Events 11 - St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church

Great Lent, Holy Week and Pascha 2015 Schedule

February 25, 2015 By St. Paul Emmaus

During the Holy season of Great Lent, Holy Week and Pascha (Feb. 23 – Apr. 12), St. Paul’s will be celebrating services according to the following schedule (access our full Google calendar here):

First week of Lent: FEBRUARY 22 – MARCH 1

Sunday: 5pm Forgiveness Vespers

Monday: 6:30pm Great Compline with Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Tuesday: 6:30pm Great Compline with Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Wednesday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Presanctified Liturgy (followed by Lenten potluck)

Thursday: 6:30pm Great Compline with Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete

Friday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Small Compline with the Akathist to the Theotokos

Saturday: 9:15am Matins, 10am Divine Liturgy (commemorating St. Theodore and the Miracle of the Koliva), 5pm Great Vespers

Sunday: 8am Matins, 9am Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great (with procession of icons), 6pm Vespers for Sunday of Orthodoxy (at St. George Church, Allentown)

Second – Fourth weeks of Lent: MARCH 2 – 22

Monday: 6:30pm Great Compline (Presanctified Liturgy instead on March 9 ONLY)

Wednesday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Presanctified Liturgy (followed by Lenten potluck)

Friday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Small Compline with the Akathist to the Theotokos

Saturday: 10am Soul Saturday Liturgy (on March 14 ONLY), 5pm Great Vespers

Sunday: 8am Matins, 9am Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Fifth week of Lent: MARCH 23 – 29

Monday: 3pm Vespers with 24 Stichera of Repentance, 6pm Small Compline with full Great Canon & Life of St. Mary of Egypt

Tuesday: 6:30pm Great Vespers for Annunciation

Wednesday: 6:30pm Vesperal Liturgy for Annunciation (Lenten potluck: fish, wine & oil permitted)

Friday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Small Compline with the Full Akathist to the Theotokos

Saturday: 5pm Great Vespers

Sunday: 8am Matins, 9am Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Sixth week of Lent: MARCH 30 – APRIL 3

Monday: 6:30pm Great Compline

Wednesday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Presanctified Liturgy (followed by Lenten potluck)

Friday: 8:30am Lenten Matins, 6:30pm Small Compline with Canon of Lazarus

Lazarus Saturday (APR. 4), Palm Sunday (APR. 5) and Holy Week (APR. 5 – 12)

Saturday: 9:15am Lazarus Saturday Matins, 10am Divine Liturgy, 5pm Great Vespers

Sunday: 8am Matins, 9am Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom for Palm Sunday, 6:30pm Bridegroom Matins

Monday: 8:30am Presanctified Liturgy, 6:30pm Bridegroom Matins

Tuesday: 8:30am Presanctified Liturgy, 6:30pm Bridegroom Matins (with the Hymn of Kassiani)

Wednesday: 8:30am Presanctified Liturgy, 6:30pm Holy Unction

Thursday: 8:30am Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil, 6:30pm 12 Gospels Matins

Friday: 8:30am Royal Hours, 4pm Vespers of Unnailing (followed by Lenten potluck), 6:30pm Lamentations Matins

Saturday: 10am Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil, 10:30pm Rush Service, Matins and Divine Liturgy of Holy Pascha

Sunday: 11am Agape Vespers (followed by Easter Egg Hunt)

St. Paul's Represented at Enthronement in Brooklyn

December 11, 2014 By St. Paul Emmaus

On Saturday, December 6, St. Paul’s pastor Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick attended the enthronement services of the newly-elected Metropolitan Joseph, which were presided over by Patriarch John X of Antioch. Also in attendance were other St. Paul’s faithful and many hundreds of the clergy and faithful from through the Archdiocese, as well as most of the Metropolitans of the Holy Synod of Antioch and many other bishops.

St. Paul’s Parishioners Meet Patriarch John X of Antioch

December 11, 2014 By St. Paul Emmaus

On Wednesday, December 10, 2014, twelve of the faithful from St. Paul’s traveled to St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Little Falls, New Jersey, to attend Vespers and a reception following. St. Paul’s pastor Fr. Andrew concelebrated the Vespers service with other clergy, which was presided over by His Beatitude, Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East.

At the completion of Vespers, a gift icon was given by the local parish to the patriarch, and speeches were made by His Beatitude, along with His Eminence, Metropolitan Joseph and the local pastor, the Archpriest Dmitri Darwich.

At the reception, all those gathered individually received the blessing of the Patriarch and Metropolitan and spoke with them briefly.

2014 Christmas & 2015 Theophany Schedule

December 9, 2014 By St. Paul Emmaus

December 25 is the feast of the Nativity According to the Flesh of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ! We will celebrate the feast at the following services:

Wednesday, Dec. 24 – Christmas Eve
8:30am – Royal Hours of the Nativity
10am – Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great
6:30pm – Akathist for the Nativity

Thursday, Dec. 25 – Christmas
8am – Festal Matins
9am – Festal Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

Notes on the Feast
Although the Festal Divine Liturgy is what most of us think of as the “primary” service for this feast, it is the other services that really contain the wealth of our Holy Church’s teaching about the Nativity of our Lord and its significance. If you have never attended these other services, please take the opportunity to do so this year. They are among the most beautiful services of the festal cycle.

If you would like to read more about the hymnography of the Church for this great feast, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia has put together a wonderful website here.

If you would like to read more about the feast of the Nativity, go here.

The Outdoor Water Blessing for Theophany at Little Lehigh Creek in Emmaus

Theophany is the feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ, when He began His public ministry by being baptized by St. John the Forerunner (John the Baptist) in the Jordan River. This act not only introduced Him to the world, but also made Christian baptism possible (by His blessing of the waters) and made plain the three Persons of the Holy Trinity—the Father speaking from the heavens, the Son being baptized and the Holy Spirit descending on the Son in the form of a dove. Theophany means “the appearance of God” and refers to this revelation of the Holy Trinity.

As part of the celebrations of this great feast—which is second in rank only to Pascha (Easter) and thus more important than Christmas!—holy water is blessed for use throughout the year, especially for the blessing of all parishioners’ homes.

Following is the schedule of services for Theophany 2013, which is a little different from other years, since in 2013 the feast falls on a Sunday:

Monday, Jan. 5 – Paramon (Eve) of Theophany
8:30am – Royal Hours of Theophany
10am – Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great

Tuesday, Jan. 6 – The Feast of Theophany (times moved due to winter weather)
6pm – Festal Matins for Theophany
7pm – Festal Divine Liturgy for Theophany with the Great Blessing of Water (bring your holy water bottles!)

Sunday, Jan. 11
12pm – Outdoor Blessing of Water at the Emmaus Wildlands Conservancy (3701 Orchid Pl., Emmaus, PA 18049)

Please note that the eve of Holy Theophany (January 5) is appointed to be kept as a strict fast day—no meat, poultry, fish with backbones, dairy, wine or oil are to be consumed.

To read more about Holy Theophany, go here.

Nativity 2014 Message of Bishop THOMAS

November 15, 2014 By St. Paul Emmaus

NATIVITY OF CHRIST 2014

Beloved in Christ,

Greetings in the name of our incarnate God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ!

Let us strive to comprehend the mystery. The reason God is in the flesh is to kill the death that lurks there. As diseases are cured by medicines and assimilated by the body, and as darkness in a house is dispelled by the coming of light, so death, which held sway over human nature, is done away with by the coming of God. And as ice formed on water covers its surface as long as night and darkness last but melts under the warmth of the sun, so death reigned until the coming of Christ; but when the grace of God our Saviour appeared and the Sun of Justice rose, death was swallowed up in victory, unable to bear the presence of true life. How great is God’s goodness, how deep his love for us!

– St. Basil the Great, Homily II on the Nativity of Christ

We rejoice in the coming of our God in the flesh precisely because He has come to do battle with death and to kill it. In these words of St. Basil, we see how great is the blessing and goodness of God to us, that He Himself would come and expel the darkness of our souls, cure the diseases that sicken our human nature, and set us on the path to resurrection. He Himself entered into humanity so that His power and love could conquer the corruption that had infected us.

This is why we celebrate Christmas. We are not only celebrating that God came to dwell among us. We are celebrating His coming because of what He came to do. He came to save us from death by destroying its power forever by uniting our humanity to His divinity. And so we will ever sing of His glory and His compassion for mankind.

Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Yours in Christ,

Rt. Rev. Bishop THOMAS (Joseph)
Auxiliary Bishop, Diocese of Charleston, Oakland, and the Mid-Atlantic

Great Lent, Holy Week and Pascha 2015 Schedule

St. Paul's Represented at Enthronement in Brooklyn

St. Paul’s Parishioners Meet Patriarch John X of Antioch

2014 Christmas & 2015 Theophany Schedule

Nativity 2014 Message of Bishop THOMAS

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