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