| |  | December 18
27th Sunday after Pentecost (13th of Luke)
Tone 2
Sunday of the Holy Fathers
Sunday Before the Nativity | | CONTENTS
Services / Events / Teams Needed for December 27th Reception / Thank You / Church School Cancellations / Rejoice Jr / Bishop & Church Etiquette Handbook / Welcoming New Catechumens / 2023 Pledge Form / Christmas Caroling This Sunday / Lighting of the Advent Wreath / Double Your Building Fund Donation! / Adult Education Series: How to Avoid Accumulation / Building Pledge Link / Prayer List / Birthdays & Anniversaries / Lives of the Saints / Bulletin Deadline Reminder / Clergy & Contacts | | SERVICES
Saturday, December 17, 5pm, Vespers
Sunday, December 18, 9:30am, Divine Liturgy
UPCOMING SERVICES
Friday, December 23, 9:30am Royal Hours for the Nativity of Christ
Saturday December 24, 8:30am, Baptism & Chrismations of Genevieve Prentice, Justin Nelson, Virginia Helman, Nicola Mingolelli, and Jane Thomas
Saturday, December 24, 9:30am, Divine Liturgy
Saturday, December 24, 5pm, Vigil for the Nativity of Christ
Sunday, December 25, 9:30am, Divine Liturgy for the Nativity of Christ
Tuesday, December 27, 9:30am, Hierarchical Liturgy for our patron saint, and celebration of Fr. John Ealy’s 50th Anniversary of ordination to the priesthood
Saturday, December 31, 5pm, Vespers
Sunday, January 1, 9:30am, Divine Liturgy
Wednesday, January 4, 7pm, Royal Hours for Theophany
Thursday, January 5, 9:30am, Vesperal Liturgy with Great Blessing of Water for Theophany
Friday, January 6, 9:30am, Divine Liturgy for Theophany
see the full December calendar here | | EVENTS
Sundays, December 18, Adult Religious Education, "Money - The Gospel Changes Everything" (see below)
Sunday, December 18, 6pm, Christmas Caroling (see below)
| | TEAMS NEEDED TO HELP WITH DECEMBER 27TH RECEPTION!
Please consider joining a team to help make the December 27th reception a success! The event will follow the Hierarchical Liturgy and honor the 50th anniversary of Fr. John Ealy’s ordination to the priesthood. Teams include set-up, serving, and clean up. Please contact Gus Mecera if you are able to help (gust.mecera@gmail.com or 614-370-4162.) Any bit of help you can provide will make a difference! | | ONE MORE THANK YOU FOR ST. NICHOLAS DAY CELEBRATION
from Karen Brown, Church School Coordinator
Thank you to the Nescott family for their donation of the clementines for the St. Nicholas goodie bags! I apologize for this omission. | | CHURCH SCHOOL CANCELLATIONS
Please note, there will not be church school classes on the Nativity, Sunday, December 25, 2022, and New Year’s Day, Sunday, January 1, 2023. | | REJOICE JR DECEMBER ISSUE NOW AVAILABLE |  | This will be the last issue to be published of Rejoice Jr. We thank the creator and editor, Taisia Ealy Mills for all of the years she dedicated to producing this valuable monthly newsletter for children and their parents. | | | BISHOP & CHURCH ETIQUETTE HANDBOOK |  | Above: Asking for a blessing from the newly ordained Bishop Gerasim (oca.org) | In preparation for the bishop’s visit on December 27, the handbook “Church Etiquette” is made available to learn the proper way to ask for a blessing from the bishop, as well as other church etiquette. | | | WELCOMING NEW CATECHUMENS |  | Four enquirers entered into the catechumenate this past Saturday at Vespers. May God grant many years to Jamie and Stewart Holley, Todd Broadaway, and Nick Noe! | | LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT WREATH |  | A candle is lit on the Advent Wreath by one of the children for each week of Advent, just prior to the beginning of the Sunday Divine Liturgy. As the candle is being lit, the choir sings the Troparion of the Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ: Prepare, O Bethlehem, for Eden has been opened to all! / Adorn yourself, O Ephratha, for the tree of life blossoms forth from the Virgin in the cave! / Her womb is a spiritual paradise planted with the Divine Fruit: / If we eat of it, we shall live forever and not die like Adam. / Christ comes to restore the image which He made in the beginning! | | GET YOUR DONATION TO THE BUILDING CAMPAIGN DOUBLED!
Someone wishing to remain anonymous has challenged parishioners with a matching gift donation to our Building Capital Campaign. They will match donations made in 2022 up to $30,000! (These are separate from donations already pledged to the Building Capital Campaign.) This is a wonderful opportunity for you to show your support for the Temple Project and have your offering doubled! To date there have been a total of $11,520.52 made in donations that will be doubled. That means $18,479.48 can be donated and matched! Please help us reach the $30,000 matching goal by donating by December 31, 2022! | | | YOU ARE INVITED TO GO CHRISTMAS CAROLING THIS SUNDAY |  | Everyone is invited to go Christmas caroling to shut-ins and home bound from our parish. Please meet at the church at Sunday, December 18 at 6pm. We will visit as many people as we can in a reasonable amount of time. | | ST. STEPHEN’S 2023 PLEDGE FORM
Each year we ask members to make a pledge to support the parish financially. We are thankful for the generosity of our members, which enables us to start missions, support numerous charities, and work toward building a new temple. Please pledge what you can to the general fund for 2023. Pledging helps the parish council to plan for the coming year and it helps you to give prayerfully by considering in advance what is best for you and your family to set aside for the Lord's work. Thank you for your generous support of St. Stephen.
- Fr. Daniel | | | LAST SUNDAY OF SERIES: HOW TO AVOID ACCUMULATION |  | This Sunday, Karen Brown will share a video on how to avoid accumulation as part of the Adult Education Series “Money: The Gospel Changes Everything.” This is the last session in this series. Discussion will follow. The session will be held in the Religious Education Building at 11:30am. | | PLEDGE TO THE BUILDING FUND |  | | | PRAYER LIST
THOSE IN NEED: Eli (Russell), Rowena (Montague), Elena (Dimas) Fr. Micola, Fr. Stephanos, Richard (Kindell), Helene (Kindell), Joshua, Sheryl, Bertina (Busch), Will (Brown), Raul (McDonald), Lavinia (Busch), Dave (Brown), Diane (Atkinson), Kristin (Brown), Cameron (Brown), Evdokia (Gloria) Malanowski, Gregory (Nescott), Joel (Nethery), Lenore (Prawlocki), Carl MILITARY SERVERS: Christopher (Poupart), Mark Lopez (Popsuy)
NURSING HOME: Matushka Mary Milanovich, Xenia Vranesevich
HOME BOUND: Janet Altenhoff
EXPECTANT MOTHERS: Julie (Noe), Milena (Muresanu)
NEWLY DEPARTED: Emily (Harper), Carlos, Georgeanne CATECHUMENS
Caleb, Ginny, Jane, Justin (Nelson), Kallista, Nicola, Estephany Please let Father know if there is anyone you would like to have prayed for and added to this list. Use this list in your daily prayers to remember those in need, and the faithful departed. Cards and well wishes can be sent to anyone on the list. | | BIRTHDAYS & ANNIVERSARIES
Birthdays
18th Peter Morosov
20th Emily Shoemaker
21st Tom Lucas
22nd Robert Thanski
24th Gillon Helman
Anniversaries
no anniversaries this week
God Grant Them Many Years! | | LIVES OF THE SAINTS
Read about the lives of the saints commemorated this Sunday on the Orthodox Church in America website here. | | BULLETIN DEADLINE REMINDER
Deadline for announcements for the weekly bulletin is by the end of day on Wednesdays. Bulletins are typically sent on Thursdays. Anything received after the deadline will appear in the following week’s bulletin. Email announcements to annmarie.mecera@gmail.com. Thank you! | | CLERGY & CONTACT INFORMATION
Orthodox Church of St. Stephen the Protomartyr
Orthodox Church in America I Diocese of the South
1895 Lake Emma Road, Longwood, FL 32750
386-227-7056 https://ststephenoca.com/ Mailing Address: Orthodox Church of St Stephen,
P.O. Box 950209, Lake Mary, FL 32795 Fr. Daniel Hickman, Rector, 407-388-4241, frdaniel@ststephenoca.com
Fr. Deacon Mark Reudelhuber, 407-718-2549
dnmark@ststephenoca.com | Please contact Fr. Daniel Hickman for all pastoral issues, hospital visits, emergencies, etc. Please keep him abreast of any issues that come up. | | |
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