First step into the New Life in Christ....

pic by Dn. Taras at Andy Lanteigne's baptism.

hmm....wonder whose knees those are! :-)

There are many more photos from that day, including some wonderful ones in the altar of things we never get to see-- when our website gets revamped, it might be possible to make an educational slide show!

Oooh! Hey, Vic-- I just discovered we can actually add a slide show to the blog here, with photos hosted at Flickr. Would you like to try your hand at it?

Usury

Hi All,

its been a while since this blog has hosted any discussion, so I thought I would ask around and see what is out there.

I have never been taught much about money. My parents did a good job of ensuring that I knew the value and importance of tithing, so that has never been a question in my life, but I had no idea that Usury was such a big deal, recently I came across a video, which I have posted here that explains the way that banks make money. It shows that in the past, money was based on an agreed upon measurement of gold that the bank had and could produce on request, but now banks give out loans based on other people's agreements to pay back loans, which in essence, is a license to print money. This video explains in cleverly simple graphics and clear language how Usury is the cause of the problems that we are facing economically. It doesn't mention it specifically, but the inference is not hard to make or see.
A sort of local monk once told me that participating in the banking system was less than ideal, but as people who live in the world, there are not many options. Perhaps barter systems or interest free banking is an option?

Coffee Cup Commentary Podcasts now online!

I was asleep at the wheel, apparently-- Fr. Lawrence's regular Podcast is now online at Ancient Faith Radio!

I only found out when a listener sent this message to Fr.:

"I just wanted AFR and Fr Lawerence to know how much I am being blessed by this wonderful podcast . Also Fr Lawerence, thank you for the wonderful Akathist to Jesus Christ "Light to those in darkness". I heard about it through another podacst on AFR at a time when I needed to read and meditate upon it and I was able to order a copy. I was just listening to AF talk as I was cleaning and it caught my ear. The Holy Spirit works in His own way! Glory to God!"

Memory Eternal-- Barbara Sokolov

Mat. Barbara Sokolov fell asleep in the Lord yesterday. Some of our members will remember her and her late husband, Fr. Victor, from their service at Holy Resurrection Vancouver and the Holy Cross UBC chaplaincy in the late 198os before returning to the U.S. Please remember the family in your prayers.

Sunday's BBQ in celebration of the baptism...

Sunday's BBQ is only on it if it sunny. Or rather, it's off if it is raining. Gabe and I found conflicting weather reports online, so we don't know what the weather will be like.

However, if it is on, it's BYObeverages. We'll provide all the meat and buns abd stuff for burgers. Please bring a side dish to share.

Thanks!

- Amy & Gabe

finally!

sorry for the long wait.
it takes longer than you'd think to upload/sort/filter/photoshop the many millions of photos I take.
here, for your viewing pleasure: the goads

the goads & the saints

it was a great game, and an even greater time of fellowship following.

(more photos HERE)

GOADS - THE CHAMPIONS!

I JUST got news that the Goads have (gracefully) defeated the "Young One's" with Sticks in a grueling match!

CONGRATULATIONS MAINLANDERS!!

Please, someone, post pics as soon as you can!!

the time has come...

to taunt you a second time.




are you ready to travel back in time, to a place of wonder and astonishment?
where feet fly past at rates so fast
your neck hurts trying let your gaze follow the ball behind your goalie?


Though I miss you, my mainland brethren, I look forward to being on the winning team.


yours,

David

such a lovely image, i almost hesitate to post... but did want to pass along an invite on a related theme... we'll be having a jack and jill baby shower for jennifer ness-wicks (husband alex and son gabe) this sunday afternoon in the backyard of st.john's house (1967 napier-just off commercial drive). jenn's expecting their little one in the next couple of weeks. if any of you, who know jenn, would like to send along a card, i know that muryn jordan is hoping to come by, after liturgy at st. herman's. on a personal note, i look forward to attending andy's baptism; see you all then!! - miss you guys, kim

Women of St. Herman's & Friends

Double Baby Shower For: Andy L & Matthew P

At BRUNCH, with a presentation from our DIAKONIA charity group
Saturday, August 30th 10 AM

in the church hall

Please bring:

• Brunchy food. If you’d like to cook something, please come a bit early.
  
• New SCHOOL SUPPLIES to donate to needy families
  
• Kids of any age unless you’d rather leave them home with dad

All the women of St. Herman's & their female friends are welcome to join us.

Andy's baptism

Andrew David Gabriel Lanteigne ("Andy") will be baptized on Sunday, September 21st at 10:00am!

To celebrate, we will be throwing a party/BBQ at our house after Church and everyone is invited! We live aaaaaall the way out in Chilliwack, but we hope you can all make it out for at least some part of the day to have a burger and toast to our newest kid!

Thank you - Two months minus one day

Thank you for your prayers – tomorrow will have be two months since the accident. I am now walking again! No more crutches or air cast. And today was my first real day of my job (when I finally did get to Toronto over a month ago, I was sent back early as they did not know what to do with me, even though I had explained the situation). I still walk with a bit of a limp at times, but am doing really well considering.

I especially remember the first weekend, when I was in a lot of pain (did not know I had two fractures and was not given pain medication), I was so comforted to know that I would be included in the prayers to the Theotokos that Saturday after vespers. Thank you.

This week marks my 4th anniversary of my chrismation and Labour Day will DV be my 5th year since I began my journey at St. Herman’s in earnest. I thank God for all of this and for the support and love that you all at St. Herman’s continue to give to so many.

Mt. Arrowsmith Hike

P1050236, originally uploaded by pasivirta.

St. Arseny Senior campers hiking at Mt. Arrowsmith. we have cool video of summer snow sliding too. see you next year!

may photos!

camp photos

who has them?

pt 2

Canada Day happiness

more photos -->HERE<---

He's here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Andrew "Andy" David Gabriel Lanteigne was born at 3:42am on Thursday, June 26th. He weighed 7lbs 14 oz and was 53 cm (20.75") long. He is perfect!

We are home from the Hospital now and are all doing great (besides being slightly sleep deprived). Thank you for all your prayers - we'll see you in about a month!

Love the Lanteigne's - Gabe, Amy, Owen and Andy!

with trepidation...

the Deacon and I are going ahead with the traditional Canada day party this coming Monday June 30th/Tuesday, July 1st. However, as many of you know, we are in the middle of trying to sell our house, so the issue is how to have the house back in mint condition for the next day.
Solution: how about if the people who choose to stay overnight for the post-party breakfast volunteer to be part of the clean-up crew the next morning, to get the house back in shape?
sound reasonable? good. so it's on.
byo: bottle, brush, bbq (& sleeping bags if you're an overnighter.)

see you there!!

welcome Andrew David Gabriel Lanteigne!

weighing in at 7lb14oz, he arrived on the scene at approximately
4:30 am this morning with the help of doula Matushka Sarah.

good work mom and dad! a baby brother for Owen.

St Herman's Monastery

Apparently there is a wild fire, out of control, on the ridge above the monastery in Platina, California. The monks have been evacuated to Redding, and they are asking for prayers to save the Monastery.

I had to beat her to it!!

Phil and I are excited to welcome into the great wide world our new daughter, Macrina.
Macrina kicked her way into the world at 2:33 pm with a beautiful cry and an energetic shove.
She weighed 3.33 kgs (or 7 lbs 5 1/2 oz) with a head circumference of 33 cm.
She is absolutely gorgeous.
Her patron saint is St. Macrina the Younger, older sister of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa and credited by them with being the driving force behind the saintliness of their entire family (including their mother). We thought this an appropriate name for an older sister.
We are overjoyed to meet her face to face.

Thank you for your prayers,
Phil, Biss, and Macrina

memories of camp

Long time no see!

That's right! We're coming home for a visit. And bringing our offspring to meet you all...

My cousin is getting married in Abbotsford on Friday the 27th, and we found a seat sale, and it's a great excuse to see old friends, family, and church family, and get away together for a week, all in one go...and introduce our son to everyone...the long and the short of it is that we'll be in town from June 24th to July 2nd, and at church on Sunday and hopefully even Saturday night vespers. We just can't wait to be there again and see you all...

We're also looking for places to stay while we're there. Do you, or does anyone you know have room to sleep two plus a baby (we're bringing a portable crib)? For all or any portion of the week we'll be in town (we don't mind hopping around if we have to)? We'll likely rent a car so we can get around, and we can look after our own food, but we don't have a place to stay yet.

I just can't believe the tickets are booked and we're actually coming...

Can't wait!

Cheryl, Matthew, and John Samuel

“Members of one another”

“Members of one another”

ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA
15th ALL-AMERICAN COUNCIL
November 10-13, 2008 ~ Pittsburgh, PA


November may seem a long way off, but this upcoming council should be the subject of all our thoughts and prayers well in advance.

The latest issue of the Canadian Archdiocesan Messenger is now available at church in hard copy. It should also soon be posted online at our Archdiocesan website. There you will read Vladika SERAPHIM’s article “The Time for Reconciliation”.

The OCA, of which our Archdiocese and thus our parish are both part, has been struggling with a crisis of trust for a long time, more and more openly since the last AAC in Toronto in 2005. This is not a crisis about the Holy Orthodox Faith, but with our failure as a church to live up to that faith in everyday matters of church governance, in particular the stewardship of finances.

You can find a timeline of the development of the crisis at this link. This site, Orthodox Christians for Accountability, is the initiative of concerned lay people. There have been posts from respected clergy and lay leaders in our church, such as Fr. Thomas Hopko and Fr. Theodore Bobosh.

You can find the blog about preparations and news of the upcoming council at this link.

Please pray for the clergy and lay representatives who will go to this council from all over the continent; for the Holy Synod of Bishops; for the Metropolitan Council; for the Pre-Conciliar Commission who are making the plans and preparations; for the ‘town hall’ meetings happening in several locations in advance of the council; and for all the clergy, monastics and faithful of the OCA. The first of these has already taken place in Ottawa, and I have heard an encouraging report of it from Mat. Laurie Rodger, who was there and who presented a statement which is now available online here.

Here is an appropriate prayer to Saint Herman by Mat. Julianna Schmemann.

Saint Herman's publications & communications

The June 2008 newsletter, with fasting rules and details of parish activities is now up at the saintherman.net homepage:

http://www.saintherman.net/index.htm

Hard copies will be at church this weekend with the June calendar attached, which is also updated online here:

http://www.saintherman.net/calendar/

Please be sure to get your copy and post it in an easy to see place!

Sunday bulletins have not been getting a lot of use, and the paper has been going to waste, so I am only going to print these on a week where there are announcements out of the ordinary not covered in the newsletter & calendar. If you have something that MUST be printed in a Sunday bulletin, please e-mail me by Saturday morning at the latest at matdonna@shaw.ca

There will be NO newsletters in July and August. There WILL however be a calendar for each of those months and Sunday bulletins is needed. If in doubt about any dates and times, you can always drop by here at Spruce Island and/or the calendar page at saintherman.net!

Come on GOADS, face your nightmare!

Dear Goads:

Please answer this skill testing question below:

We will not face The Island Saints on Monday June 30th because:

a) we lack the humility to lose again;
b) we were all tuckered out by playing on a real rink last year;
c) we don't like pancake breakfasts;
d) we have gotten used to bad coffee;
e) we are apathetic about important things;
f) all of the above;

Yours with sticks,

The Island Saints

+++

a beautiful day with the family

more pictures HERE

The Newest Francis

Basil catching up on rest after an exciting journey into the world.

Matthew gave me the go ahead--so it is with abundant joy that I give news of my sweet nephew, Basil Philip -- born to my brother Matthew and his wife Krista on May 19th. Basil arrived at 34 weeks and is a strong 4lbs 7oz. Please pray for continued strengthening for baby and mama, (and papa too!) xo

Online Homilies

While poking about the net for content for the Facebook group promoting Fr. Lawrence's books etc. I found some of the old homilies on the saintherman.net site. I thought some of the newer folks might not be aware of these, so here are some of the links. The old website needs an overhaul, and these things are not well organized, but there are lots to explore for anyone so inclined. I do know that an overhaul of that site is on the agenda for sometime in the future, but I don't know when. We are very grateful to the work Fr. Justin did for us in this regard when he was with us, but he is much too busy with St. John's to help out any further!

So here I've pasted in what I posted in the Facebook group-- I'm not certain if all the links will work or if the downloads will work either, but for what it's worth, here they are:

St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church: Finally caught up with the homilies...
http://www.saintherman.net/200...

MORE HOMILIES FOUND! Audio files at this page....beginning with an Annunciation homily, soon to be seasonal...I haven't checked each one carefully, so please let me know if any of them don't download properly!

Another homily, seemingly from August 05... I love Fr. Justin's little sales pitch! Many thanks for the work he did putting these up back then, before he got too busy with his own mission!

http://www.saintherman.net/2005/08/homily-blasphemies-of-christ-and-his.htm


And another-- Lazarus and the significance of names. I thought this one was gone, but here it is. http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/FrLawrence2006-10-22TheParableOfLazarusAndTheSignificanceOfNames.mp3

Another-- Cultivating the Soil of the Heart Oct 2006http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/FrLawrence2006-10-15CultivatingTheSoilOfTheHeart.mp3

Sorry these are not in any real order-- I am just posting them as I find them The Fears of St. Peter Oct 2006http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/FrLawrence2006-10-15CultivatingTheSoilOfTheHeart.mp3

This seems to be the main page with homilies indexed by date but no titles. So if you're looking for a particular topic, you'll have to root around. When I have time, I may look through and plan to message the membership or post one at a time at appropriate feasts or seasons.

http://www.saintherman.net/homilies/

The photo you've been waiting for....

God willing, after today's surgery, it won't be long before the pirate priest look is a thing of the past.....

On today's prayer list

As well as Fr. Lawrence's eye surgery today, Gregory G. will be going for his stress test on his heart to make sure that the swooning spells last week really were a result of that flu virus everyone seemed to catch, and not a heart problem. His family does have a very serious history of heart problems resulting in early death. All of his grand father's brothers died before the age of 40, two of his first cousins died of heart complications as babies and two other first cousins have had surgery to correct serious heart defects. To add to this, his elder sister has been suffering from heart palpitations for a year and Greg's heart has always beat kind of funny (skipping a lot). So please pray that the test comes back good.

Thanks everyone!

RHI

The Passion of the Christ

Hi, all,

Gelu passed this interesting article

http://www.laurentiudumitru.ro/The-Passion-of-Christ.php

on to me but with everything that's been going on I didn't get it posted sooner.

Memory Eternal

Joan A., Julianna's nana, has fallen asleep in the Lord. Regrettably, Fr. Lawrence cannot serve as he will be in Calgary at the Archdiocesan Council; but we are blessed to have Fr. John B. attached to the parish, and he will serve the funeral this Saturday at the church at 1 p.m.

Joan was a lovely lady of spirit who converted to the Holy Orthodox faith later in life than most. Her health kept her from frequent attendance at church, but some of you may have met her. It was especially delightful that she was able to join us last December at the women's quiet day at Theresia's house.

The family will be grateful for your prayers for the newly-departed Joan and for all who mourn and miss her. Memory Eternal!

a gramoda (sp) from Vladika for our retiring choir director

see slideshow here

Pascal BBQ pics

Click here to see more of Amy's pics of the Paschal BBQ (flickr account)...

Photos from last night

For more pics, click here to be redirected to Amy's Flickr page...

Holy Friday

Naomi and Maliah's Baby Shower on Thomas Sunday May 4th

Come and welcome baby Maliah into the world



Date: Sunday, May 4, 2008

Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm

Location: Ana's House - 7313 201B St.
Street: Langley

Email: muryn dot jordan at gmail dot com


Sunday, May 4th right after church - skip the church food and head over to Ana's for gifts, food and games. Leave the men and the kids at church but feel free to bring something edible to share.

A list of items that Naomi needs will follow soon...

Bell story is online!

At the Langley Advance....any of you in Langley who get the paper, is it in print yet? Please save some copies!

A few inaccuracies, which Fr. Lawrence is trying to get them to correct...

This Sunday is NOT "Orthodox Easter"--as our news release clearly stated Pascha is April 27th, and this Sunday's Blessing of the Bells is a separate occasion. Nor did Fr. Lawrence say we were currently "the only English-speaking Russian Orthodox (sic) church in the Lower Mainland"-- on the contrary, he mentioned the other English language parishes which have started since the time when we were indeed the only canonical Orthodox parish with services all in English (a long time ago now!)

....I'm afraid these things just happen with the media sometimes. They are doing the best they can to write up a short piece on a short deadline, on a complex subject they are unfamiliar with. The Advance reporter got a lot of good information packed into the little article anyway!

It must be mid-Lent, we're all a bit punchy....

Okay, so.....some of you may recall a post-Paschal conversation about beards we had a couple of years ago...well, maybe you'll recognized a few of the ahem characters in the latest Onion dome story......

Welcome baby Maliah

we interrupt all this stuff about bells to congratulate Ryan & Naomi on the birth of baby Maliah! Many years to all of you!

another image of the bells

photo by TJW

BLESSING of (RECYCLED) BELLS at ORTHODOX CHURCH

WHAT'S BEHIND THE DOORS?

Langley, B.C.-- What does the modern commitment to recycling have to do with the ancient faith of the Orthodox Christian Church ? Bells!

Sunday, April 6 at 10:00 A.M. , the Orthodox Church of St. Herman of Alaska in Langley invites the press and public to attend the blessing of their six newly-created bells—which began life as oxygen cylinders. Air Liquide donated the empty cylinders of high quality steel, which produces a beautiful sound. Deacon Kurt Jordan and musician Dan Steenburgh and their helpers cut the bottoms, ground the cylinders to the proper size to produce the proper tone for each bell, sand-blasted them clean and painted them. Now there are six less cylinders as potential land-fill and six more instruments to beautify the world with music and proclaim the glory of God.

In the rite of blessing, each bell is sprinkled with Holy Water, anointed with Holy Chrism (blessed oil) and named. In this case, the bells are each named for different saints of Alaska who brought the Orthodox Faith to North America—one of whom is St. Herman himself, the patron of the parish.

The bells will be rung before each Sunday Liturgy to summon the faithful to worship, and on Pascha, to announce the Resurrection of Christ. (Orthodox Pascha—or Easter—is on Sunday April 27 this year.)

The Church is on the corner of 72 Avenue and 198B Street. The bells and their enclosure adjoin the church and will be sounded every Sunday at 10.00 am.

PHOTOS added Sunday Mar. 30: Dan testing sound, Deacon Kurt & Dan discussing bells.

snowy wedding

snowy wedding, originally uploaded by pasivirta.

here is one of the pictures from our wedding, click the pic for more. I miss my mainlanders, but it was nice to see you at said wedding. party pics will be up soon.

love,

team Pasivirta

Someone asked for a photo of Nicholas ...

Here he is, being churched by Fr. Justin at St. John's this morning:

another chattaway bites the dust!

I can never decide whether to go with the flash photo or the non-flash photo ... one's sharper, the other brighter ...

Anyway, some of you might remember my sister Michelle, who has visited St. Herman's on several occasions (including Pascha 2003, one of the very first Orthodox services I ever attended; gosh, has it been five years already!?). For the last little while she has been attending Holy Nativity Antiochian in Fort Langley, and this past Sunday, she was received into the catechumenate there.

So we all sang her a round of "many years" -- not for the last time, I'm sure!

Meanwhile, the twins turned two a couple weeks ago, and their baby brother Nicholas (born January 14) will be ready for churching in a week or two ... and then, at some point not too far down the road, he'll be ready for baptism ...

Lots of ceremonies, big and small, coming up in the future ...

happy namesday theo!

clicky-clicky here for more photo fun!

Terrific Party!

Well I think the costume party should be a tradition. Good fun was had by all.

Proof

having a baby kick inside you does not feel normal.
it feels like the baby got hold of some bubbalicious and is blowing big bubbles and then letting them pop.
i wonder what flavour?

...another former St. Hermanite makes good....

(...admittedly we share him with St. Peter the Aleut, Calgary...;-)

Kevin Wigglesworth receives scholarship. Congrats Kevin!

Mr.&Mrs.Pasivirta -God grant you many years!

more photos here

another far from ordinary sunday

MORE PHOTOS HERE!! (CLICK THE LINK)

Message from Fr. Lawrence January 27

Dearly beloved in Christ:
Glory to Jesus Christ!
Forgive my absence again today; I underwent another eye surgery on Friday, and the surgeon forbade me to return to work for a week. (The surgery was to remove the silicon gel from my eye.)
Today (January 27) is the feast of the translation of the relics of St. John Chrysostom. We are blessed to have some of his relics in our parish, which we bring out in procession every Pascha during the singing of his tropar at Paschal Matins. I wanted to speak to you about the words he uttered as he lay dying. You can read them for yourself, for they are written on the ‘west’ wall of the church, under his icon. As you see, he said, “Glory to God for all things!”
St. John’s success had attracted envy in very high and powerful circles, and these powerful men set about to destroy him. He had been lied about, persecuted by bishops, condemned unjustly by church courts, and driven into exile far from his beloved Constantinopolitan flock by the Empress. He appealed to other leaders and bishops in the Church worldwide for justice, but to no avail. When he continued to exert a wide influence even from exile through his letters, he was driven even further out into more remote exile, and forced to travel in winter through terrible lands despite his advanced age and his frail health. Worn out, battered, sick and exhausted, he died far his native lands, disgraced and defeated. And his last words were, “Glory to God for all things!”
I deliberately chose St. John’s icon and his last words for our west wall, because I wanted his last words to be the last thing we see every time we leave the Church and go out into the world. For the world will batter us. It will treat us harshly and unjustly. It will knock us about and bruise us. And when we see evil apparently unjudged and triumphant, it is easy to become discouraged. But St. John Chrysostom and his life urge us to courage. For Christ will turn all that we endure for truth into glory for us. St. John knew well the words of St. Paul, who wrote that nothing—neither death nor life, nor anything else in all creation— will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. No suffering can separate us from Him, and so in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Whatever the world has in store for us when we leave the Church, we can rely on God’s conquering love and be certain of our final victory. May St. John’s final words, written under his icon, be written over our life: “Glory to God for all things!”

God bless you all.
All my love in the Lord,
Papa Lawrence

update

Fr. Lawrence has had a successful eye surgery. He will be resting and recovering for a few days. It's been interesting around here, as the floor installation that was begun on the 14th ran into a few snags, and so that has been going on around us today of all days! We are now trapped upstairs subsisting on coffee and donuts....once the installers leave, it'll be off to pick up Chinese food for dinner!

thank you all for your prayers. I'll see you at church, if I don't come down with the cold that is threatening me...;-)

Surgery for Fr. Lawrence again

Fr. Lawrence's next eye surgery is scheduled for this Friday, so we would appreciate your prayers. This is to remove the silicon gel; the doctor also is considering doing some laser work on his other eye at the same time. He will therefore be recovering for a bit. Dn. Kurt & Fr. John Bingham have got the weekend services covered, and next Wednesday, a week today, Rdr. Greg W will lead reader vespers. God willing, Fr. Lawrence wil be back at services beginning with Sat. Feb 2, 9 a. m. liturgy for Feast of the Meeting.

Not to be morbid, but.....

Yesterday I caught a brief news piece on TV about the practice of Natural Burial.

"Natural burial" really is mostly what we Orthodox have always preferred to do, excepting that we do have a churchyard with headstones rather than trees (and in fact, here in the Lower Mainland, I think we mostly have to make do with general cemeteries rather than a parish churchyard attached to the church.) In some countries, there were/are wooden crosses rather than stones; and often, after decomposition, bones are dug up and removed to an ossuary so the grave can be reused. This is how some saints have been discovered to be incorrupt after death.

That seems bizarre to us in our death-denying, mechanistic culture. We need to remember that for most of history, this was just normal.

What left me aghast was the numbers cited on the TV report: apparently some NINETY PER CENT of British Columbian deceased are dispatched by means of cremation, a practice that is abhorred by the Orthodox church and only reluctantly permitted in jurisdictions where it is compulsory, such as Japan, or in case of an epidemic or disaster.

These articles on the Natural Burial site explode the concept that cremation is good for the environment, and describe how conventional burial is also bad. A summary of how cremation is actually done is found here.

Here is an article by the late Fr. Victor Sokolov (formerly of Holy Resurrection Vancouver) about Orthodox funeral practice.

Lots to think about. Is there in our future here the possibility of the Orthodox getting together to get our own burial ground somewhere not too far out of town, where we can do an Orthodox version of "natural burial"? Unless I am mistaken, as of now, most local authorities here in BC require either the conventional embalming or cremation. At the least, perhaps some of us should be thinking of getting together and buying a bunch of plots in some Fraser Valley Cemetery so that we can have an 'Orthodox area' where we can bless the graves together, even if we must still have conventional burial. I think the Greeks do have a "Greek section" in one or two of the Vancouver area cemeteries.

Any thoughts, anyone? We are such a young parish, we have done only a handful of funerals, most of those for non-members, over the 20 plus years we have been here. But unless the Lord comes, we will all face death one day. I think now is the time to start considering these very practical possibilities. Ideas?

caption contest!!

R: Give me that creme. You must relinquish it.

Fr. D.K.: No, I will take the creme and consume it now, while I can. LENT is coming so soon.

T: Hey, Guys. What do you have going on over there? Can I have some?

(click here for the rest)

the churching of baby Anna and other sunday stuff

another cute baby:

same cute baby, this time with cute aunty...

a visitor from across the pond looking contemplative and lovely:

and of course, you can find the rest of the photos on my flickr account.

Blessing Trout Lake

Pictures of St. John's Theophany Great Blessing of the Waters at Trout Lake can be seen here (and below):

Fraser River blessing on archdiocese.ca site!

Theophany blessing of Fraser River is now up on the Archdiocesan website!

It's a pdf, so I believe you'll need acrobat to read the article.

Feast of the Meeting February 2nd

Just a bit of advance notice-- although it wasn't officially announced, some of you may have heard that this was to be a vesperal liturgy on the eve of the Feast. However, it's also the eve of Dave & Laurenn's wedding (see post below!) and it turns out all our choir directors are singing at the wedding and will therefore have to be at the wedding rehearsal on the eve.

Therefore the new schedule for Feast of the Meeting will be :

Saturday February 2nd 9 AM-- Divine Liturgy

no matins before. Father & probably many other people will shortly thereafter have to head for the wedding venue, so I think perhaps there will not be much of an official meal-- we will have to sort it out on that day.

Wedding!

Hi,

This is David,


Laurenn and I are getting married. (WOOHOO!)


since you are a part of our church family, you are all invited to the ceremony, which will be at

7838 Canada Way, at Archangel Michael Serbian Orthodox Church, at 12:30 pm on Feb 2nd.

a short standing reception will follow.


I miss you all,

Theophany 2008

see the rest of the photos here.

Last year's Theophany photos--blessing of the Fraser River

Photos are here and here

If you missed it last year-- it's really cool, don't miss it this time!

I think somebody suggested last time we ought to have hot chocolate at the park afterward-- anybody have an idea how to manage that for a large crowd in a park?

Christmas goodbye, Theophany hello!

Don't forget today is the last day of the fast-free period. Tomorrow, the eve of Theophany, although it is a Saturday, is also a FAST DAY.

Bring your bottles for holy water to vespers tomorrow night.

The FEAST of Theophany is this Sunday, so do please bring festal food. We will have lunch and, weather permitting (so far it looks promising!) we will then quickly head out to Derby Reach provincial park (see map here) to bless the waters of the Fraser River.

Gosh. Should we have thought sooner about getting the media there for a photo op? and/or does anyone have any photos of last year's blessing to post here? I think we could at least try to take some & write it up for the Archdiocesan web site this year.

In any case, we will meet at the parking lot by Edgewater Bar, off Allard Crescent.

Orthodox Readings - January

In the temporary absence of our annual calendar, please find attached a link below for January's Scripture Readings:

http://www.goarch.org/en/resources/dailyreadings/

Happy Reading!