor in faith.
I so look forward to seeing you at Liturgy! And again, thank you! Your cards, texts, emails, calls and posts were much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed.
With Love in Christ,
Fr. Anthony
“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