Skip to Navigation

afrishman's blog

Orthodox Institute 2009

November 5-8, 2009
Antiochian Village

This year’s theme:
Beyond the Classroom

We are pleased to present two keynote speakers:


His Grace, Bishop THOMAS

Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic


Paul Finley
Executive Director of Antiochian Village


Courses for Teachers and Church School Directors
Cost to take 6 courses is only $50.00. (Meals and lodging extra.)
For more information, contact:
Department of Christian Education
717-747-5221
aodce@aol.com
www.antochian.org/christianeducation

We will still be accepting registrations beyond the October 9th deadline while space allows. Register today!

Download Flyer (PDF)
Download Brochure | Registration Form

Contacts

Antiochian House of Studies Contacts

Director
Fr. Joseph J. Allen

Registrar
Deacon Peter Boulukos

Registrar
Genny Mandalakis

Department personnel may be contacted by

Phone: 201-569-0095         Fax: 201-568-6933

E-mail: theoedu1@aol.com 

Mrs. Genny Mandalakis, Registrar, Email: ahosma@nj.rr.com

or via

St. Anthony Church
385 Ivy Ln.
Bergenfield, NJ 07621-4508

Donate

Donation Form

To donate to any of the Hauran Connection programs, please complete a donation form (PDF) and mail it with your check to:

The Hauran Connection
c/o Dn James Kallail
13213 E Bridlewood Ct
Wichita, KS 67230

Donations of any amount, large or small, are appreciated. Your donations will support:

  • Archdiocese Parishes: maintenance and upkeep
  • Clergy: salary and housing support
  • Education: dormitories for university students
  • Food and Sanitary Assistance: for any needy family who lacks basic daily nutrition and living expenses
  • Medical Assistance: for any person needing medical assistance
  • Educational Assistance: dormitories and supplies for university students

May God bless your generosity!

Lenten Resources and Links

Throughout the exploration of our page, we have discovered many valuable archived articles, resources, links, and activities that pertain to Great Lent. These may prove to be quite beneficial to you in the coming weeks and months. These offerings have been gathered and organized below, for you to explore, read and utilize.

Ways to Share Great Lent and Pascha with Your Child

Children are never too young to be brought to Church for services. The sooner we introduce them to the Church, her services, and her wisdom, the sooner we begin the process of "becoming" an Orthodox Christian. In order for Orthodoxy to make sense, our children need to experience all that the Church offers.

Make it part of this year's Lenten commitment to attend more services, or attend more often. When Holy Week comes, block out all other activities. Make it a point to attend every service you can with your children. Be creative so that you can keep little ones directed and occupied. Locate service books for children who can read. Explain what's going to happen. Talk about what Holy Week and Pascha were like when you were growing up.

The following article is taken from the Orthodox Family Life Archives:
http://www.theologic.com/oflweb/lentpask/share.htm

 

Ways to Share Great Lent and Pascha with Your Child

by Ann Marie Gidus-Mercera

Take your child to Church! 

Whenever a service is scheduled, plan to attend. Services like The Canon of St. Andrew of Crete may be physically tiring with the many prostrations, but don't think your child can't be a part of them. In my own parish, which is filled with pre-schoolers, the children do a great job of making prostrations right along with the adults. Many of the children will join in as "Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me" is sung. This experience is good for our children! If they see their parents attending services, they get the message that attending Church is important. If we bring our children to Church with us (both young and old), they get the message that their presence in Church is important. The Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is especially good for teaching our children that we worship with our entire bodies.

Attendance Certificates

Reward your staff and students by recognizing their efforts! There are two attendance certificates, one for older children and one for younger, which simply read "For Exemplary Church School Attendance." In addition, we have a "Recognition Certificate," which allows you to recognize every child for something if you wish— from a bright smile to listening well. Finally, we have an adult Appreciation Certificate. These are available both as a fillable word document and as a PDF. To use the fillable word document, simply click on the line under "presented to" or "awarded to." A gray box will appear in which you can type the name of the individual you would like to recognize. Print, sign and present!

The Feast Day of Theophany

On the day of Theophany we learned that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We also learned that when Jesus stepped into the Jordan River, the water was made clean. On the feast day, January 6, we remember that one day all of nature will be made clean and new again. Here is how we celebrate the feast....

Click here to read more (PDF)!

See also Why Do We Have Our Homes Blessed by Phyllis Onest

Many Years to His Grace Bishop NICHOLAS!

Apolytikion of St. Nicholas, Tone 4

The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, a model of meekness, and a teacher of temperance. Therefore thou hast won the heights by humility, riches by poverty. Holy Father Nicholas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

December 6th is the celebration of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and the name day of His Grace Bishop NICHOLAS. May God grant him many years!

Many Years to His Grace Bishop John!

September 26th is the celebration of the Holy Apostle and Evangelist St. John the Theologian and the name day of His Grace Bishop John. May God grant him many years!

Apolytikion of St. John, Tone 2

O Apostle John, speaker of divinity, the beloved of Christ God, hasten and deliver thy people powerless in argument; for He on Whose bosom thou didst lean accepteth thee as an intercessor. Beseech Him, therefore, to disperse the cloud of the stubborn nations, asking for us safety and the Great Mercy.

Great and Holy Wednesday

O Almighty Master, O Holy King, thou disciplinest yet dost not put to death, thou upholdest all who are falling, and raisest up all who are bowed down,30 thou relievest the physical suffering of mankind. We implore thee, O our God, to send thy mercy upon this Oil and upon all those anointed with it in thy name. Let it be effectual for the healing of their souls and bodies and for cleansing and for relieving from every suffering, disease, sickness, and defilement, of both body and spirit. Yea, Lord, send down from heaven thine healing power. Touch the bodies, alleviate the fever, relieve the suffering, and expel every hidden sickness. Be the physician of thy servants; raise them up from the bed of their sickness and cruel suffering; and restore them to thy Church in safety and health to please thee and to do thy will.

For it is thine to show mercy and save us, O our God, and unto thee we give glory, to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.

Liturgical Music Program for Teens

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6)

AVAILABLE NOW at: patristicnectar.org - $100 for Director and Student Manuals (Two Vol. Set). Purchase includes Rights to make one copy of Director Manual, and unlimited copies of Student Manual.

Proceeds benefit the Sacred Music Institute Youth Music Ministry (YMM) Program Scholarships.

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
www.antiochian.org/music

Tables of Contents


 

For many years now, Regina Roum and Elizabeth Beck have been teaching our young teens the musical traditions of the Orthodox Church, and inspiring them to have a love for singing these hymns in the church during our liturgical and divine services. They have taught them how to sing in unison using our beautiful Byzantine chant melodies, and they have shared with them how to sing in harmony using our choral arrangements as well.

Holy Tuesday: The Hymn of St. Kassiane

Listen to the Hymn chanted by the St. Romanos Choir of Beirut

At Bridegroom Orthros on Great and Holy Tuesday, the Church sings the following hymn by St. Kassiane:

O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, fulfilled the part of a myrrh-bearer; and with lamentations she brought sweet-smelling oil of myrrh to Thee before Thy burial. 'Woe is me,' she said, 'for night surrounds me, dark and moonless, and stings my lustful passion with the love of sin. Accept the fountain of my tears, O Thou who drawest down from the clouds the waters of the sea. Incline to the groanings of my heart, O Thou who in Thine ineffable self-emptying hast bowed down the heavens. I shall kiss Thy most pure feet and wipe them with the hairs of my heads, those feet whose sound Eve heard at dusk in Paradise and hid herself for fear. Who can search out the multitude of my sins and the abyss of Thy judgments, O Saviour of my soul? Despise me not, Thine handmaiden, for Thou hast mercy without measure.

Hymn of St. Kassiani sung by Grace Atherholt, Holy Week 2015 + St. John Chrysostom Church, York, PA

Second Sunday in Lent: St. Gregory Palamas

Planting the doctrines of Orthodoxy, uprooting the thistles of wicked opinion, O blessed one, and growing well the plant of faith with the rain of thy sayings, thou didst offer to God, like a good farmer, ears a hundred fold.

+ Orthros of the Feast, Tone 1

On the second Sunday of Lent, we celebrate the teachings of St. Gregory Palamas, who upheld the Orthodox doctrine that humans can know God not only through the intellect but through experience of His uncreated energies. 

... every day we should stand in awe of Him, as He is with us, and do what is pleasing before Him. If we are unable now to perceive Him with our physical eyes, we can, if we are watchful, see Him continuously with the eyes of our understanding, and not just see Him, but reap great benefits from Him. This vision destroys all sin, demolishes all evil, and drives away everything bad. It gives birth to purity and dispassion, and bestows eternal life.   + St. Gregory Palamas

Great Lent

 

 

 

Great Lent: The Journey to the Empty Tomb

As the sharp edge of winter cuts across February with its long shadows and long cold nights, Orthodox Christians know that this time of year is the herald of Great Lent, that solemn but beautiful 40-day journey to the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. With anticipation we look forward to that Lenten journey and what awaits us at the end of our spiritual travels: the Feast of Feasts, that great day of Pascha in which we proclaim, "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death."

-Archpriest Stephen Rogers

DOWAMA Clergy Brotherhood Retreat

2018 DOWAMA Clergy Brotherhood Retreat
February 13–16, 2018
Spiritual Life Center + Wichita, KS
Featuring guest speaker Bishop Irenei of Sacramento (ROCOR)

DOWAMA'S 46th Annual Clergy Brotherhood Retreat will be held at the Spiritual Life Center in Wichita, Kansas, Tuesday–Friday, February 13–16, 2018. The guest speaker will be Bishop Irenei of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). His Eminence will address his chosen theme in seven talks. (Read His Grace's biography on Orthodox Wiki.

Please note that we will begin at 5:00PM with Lenten Vespers (since it will be Tuesday of Cheesefare Week). If you have not yet done so, register today for the retreat by having your parish treasurer send a check (payable to "DOWAMA Clergy Brotherhood") in the amount of $450.00 to our Clergy Brotherhood Treasurer: Father John Salem - St Elijah Church - 15000 North May Avenue - Oklahoma City, OK 73134. For proper credit to be given, please be sure that your name appears on the memo line.

Theophany of Our Lord + January 6

O Jordan River, why wast thou astonished at beholding the Invisible naked? And he answereth, saying, I beheld Him and trembled; for how shall I not tremble and fear, when the angels trembled at sight of Him, heaven was astounded, earth was encompassed by trepidation, and the sea was bashful, with all things visible and invisible; for Christ hath appeared in the Jordan to bless the waters. (Tone 4)

He that encompasseth the heavens with clouds putteth on today the courses of the Jordan; and He that lifteth the sin of the world, cleanseth and purifieth me. Yea, the Spirit hath testified of Him from on high that He is the only Son of the Father on high. Let us, therefore, shout to Him, crying, O Thou Who didst appear and save us, glory to Thee. (Tone 1)

St. Basil the Great & The Circumcision of the Lord + January 1

In all the earth that received thy sayings, thy melody did resound, O righteous father, through which thou didst go about and proclaim, as worthy of God, the nature of creatures, cultivating the character of mankind, O thou of kingly Priesthood, Basil. Wherefore, plead thou with Christ God to save our souls.

+Apolytikion of St. Basil, Tone 1

When the Savior condescended for the sake of mankind, He was willing to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and He Who was eight days old on the side of His Mother, and eternal on the side of His Father did not disdain the circumcision of the flesh. Wherefore, let us cry to Him, O believers, Thou art our God; have mercy upon us.

+Doxasticon of the Feast, Tone 8

Many years to His Grace Bishop Basil of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America on his Namesday!
Read Fr. Thomas Hopko's reflection on today's commemorations
The Tradition of the Vasilopita

Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity

Today is born of the Virgin Him Who holdeth all creation in the hollow of His hand.
He Whose essence is untouchable is wrapped in swaddling clothes as a babe.
The God Who from of old established the heavens lieth in a manger.
He Who showered the people with manna in the wilderness feedeth on milk from the breasts.
And the bridegroom of the Church calleth the Magi, and the Son of the Virgin accepteth gifts from them.
We worship Thy Nativity, O Christ.
Show us also Thy divine Theophany!

(Chanted by Reader Nader Hajjar, St. Elias Antiochian Cathedral, Ottawa. Video by kalamation and Fr. Francois Beyrouti.)

St. Ignatius of Antioch + December 20

Like a living monument and an animate image, thy yearly feast is come, O God-bearing Ignatius, proclaiming thy mystic teachings and thy heroic exploits, thy resistance for the Faith even unto blood, and those blessed and celebrated words of thine, which said: I am the wheat of God, and in the teeth of beasts shall I be ground up. Wherefore, as an imitator of the Passion of Christ, intercede that our souls be saved.

+Orthros of the Feast, Tone 1

Read more about St. Ignatius the God-Bearer
Learn about The Order of St. Ignatius
Resources for the Nativity Season

2018 Winter Camp Registrations are Happening Now!

WAMP 2018!  Online registration for DOWAMA SOYO Winter Camp (a.k.a. WAMP) at Camp Saint Raphael, January 1215, 2018, is open at www.wamp2018.eventbee.com. Questions? Contact DOWAMA Youth Director Erin Ghata at: erin.ghata@gmail.com.

The Conception of the Theotokos + December 9

Anna besought the Lord in fervent prayer for a child. The voice of the angel proclaimed to her: God has granted you the desire of your prayer. Do not weep, for you shall be a fruitful vine, bearing the wondrous branch of the Virgin who will bring forth in the flesh the blossom Christ, Who grants great mercy to the world.

Today the great mystery of all eternity, whose depths angels and men cannot perceive, appears in the barren womb of Anna. Mary, the Maiden of God, is prepared to be the dwelling place of the eternal King Who will renew human nature. Let us entreat her with a pure heart and say: Intercede for us with your Son and God that our souls may be saved.

+Vespers of the Feast

Fr. Thomas Hopko on the Conception of Mary

St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra + December 6

The truth of things revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, a model of meekness, and a teacher of temperance. Therefore thou hast won the heights by humility, riches by poverty. Holy Father Nicholas, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.

+Troparion, Tone 4

Thou wast a faithful minister of God in Myra, O Saint Nicholas. For having fulfilled the Gospel of Christ, thou didst die for the people and save the innocent. Therefore thou wast sanctified as a great initiator of the grace of God.

+Kontakion, Tone 3

On December 6, we celebrate St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, the fourth-century archbishop of Myra in Lycia (on the southern coast of modern-day Turkey). None of his writings is extant, but his examples of Christian generosity, virtue and love endure to this day. St. Nicholas is the living embodiment of the words "faith without works is dead" (James 2:20). He is also the patron and protector of two cathedrals – Brooklyn and Los Angeles – in our Archdiocese.

St. Saba the Sanctified + December 5

Shrine with the incorrupt relics of St. Saba at Mar Saba Monastery near BethlehemSanctified from youth, O righteous Saba, thou wast a summit of righteousness equal to the Angels. Thou didst lead a heavenly life, and guide thy flock to godliness by word and deed. And they cry to thee with faith: Glory to Him who hath strengthened thee; glory to Him who hath crowned thee; glory to Him who through thee worketh healings for all.

+Troparion, Tone 1

Read about the life of St. Saba
Many years to Metropolitan SABA of our Sister Diocese of Bosra Hauran in southern Syria, who keeps this as his Name's Day!

The Holy Great Martyr Barbara + December 4

Let us honor the holy martyr Barbara, for as a bird she escaped the snares of the enemy, and destroyed them through the help and defense of the Cross.

+Troparion, Tone 8

Singing the praises of the Trinity, you followed God by enduring suffering; you renounced the multitude of idols, O holy martyr Barbara. In your struggles, you were not frightened by the threats of your torturers, but cried out in a loud voice: “I worship the Trinity in one God-head.”

+Kontakion, Tone 4

Read the life of St. Barbara

St. Andrew the First-Called Apostle + November 30

Let us acclaim Andrew, the preacher of the Faith and servant of the Word. For he fisheth men out of the deep, holding in his hands the Rood instead of a rod; letting down its power like a fishing line, he draweth up souls from the error of the enemy, and offereth them as a wellpleasing gift unto God. O ye faithful let us ever extol him with the choir of Christ’s disciples, that he might intercede with Him to be gracious unto us in the Day of Judgment.

+Doxasticon, Tone 8

Let us praise the divine leader and namesake of courage, first-called disciple and Peter's kinsman. For as of old Christ called to him so he now calls to us: Come, we have found the Desired One.

+Kontakion, Tone 2

On November 30 in the Holy Orthodox Church we commemorate the holy, glorious, and all-laudable Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

Syndicate content