Fr. Andrew's next visit has been postponed one week, to February 5th & 6th, to accommodate better a Baptism & Chrismation and out-of-town visitors attending; the Baptism will begin early, at 9:00 a.m.
As we're often asked about our attendance at services, we're pleased to mention that at our Liturgy on Christmas morning, Saturday the 25th of last month, we had fourteen worshipers present.
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Our services for the next four weeks thus are scheduled now as follows:
SATURDAY, Jan. 15th, at 5:00 p.m. our semi-monthly Great Vespers, concluding about 5:40 p.m.
Sunday, Jan. 16th, the usual 10:00 a.m. Hours' Prayers & Typica & homily, followed about 11:20 a.m. by refreshments.
Sunday, Jan. 23rd, the usual 10:00 a.m. Hours' Prayers & Typica & homily, followed about 11:20 a.m. by refreshments.
Sunday, Jan. 30th, the usual 10:00 a.m. Hours' Prayers & Typica & homily, followed about 11:20 a.m. by refreshments.
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 2nd, at 7:00 a.m., the Hours' Prayers & Typica, for the Great Feast of the Presentation (or Meeting) in the Temple (Candlemas), concluding by 8:00 a.m.
SATURDAY, Feb. 5th, at 5:00 p.m. our semi-monthly Great Vespers, concluding about 5:50 p.m. and followed by confessions.
SUNDAY, Feb. 6th, at 9:00 a.m. the Baptism & Chrismation of our catechumen, 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.
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Our St. George's wall calendars for 2011, again published in full color by St. Tikhon's Seminary & Monastery, of South Canaan, Penna., are available at eight dollars for purchase after services.
Besides daily scriptural readings, saints commemorated, and fast days, each month features, appropriate to the season, a full-color print of a historic icon along with descriptive notes related to it.
This year's calendar features a variety, from the late 17th century until 1917, of prominently notable icons in the Russian style, which was popular during that time from Peter the Great to the Revolution.
These are markedly different from the icons in the Byzantine style that preceded Tsar Peter and which has been, by the late 20th century, restored as the Orthodox ideal & standard. Nevertheless, as the representation of the piety of Holy Russia in the last centuries until the Revolution, these renowned examples continue to inspire awe beyond their elaborate design and historical importance.
The descriptive notes this year for each month's page and icon are taken primarily from the classic 20th-century work "These Truths We Hold," by an anonymous monk of St. Tikhon's Monastery; secondarily from St. Nikolai of Ochrid, a 20th-century Serbian bishop; and tertiarily from the book "Russian Icons in Precious Frameworks (Late 17th to Early 20th Centuries)," published in 2005 in Russia.
This year for the first time our St. Tikhon's wall calendars include, for the more important observances throughout the year, their dates arranged & placed also according to the Old Calendar—an addition that should prove convenient to all while we await the day when there will come a resolution by the Church of the calendar question.
We thank Jennifer Davis Hamilton (Fr. Andrew's daughter), for the sixth year now, for imprinting the calendars specially for St. George's Mission Station here.
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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, on account of the mid-week Theophany service.
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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Our mission station was presented, at Fr. Andrew's Christmas visit, a large and elaborately framed copy of a pre-Revolutionary Russian icon, in the style of those featured on this year's wall calendar, of St. Seraphim of Sarov, one of the Russians' most beloved saints.
He was born in 1759, on July 19th (July 30th N.S.), in the city of Kursk, in southwestern Russia near the Ukrainian border. At the age of 19, in 1778, he entered the monastery, at Sarov, a wilderness town about 230 miles east-southeast of Moscow; and afterwards he took the name (after the 16th-century Greek saint) of Seraphim—the Hebrew name of the angelic order that means "fiery" or "burning," a reference to the fervency of his own prayers.
His ascetic labor and his desire to serve God were such that he was granted many of the extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit as are listed by St. Paul in i Cor. 12: 8–10: wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, and discernment of spirits.
About the age of 35, he retreated in 1794 to a log cabin 3½ miles into the adjoining forest, where he attained to a life so Christ-like that, as in Eden before the Fall, the wild animals attended & obeyed him, including particularly a bear who is thus depicted in some of his icons.
He began receiving monks in 1815 and other visitors in 1825, after which pilgrims from throughout the Russian Empire, hundreds a day, would travel to receive counsel and healing of body and spirit from the saint, who knew their questions and needs before they were spoken.
His best known quotation teaches the value of living in the Holy Spirit as he did: "Acquire the spirit of peace; and around you, thousands will be saved."
He was glorified as a saint by the Church of Russia in 1903, eighty years after his repose in the Lord at the age of 74, in 1833 on (Jan. 14th N.S.) January 2nd, which remains his feast day. As this date fell on a Sunday this year, we observed his feast, earlier this month, with the hymns composed in his memory.
Our icon of the saint shows him on his knees on a rock, praying before an icon hanging in the forest; our copy includes in facsimile a bejeweled & embossed gold frame surrounding it; and ours has a handsome glassed wooden frame encasing the whole.
It was built, during the Soviet era, in the Patriarchal Workshops of the Church of Russia in Moscow, and was designed & intended for domestic residential use.
In the late 1980's it was purchased in the Soviet Union by a Russian couple from Raleigh who were on a visit home to Moscow, and who then presented it to Fr. Andrew for use in Orthodox mission work in North Carolina.
Our icon of St. Seraphim of Sarov now hangs, opposite the presence of our other Russian saint here, St. John of Kronstadt, in the nave of St. George's Church in Edenton.
Our mission is to embrace the fullness of the Orthodox faith; encourage the discipleship of believers; equip the faithful for ministry; and evangelize the unchurched.
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