ST. JOHN ORTHODOX CHURCH

1663 TUTWILER AVENUE

MEMPHIS, TN 38107

(901) 274-4119

www.stjohnmemphis.org

V. Rev. Fr. John Troy Mashburn, Jr. Rev. Fr. Nicholas Meyers

Pastor Assistant Pastor

V. Rev. Fr. Basil Cushman Rev. Fr. Donald Berge

Associate Pastor Attached

GREAT VESPERS ORTHROS and CHURCH SCHOOL DIVINE LITURGY

Saturday, 6:00 p.m. Sunday, 9:00 a.m. Sunday, 10:00 a.m.

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America

“…the Disciples were called Christians first in Antioch!”

Acts 11:26

Sunday of Holy Pentecost

June 7, 2009

Epistle: Acts 2:1-11 Gospel: John 7:37-52; 8:12

The Holy Bread for Eucharist is offered this morning by Reem Mansour.

Welcome to all those visiting St. John Orthodox Church. We are honored by your presence. It is our sincere desire that your participation today in the Divine Liturgy will draw you closer to Christ and His Church.

If you are from a non-Orthodox background you may see new things such as icons, incense, the sign of the cross, the veneration of saints, and a great deal of standing. These can be perplexing to the uninitiated eye. Rest assured that everything we do has a solid biblical foundation and a long history among Christian people. Please feel free to participate where you feel comfortable, and feel equally as free only to observe when you prefer.

The Orthodox Church understands the Eucharist, or Lord’s Supper, to be – among other things – the paramount expression of Christian unity. While it is our deepest hope that Christendom will one day fulfill Christ’s desire for true unity among all those who claim His name (John 17:21), the unfortunate reality of our day is that the various segments of Christendom are not unified with the historic Orthodox faith. Since participation in the Eucharist expresses a unity with all the dogma and practice of the Orthodox Church, non-Orthodox guests do not receive Holy Communion. The Holy Eucharist is reserved for those members of the Orthodox Church who have prepared themselves by prayer, fasting, and recent confession. All visitors and unprepared Orthodox are invited to partake of the blessed bread as they come forward to venerate the cross at the end of the Liturgy. Thank you for your understanding.

ST. JOHN CALENDAR June 7^th – June 14^th (No fasting)

Sunday - Teen Group – No Meeting

- Great Vespers with Kneeling Prayers, 6:00 p.m.

Monday - First Hour, 6:45 a.m.

- AWSJ – Book Club at Sarah Hodges’ home, 7:00 p.m.

- Teen Group – Redbirds Game

Tuesday - Third Hour, 9:00 a.m.

- Men’s Lunch, 11:45 a.m.

- Catechumen & Inquirers Class, 7:00 p.m.

- Choir, 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday - Third Hour, 9:00 a.m.

- Vespers, 5:30 p.m.

- Wednesday Dinner, 6:15 p.m. Please be sure to sign-up.

- Wednesday Teaching, 7:00 p.m.

Thursday - Office Closed ***Due to Parish Life Conference there will

Friday - Office Closed be no one in the church office Thursday or Friday.

Saturday - Ninth Hour and Great Vespers, 5:50 p.m.

Sunday - Orthros, 9:00 a.m.

- Church School, 9:00 a.m.

- Divine Liturgy, 10:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy Sunday, June 14^th, 10:00 a.m.

PRIEST: Fr. Basil HOMILY: Fr. Basil

DEACONS: Dns. Tim & James READER: Caleb McGee

HOLY BREAD: Jack Turner USHER: Aaron White

ALTAR SERVERS: Joshua, J. Morgan, Alex, Benji

COFFEE HOUR: Karen Bell & Maria Brackey, Rawad & Shanna Massouh

Upcoming Baptisms/Chrismations:

Misty Duke will be chrismated today, Pentecost, June 7.

Maureen Grace Stickle will be baptized on July 4

Out of town dates for Fr. John:

May 28 – June 6 – Wedding and vacation

June10 – June 14 – Parish life conference, Jackson, MS

July 20 – July 25 – Archdiocese convention, Palm Desert, CA

~ Please note ~

The office will be closed Thursday & Friday, June 11^th & 12^th due to Parish Life Conference.

COMMEMORATIONS

June 7: Hieromartyr Theodotos, bishop of Ancyra; Venerable Sebastian the wonder-worker; Venerable Cedd, bishop of Essex.

June 8: The translation of the relics of Great-martyr Theodore the General (“Stratelates’); Martyrs Nicander and Kalliope; New-martyr Theophanes of Constantinople.

June 9: Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria; Pelagia and the three Virgin-martyrs of Chios; Venerable Cyril of Beloezersk; Venerable Columba, enlightener of Scotland.

June 10: Martyr Alexander and Virgin-martyr Antonina of Constantinople; Venerable Theophanes the monk of Antioch and Pansemne the former harlot; John of Tobolsk, metropolitan and wonder-worker of Siberia.

June 11: Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas; Venerable Barnabas; The commemoration of the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to a monk on Athos and the revelation of the hymn “It is Truly Meet.”

June 12: Venerable Onouphrios the Great; Venerable Peter the Athonite; Venerable Arsenios of Konevits.

June 13: Martyr Aquilina of Byblos in Syria; Antipater, bishop of Bostra in Arabia; Triphyllios, bishop of Leucosia (Nicosia) in Cyprus.

June 14: Prophet Elisha; Methodios the Confessor, patriarch of Constantinople; Venerable Niphon of Athos; Cyril, bishop of Crete.

**For reading material on the saints for this week, visit the display in the church library.

DAILY SCRIPTURE READINGS June 7 – June 14

Sunday Acts 2:1-11 John 7:37-52; 8:12

Monday Ephesians 5:9-19 Matthew 18:10-20

Tuesday Romans 1:1-7; 13-17 Matthew 4:25-5:13

Wednesday Romans 1:18-27 Matthew 5:20-26

Thursday Romans 1:28-2:9 Matthew 5:27-32

Friday Romans 2:14-29 Matthew 5:33-41

Saturday Romans 1:7-12 Matthew 5:42-48

Sunday Hebrews 11:33-12:2 Matthew 10:32-33, 37-38, 19:27-30

- ALMS-GIVING –

St. John Alms Fund	St. John Camping Fund
St. John Food Pantry	St. John Seminarian Fund
St. Paul Mission Station, Tupelo	Rachels’ Kids, Inc.

Diocese of Miami and the Southeast Mission Fund

Michael Bittle Fund – Holy Trinity Orthodox Church – Little Rock, AR

Pray for our catechumens: In Memphis - Maria Cartagena, Maria Brackey, Lisa Martin, Barbara McWilliams, Jill Healy, Priscilla Neale, Misty Duke and David Twombly. In Tupelo - Shane Davis, Justin & Brandy Williams, Leah Hardy, Adam Clay, Casey & Jessica Hardy (Davis) and Justin Stevens. In Hernando – Donald Estes.

Please remember in your prayers: His Eminence, Metropolitan PHILIP, His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN, Archimandrite Roman Braga, Rev. Fr. Mikhail & the faithful of Spaso-Pargolovo (St. Petersburg), Buddy Taylor, Margaret Layman, Chris Hodges, Judy Smith (Julie Sanderlin’s mother), Shirley Gore (Judy Terry’s mother), Effie Johnson (Kh. Susan’s mother), Mary Clark, Hannah Snowden (pregnant), Shanna Massouh (pregnant), Ann Hicks (Dianna Hildebrand’s mother), Sue Ingram, Charles Ingram, Ted & Patty Greathouse (Shelley Snowden’s parents), Laura Greathouse, Reuben & Earlene Snowden (Gene’s parents), Joyce Bittle, Allen Sudduth (Paul’s father), Helen Robbins (Sheila Sudduth’s mother), Paul Sudduth, Brendan Healy (Jill’s son), and Eliot Twombly (David’s nephew).

ST. JOHN COMMUNITY:

Catechumen and Inquirers’ class will meet this weekon Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.

Parish Life Conference assistance for Teens - As Joshua has requested, the teens are raising money to assist in attending the Parish Life Conference. Those who receive assistance will participate in the Oratorical Festival at the conference. As of today, we have received $620 in donations toward their goal.

Feast of Pentecost – TODAY, June 7th

Special treat – Fr. Michael Dahulich, the Dean of St. Tikhon’s Orthodox Seminary, is here with us for Pentecost. He will preach the homily today, and will take a few minutes during our pot-luck meal to talk with us about the seminary. As most of you know, we have graduates of the seminary on our staff, Fr. Nicholas and Subdeacon Joshua, and another from our parish who is a student there now, Matthew Snowden.

One change - Until this year we have always done the vespers service for the kneeling prayers immediately after the Divine Liturgy on Pentecost Sunday. This year, we will not do that, but rather we will serve vespers with the kneeling prayers THIS EVENING at 6:00 PM.

Change in upcoming festal celebration – We typically celebrate the end of the Apostles Fast by celebrating the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul on June 29, here in the parish. However, since this is the feast day for St. Paul Skete, we will pray vespers in the parish the evening before, June 28, and the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at the Skete on the morning of the 29^th. More details to follow.

Antiochian Women of St. John’s Calendar

Book Club

TOMORROW, June 8^th ~ Hind’s Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

We will meet on Sarah Hodges’ porch at 7:00 p.m.

July 13^th ~ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Mark your Calendars! – Saturday, June 20^th

Mother Nektaria has requested our assistance in readying the guest house for visitors coming for the feast on June 29. We’ll do a deep cleaning of the guest house and any other indoor chores Mother requests. This is a terrific time to go out on Friday evening in time for 6:00 p.m. vespers with Mother. Then we can retire to the guest house for dinner and time together, rising for 6:00 a.m. prayers before breakfast and the workday. If you’d rather come for just Saturday, arrive as soon as possible to join in the fun. Please let Anne Dugan know in advance if you plan to go.

LIBRARY LINES – St. Kalliope (6/8) is one of several saints we notice because of her interesting name. It means the beautiful voiced, in Greek. She suffered great tortures for her faith in 250 A.D.

Tuesday we remember one more Celtic saint, Venerable Columba of Scotland (6/9). Those of us senior citizens will enjoy his biography, The Legend of Saint Columba by Padraic Colum and illustrated by E. Mackinstry. This old book will bring back memories of similar books enjoyed in elementary school by us middle aged parishioners.

Thursday we commemorate a beautiful story behind a hymn and an icon of the Theotokos.  One night, as a monk was alone and reading the hours, a monk he did not know knocked on his door and joined him in prayer. As they sang a hymn by St. Cosmos to the Theotokos, the stranger interjected the words “It is truly meet to bless Thee, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God,” and then continued with “More honorable than the Cherubim…”  The icon glowed and the stranger wrote the “new” words to the hymn on a tile with his finger.  He  said, “Sing in this manner, and all the Orthodox as well.” Then he disappeared. These words began to be sung in the Divine Liturgy, and the icon was later sent to the Holy Mountain.

Due to a number of reasons, we will not be printing and mailing the Evangelist at this time. If you would like a paper copy, there will be a few available in the parish hall. Please note that there is not a calendar included. However, at any time you are able to access both a calendar and the weekly bulletin on our website http://www.stjohnmemphis.org/.

SUMMER IS HERE!! Beat the Heat!

Be sure to mark your summer calendars with the following dates for our St. John Potluck Pool Parties:

June 29^th • July 27^th • August 17^th

Come ready to swim or just relax!

We meet at the pool at Rhodes College and swim from 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. There is a grill available for whatever meat or veggies you would like to bring. We ask that everyone bring their own meat (or vegetarian equivalent), drinks (non-alcoholic) and a dish (side or dessert) to share.

Teen Group Events

TODAY, June 7th – No meeting

TOMORROW, June 8th – Redbirds’ Game

with Teen Group from Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Next Sunday, June 14th – No meeting - Parish Life Conference