St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church

Serving Emmaus and the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania

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Christmas 2015 & Theophany 2016 Schedule

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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:

Thursday, 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

Friday, 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
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 2016:

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

Wednesday, Jan. 6 – The Feast of Theophany (times moved due to winter weather)
8am – Festal Matins for Theophany
9am – Festal Divine Liturgy for Theophany with the Great Blessing of Water (bring your holy water bottles!)

Sunday, Jan. 10
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 2015 Message of Bishop THOMAS

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Our Saviour, dearly-beloved, was born today: let us be glad. For there is no proper place for sadness, when we keep the birthday of the Life, which destroys the fear of mortality and brings to us the joy of promised eternity. No one is kept from sharing in this happiness. There is for all one common measure of joy, because as our Lord, the destroyer of sin and death, finds none free from the charge, so He comes to free us all. Let the saint exult in that he draws near to victory. Let the sinner be glad in that he is invited to being pardoned. Let the Gentile take courage in that he is called to life. For the Son of God in the fullness of time which the inscrutable depth of the Divine counsel has determined, has taken on Him the nature of man, thereby to reconcile it to its Author: in order that the inventor of death, the devil, might be conquered.

– St. Leo the Great, Sermon 21 on the Nativity of Christ

The universality of what is begun in Christ’s coming to our earth should give us all hope. He did not come only as the Messiah of the Jews, but also as the Christ Who invites all of us to life. He did not come only to give salvation and victory to the saint but also pardon and gladness to the sinner, transforming him into a saint.

The nature that the Son of God took upon Himself was the human nature, the one nature that we all share with each other and now, as God ordained, with Him as well. We therefore cannot do anything other than to look into one another’s eyes and see our common humanity, our brotherhood which we have had from our very creation. But even more than that, we look into one another’s eyes and see there the very image of God, the face of Jesus Christ according to Whom we were made from the beginning.

So let us love one another as He has loved us by His oneness with us. This is the spirit and the meaning of Christmas, that we set aside our selfishness and join as brothers and sisters in the warmth and love of our universal Savior Jesus. Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Yours in Christ,

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

Oct. 10-11: Bishop Thomas to visit St. Paul’s in Emmaus

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Wherever the bishop is, the whole congregation is to be present. —St. Ignatius of Antioch

On the weekend of October 10-11, 2015, His Grace, the Right Reverend Bishop THOMAS (Joseph), Auxiliary Bishop serving in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic, will make his annual archpastoral visit to St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania.

His Grace’s biography can be read at this link.

The schedule for His Grace’s visit is as follows:

Saturday, October 10:

  • 8am Men’s Breakfast at the Superior Restaurant in Emmaus
  • 12pm Lunch with the Antiochian Women of St. Paul’s at the 1760 Pub and Grille in Trexlertown (RSVP to Mary Ann Shahda)
  • 5pm Great Vespers, with His Grace presiding from his throne
  • 6:30pm Dinner and Bowling with St. Paul’s teens

Sunday, October 11:

  • 8am Matins, with the ordination of Patrick Maher as subdeacon
  • 9am HIERARCHICAL DIVINE LITURGY, served by His Grace
  • 10:30am Potluck Brunch, with Q&A with church school children
  • 6pm Dinner with Parish Council

Annual Parish Liturgical Calendar published

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Worship is the central focus to the life of an Orthodox Christian parish, especially corporate worship.

With the coming of the ecclesiastical new year on September 1, St. Paul’s has published the parish’s festal liturgical calendar for the 2015-2016 liturgical year. In addition to the full slate of services for the Great Feasts, the fasts (including Great Lent), and Holy Week, the parish will be adding some additional festal celebrations to those already being celebrated, especially for saints’ days.

This should assist in planning personal calendars in synch with the liturgical calendar.

Download the entire 2015-2016 calendar at this link (legal sized PDF).

The above calendar represents festal and other special services. The schedule is subject to minor revisions. Always check the weekly bulletin and parish website for the most up-to-date calendar. If you would like services for your nameday or another feast celebrated that you do not see here, talk to Fr. Andrew.

See the live, always updated parish Google calendar here.

St. Paul’s in Emmaus Unveils New Parish Website

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St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, Pennsylvania has unveiled its newly designed, custom parish website. Built on a flexible foundation for content-management, the new site is designed for greater accessibility for both mobile and desktop users. Special attention has been paid to making the site mobile-friendly, as more web traffic is now accessed via smartphones and other mobile devices than with desktop computers.

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The website features both time-sensitive content about services, events and classes at St. Paul’s, as well as resources to learn about the Orthodox Christian faith and the parish in particular.

The new website can be accessed at the following link: saintpaulemmaus.org

Special thanks goes to Sayre Design for their beautiful graphic design work. Michael and Nancy Sayre are members of St. Paul’s. Assistance was also provided by Gabe Martini Design.

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St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church

Planting the Seeds of Orthodoxy,
Cultivating Christian Community

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156 E. Main St.
Emmaus, PA 18049

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