St. John of Shanghai Orthodox Church

It looks like I will have to ask you all for your forgiveness before Forgiveness Sunday Vespers (which is coming up this Sunday after our agape meal!)… I was somewhat confused, at our last parish council meeting, as to when Lent began, and that confusion spilled over into scheduling a Presanctified Liturgy before the beginning of Lent! Contrary to what the St. John’s web-calendar says (or at least used to say, as I have now corrected it) we will not be celebrating Presanctified Liturgy this Friday, as Lent does not begin until Monday.

I should also take this opportunity to remind you all that as part of our tradition of starting off Great Lent with as much forgiveness and repentance as possible, we will be serving Forgiveness Sunday Vespers right after the communal meal on Sunday (Did I mention that before?), followed by the Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete (embedded in Little Compline) at 7pm on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I will be at as many of the Great Canon services as possible (and encourage you to be too!), while any that I cannot be at will be served by our resident monk and our dedicated team of readers. (Note to readers: Please contact me to let me know which services you will be able to be at!)

The Great Canon of St. Andrew of Crete is a scriptural tour de force which inspires us to true repentance through meditation on the many examples of repentance throughout the Old and the New Testaments. It is experienced in its entirety in these four services at the beginning of Great Lent and in the super-long (and super-wonderful!) complete canon with the life of St. Mary of Egypt celebrated in the middle of Great Lent.

I look forward to seeing you there to repent with you!

As you all know, this Thursday is our winter patronal feast, the feast-day of St. Nina of Georgia. This year, we will be celebrating on the feast-day itself (for logistical reasons), rather than on the eve of the feast. So, instead of celebrating with an evening liturgy which would mean that those of us who were planning to partake would spend half the feast-day fasting, we will instead celebrate with a simpler Vespers + Litya service. This will allow us to feast on the feast-day itself and will mean that the service will include a few more hymns to St. Nina and will conclude with anointing and partaking of blessed bread and wine (Litya).

In other words, no liturgy and therefore no fast on St. Nina’s feast-day – only feasting! May the joy of the feast be with you!

Just a quick reminder that our beloved Vladyka Seraphim is coming to celebrate Divine Liturgy and to eat and to talk with our little community this Saturday, September 19th! Saturday’s Divine Liturgy will begin with the Hours at 9am, and will be followed by a meal with the archbishop. Some food will be provided, but please bring your favorite kind of cheese, fruit, dessert, and/or anything else you would like to share with the community if you are willing and able to do so.

While this will not be a full hierarchical liturgy (at least not this time…), Vladyka Seraphim will be presiding, and we will be further blessed with the presence of the newly ordained Deacon Gregory Wright from St. Herman’s, who has kindly consented to serve his second liturgy ever (well, as a deacon, anyway) with us!

Just a brief reminder that, starting tomorrow, our mid-week Little Compline service will be held not at the heretofore usual “7:30pm on Thursday” time-slot, but will instead be held at 7:00pm on Wednesdays. Also, tomorrow after Compline we will begin our quick overview of the post-apostolic Church Fathers, starting with the First Epistle of Clement.

Unfortunately, a number of factors, not least of which is the upcoming meeting for all Lower Mainland St. Arseny camp workers, have combined to force the cancellation of the Vesperal Liturgy we were planning to hold for St. Vladimir on Tuesday, July 14th.