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