Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Beloved of St. John’s
Tonight and tomorrow, we will be celebrating the Leave-taking of Holy Pascha, at the direction of our Archbishop, MELCHISEDEK. Please join us tonight at 11:00 PM for the Paschal matins and Liturgy (they will end around 1:30 AM – 2:00 AM. We will hold the “Obednitsa” service in the Morning at 10:00 AM for those who can’t attend tonight.
To make our Church Temple a safe place for all we are implementing a few procedures.
- We will amp up our cleaning and sanitizing between services.
- Everyone who is not in the Choir is asked to please wear a mask, as long as a medical condition doesn’t prevent it. Masks are available at the candle desk for those who don’t have their own.
- Upon entering the Church, please spray your hands with sanitizer, available at the candle desk.
- Maintain a 6 foot distance between yourself and those around you (unless they are your family)
- At communion, each communicant will be given the Eucharist from an individual metal spoon, which will be sanitized in an appropriate way after the Liturgy.
I’m hopeful that by following these procedures, we will be able to have a slightly more normal Church life than we have had for the past few months. And by God’s grace, we’ll be able to return to full Church attendance in short order!
Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!
Христос воскресе! Воистину воскресе!
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Ἀληθῶς ἀνέστη!
The Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, has recently released directives for all Churches in the OCA to abide by. You may find those directives HERE. In addition, our Archbishop MELCHISEDEK has released his own directives, which may be found in their entirety, HERE. Needless to say, this will preclude any normal parish functions for the entirety of this month, including Pascha. More information on this will be forthcoming, both in the Forerunner, which will arrive in your mailboxes this week, as well as this website, and the parish Facebook.
In summary I can offer how these directives will apply to our Parish.
For the indefinite future, any services that are permitted by Church and civil authorities will be served with very few people attending. The recommendations from State and local governments is that we should, for now, limit any gatherings to ten (10) people or less. This means that services will be limited to Fr. Nikolai, our two Altar Servers / Service Readers, our Choir Director, and other choir members, not to exceed ten (10) people total in the temple at any one time.
In order for our faithful to not be cut off from their parish entirely all services will be streamed to YouTube until such a time as it is safe for our parish to assemble in a more normal fashion. You will notice a new tab at the top of the page labeled “Live-stream“, which as its name suggests, is where the stream will be located, together with a link to the parish YouTube page, to watch archived videos.
The schedule of all services can be viewed on the “Calendar“ page at the top menu bar.
Parishioners are also encouraged to pray Reader’s services on Sundays, especially if they are not planning to watch the live-stream.
Finally, be aware that even though the Parish is closed, the bills still come in, and we still need to pay them. So we are asking anyone that is able to continue their support to our parish. To more easily facilitate this, an online giving option has been created. Just click below.
Praying to the Lord for all of you!
Fr. Nikolai
