St. Mary e-Newsletter for Friday, November 27, 2020
PRAYER AND WORSHIP
Every Sunday Orthros is at 8:45am, followed by Divine Liturgy at 10:00am. Members of St. Mary’s laity may attend Sunday services in rotation by invitation, with appropriate physical distancing throughout the nave.
Please visit our church webpage under “News,” “COVID-19 Safety
Directives and Policies” (https:// www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/news/covid19safety) to review the procedures for attendance.
All the Divine Services held in St. Mary’s Church can also be seen live-streamed at www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/live or https://www.facebook.com/stmarycambridge or www.youtube.com/stmarycambridge
Monday–Saturday you can join Morning Prayers on Zoom with James & Brooke Wilcox. They write: “Morning Prayer has now become part of our daily routine, where we are joyfully able to participate with others in the St Mary’s community. And thanks to the power of the internet, and the influence of other participants, we now have people joining us each morning from Chile, Arizona, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York City and other portions of Massachusetts as well. We are always happy to add more!”
We run morning prayers for 15 minutes each morning, Monday through Saturday, beginning at 8:45am: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/377381275 password: 28052020
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Stewardship
Our 2021 Stewardship Pledge Drive is 100% on-line this year. To make a pledge: https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/donate/stewardship-2021-pledge-card. Please make your pledge for 2021 by Sunday, December 6.
For more information on our Pledge Drive, including FAQs, see https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/donate/stewardship-2021-pledge-drive
Parish Council Elections
Ballots for the Parish Council elections were mailed to all parishioners in good spiritual and financial standing last week. Ballots must be returned to the church by Sunday, December 6. If you did not receive one and are a member, please contact Fr. Antony (frawhj@gmail.com) or Mary Winstanley, Parish Council President (moconnor@koilaw.com)
Donations to the Church
One-time donations to the church (For the Good Health of, In Memory of, etc.) can be made on our website using this new form: https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/donate/donate-now
In addition to bank ACH transfers, we now accept credit cards for these donations, but kindly ask that you check the box to cover the 2.6% fee incurred by the church for this convenience. For pledge contributions, please sign up for eGive to make ACH transfers.
Parish Christmas Card
Let the Women's Club send a lovely Christmas card on your behalf to our parishioners. Save yourself time, let us do the work, and have all proceeds benefit the Antiochian Women's Project 2020-2021. You will receive this card with the names of parishioners, like yourself, who are wishing a Blessed Nativity and a Merry Christmas to all. You can use the form in the Sunday bulletin or simply write us a note, telling us how you want your name to appear on the card, and send it with a check in any amount payable to St. Mary Women’s Club. Mail them to St. Mary Church - Women’s Club, 8 Inman St., Cambridge MA 02139-2407. OR now you can donate online via eGive! As an alternative to checks and turning in the form, go online to St. Mary’s donation page and select the Christmas Card Donation fund: https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/donate/donate-now. You can enter the name to appear on the Christmas card right there.
Deadline: Sunday, December 6.
Donations for the Holy Nativity
If you would like to donate toward the Poinsettias and Nativity decorations, please provide us with your name, telephone, and email, and whether the donation is for the Good health of [name], Continued good health of [name], or in Memory of [name], and mail with your check to St. Mary Church, 8 Inman Street, Cambridge, MA 02139-2407. Or you can use the new form on our website: https://www.stmaryorthodoxchurch.org/donate/donate-now
In addition to bank ACH transfers, we now accept credit cards for these donations, but kindly ask that you check the box to cover the 2.6% fee incurred by the church for this convenience. For pledge contributions, please sign up for eGive to make ACH transfers.
Donations will be printed in the December 20, 2020 Bulletin. Deadline is December 13, 2020.
Angel Tree Every year St. Mary’s supports the Angel Tree ministries by helping to purchase and deliver gifts to the children of our local incarcerated community. In the past couple of years your support for this effort has been tremendous and we’ve increased the number of children we serve from 50 to 150 a year! (click soon and often please!!)
Due to the pandemic, children will be sent a gift card this year, and donating is as easy as clicking this link and selecting your child and donation amount: click
https://tinyurl.com/stmaryangel, code DLYFL, then select your child(ren) and level ($22/$42).
If you have any questions or need help navigating please contact me at flessas99@gmail.com or (608) 239-4887. THANK YOU!! Greg Flessas
Orthodoxy 102
Orthodoxy 102 is an adult education class designed for Christians who have spent many years in the Orthodox church, but have never had any formal teaching on the theology and liturgical structure of Eastern Christianity. This is the second year the class is being offered. It will meet weekly to journey through the structure of the Divine Liturgy, while taking an in-depth look at Scripture, the Ecumenical Councils, our iconography, and the meaning and application of Orthodox theology. If you would like more information or want to join, please email drjamesis@gmail.com (or introduce yourself to Subdeacon James on any Sunday following the liturgy, if you’re there in person). The class begins at 7:00pm every Monday on Zoom.
Enquirers Class
The St. Ignatius Catechetical course – Enquirers’ Class is currently postponed due to the illness of Bob Kowalik, its leader.
People Helping People
A number of parishioners have made known their desire to help people who need assistance. The church office is keeping a list of volunteers. Call the office if you would like your name added to the list of volunteers. There can’t be too many.
If you know of anyone who needs any sort of help call the church office (617) 547-1234 to make the connection. Remember, many people are ashamed/afraid to ask for help. Keep your eyes and ears open and ask about needs with kind concern.
REFLECTION
In Job there was no trace of avarice; therefore, when he lost everything, he remained undisturbed.
- St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Some people with possessions possess them dispassionately, and so when deprived of them they are not dismayed but are like those who accepted the seizure of their goods with joy (cf. Hebrews 10:34). Others possess with passion, so that when they are in danger of being dispossessed they become utterly dejected, like the rich man in the Gospel who went away full of sorrow (cf. Matthew 19:22); and if they actually are dispossessed, they remain dejected until they die. Dispossession, then, reveals whether a man's inner state is dispassionate or dominated by passion.
- St. Maximos the Confessor
But how can those who are tethered to their inheritance be following Christ? And those who are weighed down by earthly desires be seeking heaven and aspiring to the heights above? They think of themselves as owners, whereas it is they rather who are owned: enslaved as they are to their own property, they are not the masters of their money but its slaves. The Apostle was pointing to our times and to these very men when he said: "For they that will become rich, fall into temptation and into snares and into many hurtful desires, which drown a man into perdition and destruction. For the desire of money is the root of all evil; which some coveting have erred from the faith, and have entangled themselves in many sorrows." (1 Timothy 6:9-10)
- St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Lapsed