St. Christopher’s Church schedule of Lenten services
April 13, 2008
Holy Pascha or Holy Easter will be celebrated by Orthodox Christians worldwide on Sunday, April 27.
St. Christopher Hellenic (Greek) Orthodox Church will offer a variety of Lenten Services throughout the Easter season. On Friday, April 11, the Akathist Hymn will be held at 7 p.m. On Wednesday, April 16, Service of the 9th Hour and Pre-Sanctified Liturgy will take place at 6:30 p.m., followed by a Lenten Dinner and Study Program. On April 19, the Saturday of Lazarus, 7:45 a.m. Orthos is followed by Divine Liturgy. Breakfast and tying of the crosses will follow. The community is invited. St. Christopher’s is at 313 Dividend Drive in Peachtree City.
For a complete Lenten schedule, visit www.saintchristopherhoc.org
Church schedule for the Orthodox Holy Week
April 13, 2008
Valley area Orthodox Churches information on upcoming Church Easter services. Orthodox Great Lent began March 10.
Nativity of Christ Russian Orthodox Church, Miller and Gibson Streets, Youngstown: April 20, Palm Sunday with Holy Liturgy at 10 a.m. and Holy Unction healing service at 6:30 p.m.; April 24, Holy Thursday, St. Basil liturgy at 10 a.m. and Orthros 12 Passion Gospels at 6:30 p.m.; April 25, Good Friday, vespers at 3 p.m. and Orthros burial and procession at 6:30 p.m.; April 26, Holy Saturday, Resurrection anticipation Holy Liturgy at 10:30 a.m.; April 26, Paschal Orthros, procession and liturgy at 10:30 p.m.; and April 27, Pascha, Paschal Agape vespers at 11 a.m.; April 28, Bright Monday, Holy Liturgy at 9 a.m.; and April 29, Bright Tuesday, Holy Liturgy at 9 a.m.
St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church, 301 Struthers-Liberty Road, Campbell: April 19, Lazarus Saturday with Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m. and vigil and blessing of pussy willows and palms at 6 p.m.; April 20, Palm Sunday, Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m.; April 21, Holy Monday, liturgy of presanctified gifts at 7 a.m. and bridegroom Matins at 7 p.m.; April 22, Holy Tuesday, liturgy of presanctified gifts at 9 a.m. and bridegroom Matins at 7 p.m.; April 23, Holy Wednesday, liturgy of presanctified gifts at 9 a.m. and Holy Unction 7 p.m.; April 24, Holy Thursday, vespers and liturgy of St. Basil at 9 a.m. and Matins with Passion Gospel readings at 7 p.m.; April 25, Holy Friday, royal hours at 9 a.m. and vespers with procession of Plashchanitsa at 3 p.m. and Matins and lamentations of the Mother of God and procession with Plashchanitsa at 7 p.m.; April 26, Holy Saturday, vesperal liturgy of St. Basil at 4 p.m. and Matins of Pascha at 11:30 p.m.; and April 27, Pascha, Resurrection of Jesus Christ Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m.; April 28, Bright Monday, Divine Liturgy with procession and Gospel read in several languages at 9 a.m.; and April 29, Bright Tuesday, Divine Liturgy with procession Gospel read in several languages at 9 a.m.
St. John Greek Orthodox Church, 4955 Glenwood Ave, Youngstown: April 19, Saturday of Lazarus, Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m.; April 20, Palm Sunday, Orthros at 9 a.m., Divine Liturgy at 10 and service of bridegroom at 7 p.m.; April 21, Holy Monday, presanctified liturgy at 10 a.m. and service of bridegroom at 7 p.m.; April 22, Holy Tuesday, presanctified liturgy at 10 a.m. and service of bridegroom at 7 p.m.; April 23, Holy Wednesday, presanctified liturgy at 10 a.m., sacrament of Holy Unction at 4 p.m. and Holy Unction and bridegroom service at 7 p.m.; April 24, Holy Thursday, Divine Liturgy of Last Supper at 6:30 p.m. and Holy Passion service with 12 Gospels at 7 p.m.; April 25, Good Friday, royal hours at 9 a.m., Apokathilosis vespers at 4 p.m. and Epitaphios service at 7 p.m.; April 26, Holy Saturday, Proti Anastasi Vesperal Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m., Resurrection Orthros at 10:45 p.m. and Resurrection liturgy at midnight; and April 27, Great and Holy Pascha and Agape vespers at 11 a.m.
St. Mark Orthodox Church, 3560 Loganway, Liberty: April 19, Lazarus Saturday with Holy Liturgy at 10: a.m. and vespers of the palms, 6:30 p.m.; April 20, Palm Sunday, Matins at 9:30 a.m., Holy Liturgy at 10:30 a.m. and bridegroom Matins at 6:30 p.m.; April 21 and 22, bridegroom Matins at 6:30 p.m.; April 23, Holy Unction (healing service for Orthodox Christians) at 6:30 p.m.; April 24, Holy Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. and Passions Gospels at 6:30 p.m.; April 25, Great and Holy Friday royal hours at 10 a.m., vespers at 3 p.m. and lamatation service at 7 p.m.; April 26, Holy Liturgy at 10 a.m. and Resurrection Liturgy at 10 p.m.; and April 27, Agape vespers at 11 a.m.
St. Michael’s Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church, 125 Steel St., Youngstown: April 20, Palm Sunday Divine Liturgy and distribution of palms and pussy willows at 9:30 a.m.; April 23, Holy Unction with healing oil service at 6 p.m.; April 24, vespers with Divine Liturgy of St. Basil and Holy Communion at 6 p.m.; April 25, Good Friday, vespers with placing of shroud of the Lord into sepulchre at 6 p.m.; April 26, Holy Saturday, service of the Resurrection Matins with procession at 6 p.m.; and April 27, Easter Sunday and Holy Divine Liturgy of St. John of the Resurrection and blessing of Easter food baskets at 9:30 a.m.
Sts. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 1025 N. Belle Vista Ave., Youngstown: April 19, eve of Palm Sunday with vespers at 6 p.m.; April 20, Palm Sunday Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. and vespers at 7 p.m.; April 21, Matins (bridegroom service) at 9:30 a.m.; April 22, Holy Tuesday, presanctified liturgy at 7 p.m.; April 23, Holy Wednesday, Holy Unction service at 7 p.m.; April 24, Holy Thursday, service of the 12 Passion Gospels at 7 p.m.; April 25, Great Friday, Plashchenitsa procession and vespers at 7 p.m.; April 26, Great Saturday, blessing of Paschal baskets at 6 p.m. in Orthodox Center; and April 27, Pascha, services of nocturnes, Paschal procession and Paschal Matins with Divine Liturgy followed by blessing of Artos bred and baskets at 7 a.m.
Greek restaurants celebrate Easter
April 8, 2008
Chef Mike Isabella of Zaytinya (701 Ninth St. NW; Washington DC, www.zaytinya.com, 202/638-0800) will give a demonstration of roasting lamb Greek style at 11 a.m. April 13 at the Freshfarm Market at Dupont Circle, 20th Street and Massachusetts Avenue Northwest. Mr. Isabella also will offer tips on cooking lamb at home.
This is part of Zaytinya’s two-week Greek Easter festival; the Orthodox Easter falls on April 27 this year. April 24 through 27, Zaytinya will be selling, by special order, tsoureki, the traditional Greek Easter bread. Reservations are required for the April 22 festival opening when complimentary wine and minimezze are passed from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The special Greek dishes available during the festival cost $9 to $12.
On April 29, Zaytinya will offer a four-course wine dinner, $75 per person. Dishes include melon salad and chilled swordfish marinated with Meyer lemon, chili, basil oil and micro verbena for the first course; artichoke avgolemono and a crispy squash blossom with lamb mialo for the second; roasted baby spring lamb, oregano potatoes, and pea shoots lemonata for the third; and for dessert, baby banana kataifi with Greek honey, and also apricot yogurt. Four Greek wines accompany the courses.
UPDATE > 11 April 2008 > Don’t forget this coming Sunday April 13, at the Dupont FreshFarm farmer’s market, Zaytinya chef Mike Isabella will be doing the Chef at Market demonstration, a special Greek Easter celebration. Isabella will spit-roast a whole lamb and give tips on how to prepare lamb at home. The event precedes Zaytinya’s two-week Greek Easter festival, which kicks off April 22 with complimentary wine and mini mezze served at the restaurant from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Greek Easter falls on April 27 this year, according to the Orthodox calendar. Look forward to lots of tsoureki, the traditional Easter bread.
» Dupont FreshFarm Market, 20th Street between Massachusetts Avenue and Q Street NW; 202-362-8889.
» Zaytinya, 701 9th St. NW; 202-638-0800. (Gallery Place-Chinatown)
Celebrate Orthodox “Pascha” or Easter
April 4, 2008
Back in the days when the world was not so small, the churches of the east and those of the west settled on different ways to calculate when Easter would be celebrated in the spring. Two formulas remain to this day, and in many years Eastern Orthodox Christians celebrate what they call Pascha at a time different from Catholics and Protestants. This year, Orthodox Pascha falls on April 27.
Holy Annunciation Orthodox Church on Prospect Street in Maynard invites everyone to share our celebration of the central acts of our salvation. Services, with special music for the season, are all in English.
Monday, April 21 and Tuesday April 22 at 6:30 p.m. Bridegroom Matins warns us to prepare for the wedding banquet of The Lord.
Wednesday, April 23 at 6:30 p.m. Holy Unction is offered to all Orthodox Christians for healing of body and soul.
Thursday, April 24 at 9:30: a.m. at the Vespers and Liturgy of Holy Thursday all prepared Orthodox Christians may receive communion as we commemorate the Last Supper. Then at 6:30 p.m. Matins of Holy Friday is served with the reading of the Twelve Passion Gospels.
Friday, April 25 at 9 a.m. Royal Hours of Great and Holy Friday brings us psalms Bible readings, and prayers to guide us to the heart of the celebration. At 4 p.m. comes Vespers of Holy Friday, when the Plashchanitsa is placed in a flower-decked tomb in the center of the church. At 7 p.m. Matins of Holy Saturday is celebrated with the singing of the Lamentations before the tomb and a procession around the church.
Saturday, April 26 at 10 a.m. Vespers and Liturgy of Holy Saturday are celebrated with 15 Old Testament readings and communion for Orthodox Christians.
Saturday/Sunday April 26 and April 27, Nocturns is sung in the dark church at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, followed at midnight by the Procession of the Cross around the church, then Matins of Holy Pascha and the Paschal Divine Liturgy, with communion for Orthodox faithful. These glorious Paschal services are followed by the blessing of baskets of food, which can immediately be shared in a community meal of celebration.
On Sunday, April 27 at 1 p.m. the joyful Vespers of Pascha is sung, and on Monday at 9:30 a.m. the Paschal Liturgy is celebrated again, with a procession.
For further information call Father Robert Dick: 978-897-7695.
Christians around the world celebrate Easter
March 24, 2008
From the streets of Caracas to a rain-soaked Saint Peter’s Square, Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday amid messages of renewal, peace and hope.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI called for “solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good” in Tibet, the Middle East and Africa during his traditional Easter message. Tens of thousands of pilgrims turned out to hear the “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message, sheltering from the pelting rain under a sea of umbrellas in the flower-bedecked Saint Peter’s Square.
In Britain, the leader of the world’s Anglican communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, warned that “comforts and luxuries” would eventually run out, and that civilisation in its current form would collapse.
As the faithful marked the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion on Good Friday, worshippers found ways to celebrate this holiest date in the Christian calendar in even the most difficult circumstances.
In Jerusalem, Christian pilgrims from around the world flocked to celebrate Easter in Jerusalem’s Old City where many believe Jesus to have been resurrected after his crucifixion.
In Venezuela, Holy Week celebrations conclude with a political twist each year with the “Burning of Judas,” in which unpopular politicians are hung and burned in effigy. This year Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was torched in the central Caracas neighorhood of San Agustin. Colombia and Venezuela almost went to war in early March, and Uribe and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have long had a testy relationship.
In China, the Tibetan Catholic Church in Cizhong, a Christian enclave on the threshold of the Himalayas, saw its Easter services curbed after anti-Chinese riots in Lhasa caused the region’s deadliest tensions in two decades. As a result, the tiny community of less than 1,000 souls, snuggled amid picturesque mountains in an overwhelmingly Buddhist area, has been affected by the recent unrest where it matters the most for them: religion.
In Australia, Anglican Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, focused on the environment. In Seoul, some 20,000 Christians held a non-denominational Easter service in front of city hall, raising money for victims of an oil spill last December. Throughout Germany, thousands of pacifists took part in some 90 Easter weekend demonstrations that included a bicycle ride demanding German troops pull out of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan itself, Canadian soldiers deployed through NATO received chocolate Easter eggs, although no chaplain was available to hold a mass at their base camp.
In Russia, Catholics, a minority in the mainly Orthodox Christian country, celebrated Easter at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Moscow. The Eastern Orthodox Church, which still uses the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar, holds its Easter on April 27. Orthodox Easter in Greece and Cyprus will be celebrated on this date next April.
Plastic Easter Eggs said to be linked to lead paint
March 19, 2008
A chemistry professor who raised an earlier warning flag about toxic lead levels in toy jewelry didn’t have to look far for evidence of similar risks in Easter items such as plastic eggs.
Thirteen of 45 items purchased off store shelves and tested by Ashland University chemistry students had paint made with lead, according to Jeffrey D. Weidenhamer, who has made the toy testing an annual spring rite for his students. Lead, a highly toxic element, can cause severe nerve damage, especially in children.
Two years ago Weidenhamer and his students produced a low-profile study showing many common toys and trinkets, most made in China, had hazardous lead levels. The next round of testing last year got more attention as the issue of tainted Chinese products including toys, pet food and toothpaste made headlines.
At Ashland, the biggest lead hazards were found in Easter egg spinning tops, plastic Easter eggs that typically are filled at home with treats, bunny hair clips and chick-style sipper cups, all exceeding the government paint standard of 0.06 percent lead content.
The Easter egg containers and tops were sold at a Hobby Lobby outlet in Mansfield. Hobby Lobby has directed stores to pull the items from shelves, said Vince Parker, director of training and customer service for the Oklahoma City-based chain. It also is doing additional testing on the products and cooperating with the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission to initiate a recall.
Weidenhamer said the toys with lead-based paint would pose only a small risk if the paint doesn’t chip and the item is discarded before it deteriorates. Still, the risk “is not negligible because of the high toxicity of lead,” he said. The biggest lead risk to children comes from homes, usually older ones which have lead paint that can chip and be ingested, Weidenhamer said.
Congress has weighed in on the issue, passing legislation to ban lead in toys as part of a bill to reauthorize the CPSC, which handles product recalls. House and Senate versions are awaiting a conference committee to resolve differences.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat and commission critic who has kept up with the Ashland research, asked the CPSC in a letter Thursday to review the campus work. “Consumers believe the government is looking out for them,” he told The Associated Press. “The government hasn’t done its job.” Julie Vallese, a commission spokeswoman, said watching out for lead in toys is a priority. She said Ashland’s past research, doubled-checked by the commission, has led to recalls.
An Ashland senior from Galena near Columbus, participated in the class project and was surprised by the results. With consumers often unaware of the lead content of items used by children, the participant said parents must be alert to the risks. “Monitor your children. If you’ve got smaller children, don’t let your kids put it in their mouths” said.
About 310,000 U.S. children ages 1 to 5, or less than 2 percent of that population, have blood lead levels that require treatment or other measures, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most get it from paint chips and dust in old buildings.
Related Links >
Ashland University > http://ashland.edu
Consumer Product Safety Commission > http://www.cpsc.gov
An old fashioned Christmas parade
October 16, 2007
“An Old Fashioned Holiday” is the theme for the 2007 Christmas Parade scheduled for Monday evening, December 3 at 6:30 p.m. in Fort Walton Beach.
Mayor Mike Anderson will serve as the Grand Marshal in this annual event, which will kick off the Holiday Season on the Emerald Coast. Musical entertainment will be provided by area school bands and participating applicants as the parade march moves up Eglin Parkway from First Street to Uptown Station.
Parade Officials are eagerly looking forward to an exciting and entertaining evening, and encourage all schools, bands, youth groups, churches and businesses, as well as civic, military, religious and service organizations to participate. The last float in the parade will feature Santa Claus accompanied by his elves which will be dispersing Christmas trinkets to the children, both young and old, along the parade route.
The parade entries will be divided into five different categories and the following awards will be presented:
Best Service Club Entry
Best Military Marching Unit
Best Commercial (Business) Entry
Best Entry by a Youth Organization
Best Entry by a Religious Organization
A panel of prominent citizens will judge the event and the winners will be awarded plaques and recognized at the City Council Meeting.
To obtain a parade entry application, or receive additional information on the Christmas Parade, contact JoAnn Hofstad at the Parks & Recreation Department located at 132 Jet Drive, Fort Walton Beach, or call (850) 833-9576. The deadline to submit parades application is November 28 at 5 p.m.
