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ST.MICHAEL'S HOLY GOSPEL, SERMON AND EPISTLE READING

His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH, Archbishop of New York

and Metropolitan of all North America

His Grace Bishop THOMAS, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of

Charleston, Oakland and the Middle Atlantic

Archpriest John Nosal, Pastor

Divine Liturgy Every Sunday at 10:00am
CLICK HERE to view the St. Michael's calander

Our mission...

...is to tend to the flock of our Lord Jesus Christ and to spread the Good News of Christ to those outside the flock.  The mission is to be accomplished by:

• Living a full and liturgical and sacramental life
• Proclaiming the Orthodox Christian Faith to all people
• Providing effective charitable and social programs
• Establishing strong spiritual leadership and educational resources

The mission of the members of St Michael’s Orthodox Church is to become completely loving people.

(Luke 10:27)   This will occur by the Grace of God as we strive to live holy lives, using the tools He has given us for this endeavor: prayer, fasting, charitable works, and the constant remembrance of death.

HAPPY and HOLY New Year to everyone. The year begins with the celebration of the Great Feast of Theophany (Epiphany) which guides us into the cosmic mystery of the Uncreated God Who is the Maker of all things visible and invisible. This is the big reality that sets us apart from most spiritual paths. Our God is the maker of everything, He Himself being unmade. The notion at God makes everything from nothing is perfectly startling. But that’s what we claim God has revealed to us. As beings that are capable of pondering such a thing, it is important that we do just that. We Orthodox Christians claim to have the fullness of Truth about everything. To make such a claim and care nothing about what it means is to show ourselves to be mighty unfortunate and deeply shallow people

So the seasonal challenge will be to try and cultivate growth in all of us regarding our “wonder-level.” That’s what house-blessing season will be about. Think about these things before Fr. John visits and blesses your house.

House Blessings 2019: The “Go to God” Tour

Dear parishioners of St. Michael’s,

The Great Feast of Holy Epiphany (January 6) falls on Sunday this year.   Following Divine Liturgy on that day we will proceed to our usual place at the Upper Twin Lake to celebrate the Feast with the invigorating Outdoor Blessing of the Waters.

The end of this cosmic prayer marks the beginning of the House Blessing season when, ideally, the homes of all our parishioners will be visited by me. This is a daunting task, not because we are so large a parish (which we are not), but because we are typically busy citizens of the world.   It is very difficult to schedule times when all family members are home but also critically more important to do just that precisely because our cultural energy is pulling us away from opportunities such as this for prayer and fellowship with each other.

This year I hope to add a bit of a thought-provoking twist to our encounters by asking you to think about what it means that we are beings who are created and called to “go to God.” Please do this little bit of homework that may add more direction and meaning to our time together.

Church Secretary Debbie has been called on to help produce the miracle of scheduling our visits before the arrival of the Triodion season ,when we begin preparing to prepare for Great Lent and Holy Pascha. This will give us about 8 weeks to accomplish this work

I look forward with great anticipation to your house blessing and our getting together.

Fr. John

Poinsettia Offerings

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Prayers and Poinsettia Offerings

Memory Eternal and Blessed Repose...

Click HERE to see

Prayers and Poinsettia Offerings

Memory Eternal and Blessed Repose...

The Annual “March for Life”
will be held on
Friday, January 18,
in Washington, D.C.

”The Mission

of St Michael’s Orthodox Church members

is to become completely loving people.”

“Jesus answered and said, ’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” - Luke 10:27

“Loving” is a word that is just as startlingly impossible for us to wrestle with as was the “completely” before it. While the lawyer quoting the Law in St. Luke’s Gospel account is able to quote the letter of the law and the primacy of the commandments to love God and neighbor, he, like most of us, falls woefully short of truly comprehending, let alone living, those commandments. Yet we may discover that the simplicity of the reality is as stark as our inability to live it.

Without using any of the words we might expect regarding love, in this Bulletin I’ll use just one — BIG. Starting from the God end of things, we might say that God is BIG. He is BIGger than anything imaginable. He is BIGger than anything unimaginable. His BIGness ‘beyond measure’ makes perfectly good sense as God ‘exists,’ God IS, before anything else IS. Anything that He creates is within Him Who occupies and fills every corner of infinite space and time, even before space and time exist, and is, therefore, ‘smaller’ than Him. (All these words are totally inadequate to this little writing about God, as are any other of the representational tools to which we humans have access.)

So maybe the ‘loving’ we’re called to become in our mission statement might well be described in the words of a hymn that many of us learned as children — “He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole, wide world, in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands. He’s got the whole world in His hands.” And as He made the whole thing, which means everything that exists, His BIGness is His love and Love is all that He is, as revealed in the pre-eternal Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As no thing does not fit in His hands, as no thing is outside of His hands, then His BIGness is the love that embraces everyone and everything all the time, even when some of the everyones, made to be BIG like Him, decide to play small. >>>=====>       >>>=====>       >>>=====>         >>>=====>         >>>=====>     “Playing small” could be a definition of what it means to be fallen and sinful, a status we arrived at in the Fall of Mankind in the Garden of Eden. When we play small we abandon the BIGness endowed by God to us in our creation. We bury our BIGness, a formidable accomplishment, under an ever-thickening, yet illusory, mantle of smallness, exchanging the BIGness in us for our own self-designed, scaled down version of humanity. We no longer see ourselves as BIG (Godlike/loving), but small (petty, self-centered, hateful, legends in our own minds, abandoned, fending for ourselves at each others’ expense).

So, how do we regain our BIGness? How do we fix ourselves and become completely loving people? We don’t. We can’t. We don’t need to. Our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, the BIG God and the BIG Man has done that for us. He has dug into the depths of our tiny, fallen souls, and restored the BIGness that was lying hidden and dormant under the façade and lie of smallness.

Yes, that is BIG of Him — to restore in us who follow Him, His BIGness which He gave to us in our creation and He now restores in us through the waters of the baptismal font and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But we have a dilemma. Our fear that we really are small continues to nag and haunt us and tempts us to fall back into the lie that we are small.

We need not worry. God continues to give us every opportunity to once again experience His BIGness in ourselves — to become, by His Grace — as BIG as He is. He does this by including in the flow of life challenges that give us opportunities to exercise our BIGness against our seeming smallness. Our egos must be wrestled with. Our self-interest must be battled. Our pride must brought to its knees. And this is just the kind of warfare we’re built for. Let us give Him a BIG “Thank You” and promise to fight to let His BIGness be known wherever we go through our BIGness.

God made us BIG.

We forgot and got small.

Get BIG Again!

On Tuesday, January 29th the Antiochian MEN will prepare a free meal for the benefit of people in our community. There are at least two ways in which you may participate in this charitable activity. The first is to come and help with the planning and execution. The second is to support the event financially. Donation may be given to Gus Flizanes. Anyone who would like to support “Food on the Hill” in whatever capacity you would like should contact Gus Flizanes.

Those who attend our “Food on the Hill” luncheon are also the same people who make use of the generous donations made to “Caleb’s Cupboard,” (which is located at the front entrance of the church). If everyone brought in one item of canned food, or a paper or hygiene product, it would keep Caleb’s Cupboard full so that there is something for those who attend “Food on the Hill” each month. The participants are most grateful for the continuous generosity of food, fellowship and donations. Thank you to the parishioners who consistently give of their time, their culinary skills, their financial and material donations to make these ministries possible.

"Food On The Hill" WEATHER CANCELLATION POLICY - When weather causes Hempfield or Greensburg Salem School District to close for the day; "Food On The Hill" will NOT serve lunch that day! Please refer to TV & Radio Newscasts when in doubt. Thank You!

St. Michael’s Financial Summary

Year to Date as of June 30, 2018

                                           This Year              Last Year                Budget

Income                            $146,899.53*         $143,463.83          $139,219.96

Expenses                        $186,696.72          $172,432.35          $185,922.78

Net Loss  $(39,797.19) $(28,968.52) $(46,702.82)

   *Does not include bequest of $107,718.33

Address questions to Christian Sam or Jeff Curry.

It has come to our attention that several parishioners have not received their 2019 Contribution Envelopes, which were mailed out on December 24.
If you have not yet received yours, please notify Debbie in the office (724) 834-1311 and you will be assigned new envelopes. Thank you.

His Grace, the Right Reverend Thomas (Joseph) is a bishop of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America, serving in the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic. READ MORE

CLICK HERE to learn about who St. Michael is...

WELCOME TO
ST. MICHAEL'S
STEWARDSHIP CORNER

Check out our new social networks...for...

PARISH COUNCIL MINUTES

CLICK HERE for December 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for November 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for October 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for September 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for August 21 2018 Parish Council Mimutes

CLICK HERE for June 19th 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for March 27th 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for Church Audit Report

CLICK HERE for January 23rd 2018 Parish Council Minutes

CLICK HERE for January 28th 2018 Parish Council Minutes 

CLICK HERE for March 1st February Parish Council Minutes

Saturday Morning, January 26th at 9:00am is the next AMEN meeting Site at Bean and Baguette on West Otterman Street in Greensburg, PA.

OUR INCOMING 2019 PARISH COUNCIL will highly resemble the outgoing 2018 Council with but two changes in personnel — Ronnie Fennell will be completing her service and Fontini Wetzel will be coming aboard. “Thank you” to all who have served for the past twelve months and “Welcome” to our incoming 2019 Parish Council.

ANTIOCHIAN VILLAGE

Summer Camp Registration NOW!

Winter Family Camp Registration

IS OPEN NOW!

Camp goes from January 18 thru 21, 2019

Winter Family Camp is a program that is the same as our summer Family Camp – except it’s during the winter! It is an opportunity for your family to get away from everyday life and take a weekend as a family to grow closer to Christ, in the beautiful setting of the Antiochian Village Camp.

Our gratitude is extended to Bacha Funeral Home,   516 Stanton St., Greensburg, for donating the 2019 Church Calendars.

You will shortly be receiving the Church Calendar, Community Christmas Card and the 2019 Parish Handbook, which also includes an up-to-date Church Directory. (2019 Donation boxes come after

We are seeking additional parishioners to provide the Holy Bread for Divine Liturgy service during the coming year. We have some open Sundays on the 2019 schedule, so please let Debbie know as the schedule is being done now. You do not have to make the Holy Bread, but can make a donation. Please consider this special way to remember your departed and to honor your living family and friends.

PLEASE INFORM THE CHURCH OFFICE if your child will be attending
Antiochian Village this Summer. Just call and leave a message. (724-834-1311)

OLD NAVY REBATES 14% to Churches through the SCRIP PROGRAM

Next Date for orders — January 13

The 2019 Antiochian Women’s
Post-Holiday Brunch

Sunday, January 13th at 12:00 noon

The Waterworks in South Greensburg.

The cost will be approximately $20.
(We will pay individually on the day of the brunch.)

Please sign up on the Fellowship Hall bulletin board.

Antiochian Village Camp Dates to Note —

• Winter Family Camp — January 18-21, 2019
• Winter Camp (Grades 7-12) — February 15-18, 2019
• Summer Camp Registration opens December 11, 2018.
• Visit AVCAMP.ORG to register today!

Highlights of Upcoming Events

DATES AND EVENTS

+++

Sunday, January 13
12:00pm Ladies’ Brunch at Waterworks
in South Greensburg. Sign up in Fellowship Hall.
Cost is approximately $20 paid at time of event.

+++

Shop with Scrip Order Due

+++

Friday, January 18-21
Winter Family Camp at Antiochian Village

+++

Tuesday, January 29th

12:00 PM - Food on the Hill
Please note the change from the
1st to the last Tuesday

+++

Wednesday, February 13

First Lutheran Luncheon
Greensburg; sign up in Fellowship Hall.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23

American Red Cross Blood Drive
9:00AM TO 2:00PM

Tuesday, June 4 - SAVE THE DATE!
Atlanta Braves vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

FOCUS Pittsburgh

(Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United for Service)

FOCUS Pittsburgh is collecting clothes (clean and in good condition, please) for the very, very needy people (many homeless) in the Hill District neighborhood of the city. Clothing including coats, jackets, sweaters, trousers, shirts, blouses and other tops, shoes, handbags, gloves, scarves, etc., are all gratefully received and appreciated.  

There is a drop-off area at the top of the stairs at the main entrance for those who would contribute. The contact person for this project are Marilyn Elias.

We are seeking new members who would be interested in learning how to prepare the Memorial Wheat. We have a group of women who currently fulfill this important function and are willing to teach anyone who may be interested in becoming part of this ministry team. For more information, contact Val Flizanes or call the church office.

CALEB’S CUPBOARD

The big chest you see as you come through the main entrance of our church, is a simple way to help our hungry neighbors. Just bring in a few cans of food or other unperishables when you come to church and you will making a difference for someone.

Please check that the goods you bring are “reasonably” close in time to the expiration date. (While we know the food lasts longer than that date, it is not always easy to tell how much longer.)

       I.nternational
O.rthodox
C.hristian
C.harities

IOCC SYRIAN RELIEF UPDATE

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this year’s Syrian Relief Dinner back on March 4.   Net proceeds of $37,129 were sent to IOCC which mean the Syrian people received $260,000 in leveraged aid through this effort.

For information on IOCC and how to become part of the worthwhile work being done, visit www.iocc.org.

Please CLICK HERE for the form to provide us with your information. Or, see the form on the new back page of the weekly bulletin. We want to serve you better and we need your help. Please understand that we will protect yur privacy from the standpoint of the church. We will not show or distribute your email address!

 CLICK HERE For Daily and Other Special Orthodox Prayers and More

CLICK HERE for phone and email information of your parish council members

January 6th Attendance ~

Try it......Click Here