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Father Dean's Special Message -             As we journey through Holy Week, please remember that all laborers are welcome as the parable of the toilers in the vineyard explains.  The workers (the followers of Christ) who started early in the morning received the same wages (salvation) as those who even started as late as the 11th hour.  This means instead of looking back upon your Lenten Journey with critical eyes we can rather all look ahead to the Resurrection with great joy and anticipation.  Soon we Orthodox Christians will proclaim, will shout, will exclaim with great JOY that “Christ is Risen” from the dead (and so are we who are in Him)!  Let us ‘lay aside all earthly cares’ and worship our Savior… being united by the Good News of the Gospel of HOPE.

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Setting Up

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Recently, we welcomed our Vladyka, Archbishop SERAPHIM to St John the Divine Orthodox Church for 2 days of celebrating, bonding, and fellowship.

On Saturday, he hosted a very informal meet and greet in our Social Hall, and he was very excited to meet eveyone!

On Sunday, Vladyka had a full agenda of blessings that he bestowed, before celebrating the Divine Liturgy.  He also blessed the new Icons on the Iconostas and will installed a new antimension for the Holy Altar.

With the newly bestowed Blessing from Archbishop SERAPHIM, we wish the following men "Many Years" (a Special Congratulations) to:

The servant of God, Reader Ray, Ordained to the Sub-Diaconate

The servant of God, Adonis as a Taper Bearer

The servant of God, Syd as an Altar Server

The servant of God, Codruta as an Untonsured Reader

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In Time for the celebration of Holy Pentecost (The Birthday of Our Faith), and in the exciting times and recognition of our Holy Saints on their commemorative day, there is a lot of excitement at St John the Divine.

By some very generous donations made in memory of Nick Katsilas (1985-2009) – son of the priest, Constantine:

We had some New Icons Installed!

We are currently creating some before/after photos, which should be on this site very shortly.  Also, on an interesting note:  While working on the Great and Holy Supper Icon (over the Royal Doors), it turns out that there was a beautiful, but much faded one underneath the existing one.  How awesome is that?

Come down to the church and check it out – And watch for the photos, too.

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Pentecost is such a great time of year.  Sometimes known as the 3rd Most Important Holy Day in the Holy Orthodox Faith (behind Pascha and the Nativity of our Lord), we often refer to Pentecost as the "Birthday" of our church.  As such, we decided to celebrate all of our Birthdays on this wonderful day. 

That's right:  Birthday Cakes for every month, Decorations, Singing and Dancing, and Everyone signed their cards.  Our children even led a rousing course of "Happy Birthday" to all and each other.

Refreshments were served right after the Divine Liturgy in the Banquet Hall, then the party began.  Check out the photos and make plans to join us at our next occasion.

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