The Great Feast of the Meeting

Next Wednesday the 2nd, at 7:00 a.m. we will celebrate the Great Feast of the Meeting or Presentation, as described immediately below.

            On Saturday the 5th, at 5:00 p.m. Fr. Andrew will serve our semi­‑monthly Great Vespers, concluding about 5:50 p.m. and followed by confessions.

            On Sunday the 6th, early at 9:00 a.m. the Baptism & Chrismation of our catechumen will take place, followed at 9:40 a.m. by the Hours' Prayers and at 10:00 a.m. by the Divine Liturgy, and then about 11:30 a.m. by lunch.

            Our St. George's wall calendars for 2011, again published in full color by St. Tikhon's Seminary & Monastery, of South Canaan, Penna., remain available at eight dollars for purchase after services.
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            On Wednesday morning, February 2nd, at 7:00 a.m. there will be celebrated the Feast of the Meeting (or Presentation) of Christ in the Temple.  The service will consist of the singing of the Typica, preceded by the Prayers of the Hours, and it will conclude by 8:00 a.m.

            One of the twelve Great Feasts on the Orthodox calendar, it commemorates the presentation of the Christ child in the Temple at Jerusalem, on the 40th day from his birth, as ordained by Jewish law.  Accordingly the Church has always celebrated it on the 40th day from Christmas, being thus February 2nd.

            The events of the day are recounted in Luke 2: 22–39, including the testimony of the holy prophetess St. Anna and the aged elder St. Simeon (St. Symeon), and particularly his sublime hymn known as the Nunc Dimittis, which subsequently the Church has sung always at Vespers:

            "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:  for mine eyes have seen thy Salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to enlighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel."

            On this day is appointed, where a priest is present, the annual blessing in the church of candles for the parishioners' household use, so that the Feast is commonly known also as Candlemas.  It is moreover the final day on which the last of the Christmas decorations remain in or about the temple.

            Strictly its Orthodox name is the Feast of the Meeting of Our Lord (God & Saviour) Jesus Christ, though it is also commonly known among the Orthodox as the Feast of the Presentation of (Our Lord God & Saviour Jesus) Christ in the Temple.  Its traditional Western name has been the Feast of the Purification of the Most-Holy Virgin, so emphasizing its Levitical aspect.

            The title "Meeting" (or "Encounter") indicates that for the Orthodox, not only the Levitical Purification but also the related Presentation of the Child is transcended in this event by this inaugural "Meeting" by the Messiah or Christ with His "people Israel," as represented by Sts. Simeon & Anna formally in the Temple at Jerusalem.

            Although St. John the Baptist is called the last prophet of the Old Covenant in the sense that he is the one whose life and preaching of the coming Messiah took place during New Covenant times and thus last of all, Sts. Simeon & Anna can be considered the last Old Covenant prophets in the sense that they were the last whose lives and ministry took place essentially during Old Covenant times.  For St. Simeon & St. Anna their Synaxis is, as usual, observed on the day following the related Great Feast, thus on February 3rd.

            The liturgical reception of a new child and his mother in the temple, on the 40th day from his birth, was established by God in Leviticus and so was followed by Mary and Joseph, as recounted in Luke 2:22, for Christ.  (During those first forty days, the new mother is excused from attendance at services, so that she may give due attention to her child.)

            Known as the "Churching" of a new mother with her child, after forty days, that liturgy from Christianity's Jewish foundation is still preserved faithfully by the Orthodox Church, and has taken place accordingly here at St. George's.
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            Our regular Sunday services continue each week at 10:00 a.m., followed by refreshments.

            All of our services are held in our church building, at 300 East King Street, on the corner of Oakum Street, in Edenton; and visitors are always invited and welcome.

            A household willing to furnish a particular Sunday's refreshments or lunch may volunteer by e­‑mail reply or by calling our office at 482–2006.

            There was no newsletter last week.

            Our prayers are requested for Fr. Edward, for Mo. Katrina, for Jessica, for Chris's uncle Randall, and for their health; for Barbara's grandnephew Will, as he tests his monastic vocation; for Marcia, for James & Kate, for Joshua & his family, and for Kelly & her family; and for other households for whom our prayers are asked.
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            The service February 2nd will mark the eighth anniversary of the Orthodox Mission Station in Edenton.

            Our first service here was held on February 2, 2003, a Sunday­‑evening vespers in the borrowed Chowan Life Center, conducted by Fr. Edward Rommen, rector of the Church of the Holy Transfiguration in Raleigh.

            Mo. Ainee, his wife, led the music, and Fr. Edward carried down in his truck most of the liturgical furnishings that we continue to use at St. George's to this day.

            A few weeks earlier on a visit to Raleigh, our Archbishop Dmitri on December 15, 2002, had given his blessing to Fr. Edward to drive down biweekly at the request of several here, so far from any Orthodox church, who wanted to experience Orthodox Christianity in Edenton.

            For God's miraculous and innumerable blessings on the work being done here, we all are most grateful to Him daily, and likewise to Fr. Edward Rommen and to Fr. Andrew Davis, our present priest, for their years of sacrificial labor in the Lord's service in establishing in this place now an Orthodox Church, for the worship of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Trinity who has created us and sustains us and saves us.