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Welcome to Saint George’s today. We are glad to have you! If you are here for the first time, please stay for the coffee social in the parish hall after liturgy so we can get acquainted.
SCRIPTURE READINGS THIS WEEK
Jan 9th After feast of Theophany; Martyr Polyeuctus of Melitene in Armenia
Hebrews 11:17-23, 27-31 Mark 8:11-21
Jan 10th After feast of Theophany; St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa
Hebrews: 12:25-26; 13:22-25 Mark 8:22-26
Jan 11th After feast of Theophany; Venerable Theodosius the Great, the Cenobiarch
James 1:1-18 Mark 8:30-34
Jan 12th After feast of Theophany; Martyr Tatiana of Rome and companions
James 1:19-27 Mark 9:10-16
Jan 13th After feast of Theophany; St. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers
James 2:1-13 Mark 9:33-41
Jan 14th Leave taking of Theophany; The Holy Fathers slain at Sinai and Raithu
Colossians 1:3-6 Luke 14:1-11
Greeters: Cyril & Violet Costoff Reader: David Beleny
Activities/Services this Week
Choir Concert: Sunday, January 8th, 2:30 PM, at St. Adalbert Church in Toledo
Council Meeting: Tuesday, January 10th, 6:30 PM, at the church
Compline/Akathist Service: Wednesday, January 11th, 6:30 PM, at the church
Great Vespers: Saturday, January 14th, 5 PM, at the church
Last Sunday, January 1st, 37 Adults and 15 youth attended Nativity Divine Liturgy.
The Sanctuary Lamp is burning this week for the health of Adam Murphy. There are openings to sponsor the Sanctuary Lamp during the month on 1/15, and 1/29.
Please remember to save the icons from the 2011 church calendars and bring them to church. Fr. Paul can take them to St. Gregory’s monastery where they can mount and laminate them then sell them to support their community life.
Parish Council Candidates: During this month, Pat Heffern and Annette Stoianoff will be seeking out people who would be interested in serving on the Parish Council. To run for council, the requirements are that one has received the sacraments of Communion and Individual Confession (not General Confession) at least once during the 2011 year. The second requirement is to complete and turn in a Pledge Card for the 2012 year. If you would be interested in running for council and have fulfilled the above requirements, speak with Pat or Annette.
The annual meeting will be on Sunday, January 22, 2012 after Liturgy. A light lunch will be served prior to the meeting
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The Ladies guild will have an important meeting on Sunday Jan. 8th, 2012 after coffee social in the church hall. Please try and stay for this meeting since we have several important topics to discuss.
TODAY ONLY!!! (January 8th)
ALL CHRISTMAS ORNAMENTS/CARDS/CHILDREN'S CHRISTMAS BOOKS ARE 50% OFF.....
Stop by the bookstore after liturgy and stock up for next year!!!
All Saints Food Pantry/Gas Cards
During the month of January we will return to our monthly practice of collecting food items for the All Saints Food Pantry. For this month, bring in canned soup in whatever quantity you can afford to donate. We also resume our practice of taking a collection the last Sunday of the month to go towards purchasing gas cards for college students who are connected to our church community.
Our choir will be singing January 8th, at St. Adalbert Catholic Church at 2:30 PM. The church is located at 3233 Lagrange St. Toledo, OH 43608, PH: 419-241-4179.
January 8 is marked as the Sunday after Theophany. Over the past few weeks the Church has celebrated that momentous event as well as the Lord's Nativity.
What is known about the years between those two events, the time during which Jesus was growing up and preparing for His three-year ministry? The second chapter of the Gospel of Luke gives us a bit of insight, in the description of the twelve-year-old Jesus answering the questions of the elders in the Temple. After this, He returns to Nazareth with Mary and Joseph, and is obedient to them (2: 46-51).
Luke's words show that Jesus had the wisdom of His Father, and used it properly, to enlighten His people. The words also reveal His willingness to take on humanity completely, which included living in submission to two human parents. Beyond this, there is little if any information in the four Gospels about Jesus as a child or a young man growing into adulthood. But other books claim to tell us far more than the New Testament Gospels we read in church. These books describe a young Jesus showing his power by turning clay birds into real birds. When he doesn't like the way other children are acting, he curses them and turns them permanently into corpses, and then blinds their parents.
Because the accounts in these books are so different from the early Church's experience of Jesus Christ, they were not accepted as part of the Gospel canon, meaning the group of books the Church regarded as truthful descriptions of God's plan and saving work. Documents that would become part of the New Testament had already been written just a few decades after Jesus' death and resurrection, some of them eyewitness accounts. These authentic descriptions formed the basis of the Church's teachings about the risen Lord. The great second-century saint Justin Martyr referred to the canonical Gospels as the "reminiscences" of the apostles.
Saint Paul wrote in Ephesians 4: 4-6, "There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all." The early Church, as Paul's words show, was unified in its core beliefs about God, and therefore was quite able to distinguish those writings that did not reflect those beliefs. That is why books like those that depicted Jesus as a vengeful child did not make it into the canon of Scripture.
Bible scholar Ben Witherington writes about this in his book "The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and Da Vinci." Witherington's book is an excellent answer to fiction like "The Da Vinci Code" and other books that pretend to tell the hidden truth about the formation of the Bible. He explains how it really was formed, and happened, and enables the reader to determine which of the many writings about Jesus are fiction, and which are true Gospels. Taken from: http://dce.oca.org/page/bulletins
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