Bulletin. HOLY TRINITY RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

We magnify Thee, O All-undefiled Mother, of Christ our God, and we praise Thine all-glorious Dormition

Regular Schedule resumes in two weeks – September 12th – Liturgy at 10:00 AM

August Sponsors: Lilli Hoffman and Ksenia McKenzie
September Sponsors: Brotherhood & Sunday School Teachers/Parents

The St. Catherine Sisterhood will meet on Sunday, August 29th after Divine Services. Many things are discussed at each and every meeting. All women are encouraged to attend.

Our parish website is home to the most comprehensive bi-lingual Orthodox Calendar (Julian calendar/ Old Style) on the internet. Now it is available for a FREE download from the App Store to use on your personal iPhone. We sincerely thank David Leselidze our parish webmaster who wrote the impressive calendar programs for both our website and the App Store. Visit this site to download your FREE copy: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/orthodox-calendar/id381641703?mt=8

His Grace, Bishop Thomas of the Archdiocese of the Antiochian Orthodox Church has given the blessing to Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church (Linthicum) to research the level of interest in the establishment of a Pan-Orthodox Classical Academy in the MD/DC area. All Orthodox parents are encouraged to take this 10-minute survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/holywisdomsurvey. If you have any concerns please email your questions to holywisdomacademy@gmail.com.

The Cemetery Committee will meet in the Church Hall on Thursday, Sept. 2nd at 6:30 PM. All members are encouraged to attend. New members are also welcomed.

Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church will host a seminar by Dr. Tristram Engelhardt on Wednesday, September 8th at 7:00 PM. Dr Engelhardt is one of the most eminent ethicists in the world. As an Orthodox Christian he brings the Orthodox liturgical and ascetical tradition to bear on whatever topic he addresses. The topic: "After Christendom: Living in an Aggressively Post-Christian World." Dr Engelhardt is a very thought-provoking, engaging, and entertaining speaker who never fails to challenge his listeners to think deeper. Holy Cross Church Parish Hall, 105 N Camp Meade Rd, Linthicum, MD, 21090 (holycrossonline.org) 410-850-5090.

CNN International Channel to air special report August 28-31 on the plight of the Ecumenical Patriarchate Confirm by checking local listings. Sunday, August 29: 4:30 PM; 11:00 PM. Monday, August 30: 11:00 PM. Tuesday, August 31: 8:30 AM; 1:30 PM

Festival Raffle Tickets are presently being distributed to parishioners and friends. We need everyone’s cooperation to make this segment of our annual festival a success. Please send the money and the sold ticket stubs by October 10th to Michael Mickel 4042 Stansbury Mill Rd Monkton, MD 21111 or hand them back to Michael Mickel after church each Sunday. If you need more tickets please call Selina Eichelberger at 410-836-8043 or email her at seichelberger@verizon.net.

Plan your vacations accordingly so you have the time to help your parish during these important days.

On the following days we will prepare food for the Russian Festival in the hall.

The Russian Festival Committee will conduct a meeting on Wednesday, 25 August at 5:30 PM in the church hall. All are welcomed.

We are accepting ads for the 2010 Russian Festival Program Booklet. Parishioners and friends are asked to purchase ads to commemorate the memory of their departed loved ones and/or to offer the congratulations on behalf of their living family members. All those who will be listed by name in the booklet (for the health/salvation and for the repose) will be remembered during Sunday Liturgy at Proskeimedia according to the following schedule based on the size of the ad: full page: 2 months; half page: 1 month; quarter page: 2 weeks; two-line listing: 1 week.

And we need everyone’s help with asking local businesses to purchase advertisements – tradesmen, professionals, your physician, dentist, optician, hair stylist, veterinarian, grocery store, local service station, your favorite florist, dry cleaners, local real estate agents, insurance agents and your favorite neighborhood restaurants. We need everyone’s help to make the book more successful than last year. Ad contract forms are available in church and the hall. For more information, please contact Michael Mickel at 410-666-2870 or mcmickel@verizon.net

Please help us reduce our Festival expenses¡œbuy a few cases of soft drinks (12 oz. cans) and bottled water (¨ö liter) over the next several weeks as they go on sale in area supermarkets. Bring the soda and water to the bar area of the hall. We need Coke, Pepsi, Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta (no generics). Water: Deer Park, Aquafina, etc. Thank you for your generosity !!!

Please help us to cover the costs of our annual festival. Donations of any size are very much appreciated. May God bless you for your sincere generosity. Please call Michael Mickel 410-666-2870 mcmickel@verizon.net or Albert Blaszak 410-799-3226 or alb42@qis.net.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is challenging parishes, groups and its supporters to assemble 10,000 school kits by September 2010 as part of its "Kits for Kids" campaign. This service project provides kids around the world with school supplies and it is a powerful way for our children to learn how to serve others. IOCC, which has sent tens of thousands of school kits to children in need throughout Eastern Europe and the Middle East, through a partnership with Church World Service, is reporting very low supplies of school kits at the warehouse in Maryland where they are stored.

Shall we at Holy Trinity respond? The month of August is the best time to purchase back-to-school items…they are on sale everywhere. To make this work we need volunteers 1) to make a collection box; 2) to draw an attractive poster; 3) each family in the parish to donate at least one assembled kit; and 4) someone to mail the packaged kits at the end of August.

Kit Instructions: Buy a 12” by 14” or 14” x 16” cloth bag with cloth handles and a closure (VELCRO®, snap or button) and fill it with the following items:

*One pair of blunt scissors (rounded tip); *Three 70-count spiral or tape-bound pads of 8” x 10½” ruled paper or pads with 200-210 sheets – please do not provide loose-leaf or filler paper; *One 30-centimeter ruler (12”); *One hand-held pencil sharpener; *Six new pencils with erasers; *One eraser, 2½”; *One box of 24 crayons (only 24).

Schema-Archimandrite Joachim; Archimandrite Athanasy; Priest Gregory MacGregor Nun Elizabeth; Nun Magdalena; Mat. Tatiana Vass; Mat. Natalia Kosich; Mat. Diane Winsky; Reader Joseph Lochte; Reader Joseph McCusker; Brian-Seraphim, Melanie & Benedict Cardell; David Eichelberger; Jacob and Katherine Plaskowitz; Michael Stanka; Alexander and Bernadine Borawick; Paul Czerkovich; Julia Aymold; Dominic Pezza; Leonard and Maria Parr; Arthur-Stephen Lisowsky; Lilli Ann and Vernon Hoffman; Andrew Lucas; Mimi-Veronica and Angela-Tatiana Arisumi; Sandra-Ann Wanner; Monika-Anastasia & Stephanie Handley; Anthony Lopata; Olga Carr; Nadezhda Wallach; Dorothy-Nadezhda Herring; Elaine LaPasha; Blanche-Julia Stolkovich; Arsen, Alla, Mary Stepanov; Nina Lewis; Maryann Black.; Ksenia McKenzie; Jennie-Xenia McElroy; Dionysius; Sergei; Anna Trofman; Anna, Alexei; Andrei; John McCusker; Phyllis Wroblewski; Peter Borodkin; Eugenia; Nicholas Tur; Fesehazion Asghedom; Gloria; Taylor; Peter; Joan; Galina; Yanna; Tatiana Genkina; William Ferkile; Patrick; Pavel; Infant Aleksander Griffith; Infant Penelope Hicks; Emily Hall; Keith-Phillip Johnson; Natalia Johnson. Anna; Phillip Corso; Valentina; Joseph Vass; Estelle Hennessee.

Fr. John Vass, Pastor	410-997-0802
Fr. Deacon Michael Bishop	410-483-8389
Victor Marinich, Council President	443-512-0985
Sandy Wanner, Vice President	410-254-8861
Mary Ann Eichelberger, Secretary	410-282-8083
Albert Blaszak, Treasurer	410-799-3226
Monika Handley, Stewardship Chairperson	410-263-5758
Vadim Radchenko, Member-at-Large	410-465-6172
Selina Eichelberger, Sisterhood Pres.	410-836-8043
Lillian Hoffman, Manager, Cathedral Gardens	410-931-1246

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, 'Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding." But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 'Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.' So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, 'Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?' And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For many are called, but few are chosen.

The entry into the wedding takes place without distinction of persons, for by grace alone we have all been called, good and bad alike; but the life thereafter of those who enter shall not be without examination, for indeed the king makes an exceedingly careful examination of those found to be sullied after entering into the faith. Let us tremble, then, when we understand that if one does not lead a pure life, faith alone benefits him not at all. For not only is he cast out of the wedding feast, but he is sent away into the fire. Who is he that is wearing filthy garments? It is he who is not clothed with compassion, goodness, and brotherly love. For there are many who deceive themselves with vain hopes, thinking that they shall attain the kingdom of heaven, and they include themselves among the assembly of the dinner guests, thinking great things of themselves. Being justified in regard to that unworthy man, the Lord demonstrates these two things to us; first, that He loves mankind, and secondly, that we ought not to pass judgment on anyone, even if they sin openly, unless they have been reproved for their sin. The Lord then says to His servants, the angels of punishment, ‘Bind his hands and feet,’ that is, the soul’s powers of action. For in this present age is the time to act and to do, but in the age to come all of the soul’s powers of action are bound, and a man cannot then do any good thing to outweigh his sins. Gnashing of teeth is the meaningless repentance that will then take place. Many are called, for God calls many, indeed, all, but few are chosen. Few are saved and found worthy to be chosen by God. It is God’s part to call, but to become one of the chosen or not, is our part. (www.chrysostompress.org)

This image of Christ appeared under the following circumstances: during Christ’s life on earth, there lived in the Syrian city of Edessa a certain Prince Abgar. He suffered from an incurable illness - leprosy, so that his entire body was covered with terrible sores, while internally he suffered from complete paralysis. Rumors of Jesus and His great miracles reached Abgar, who became filled with a fervent desire to see Christ and be healed by Him. However, being unable to travel to Judea himself, he wrote a moving letter to Jesus Christ, in which he wrote the following:

“Rumors have reached me about You and Your glorious miracles, how You heal illness without medicine or treatment, - You make the blind see, the lame walk, You expel demons, cleanse lepers, heal paralytics with a single word and resurrect the dead. Hearing about You, that You perform such wondrous miracles, I came to the following two conclusions about You: You are either God Who has descended from heaven, or You are the Son of God. For this reason I humbly appeal to You, to make the effort to come to me and heal my incurable illness from which I have suffered for so many years. I have also heard that the Jews hate You and wish to harm You. I, however, have under my rule a city, though small, but beautiful and having everything in abundance; come to me then, and live with me in my city, in which both of us will find all that we need.”

Together with this missive, Abgar at the same time sent a talented artist to the Palestine, commissioning him to paint the face of Christ on an icon. So great was Abgar’ love for Christ, which was inspired by his faith in Him that he wished at least to see His image. By God’s will the painter, despite his best efforts, was unable to depict the face of Christ, but Jesus Himself washed His face in water and dried it with a cloth, leaving a miraculous imprint of the Divine face on this cloth.

Then the Lord sent this image to Abgar together with His reply, which was as follows: “Blessed are you, Abgar, not having seen Me and yet having faith in Me, for you shall inherit life eternal! You write for Me to come to you, but I must accomplish that for which I have been sent, and then I must return to My Father Who had sent Me. And when I will ascend to Him, I will send you one of My disciples, who will completely cure you of your illness.”

This took place after Christ’s ascension, when the Apostle Thaddeus came to Edessa and baptized Abgar, who came out of the baptismal font completely renewed, both in body and soul. Having become cured of leprosy, Abgar wrote on the Image Not-made-by-hands: “O Christ, our God, whoever has faith in Thee shall not be put to shame,” decorated it and placed it over the city gates. In 944, when the Turks attacked the city, this miraculous image of the Savior, together with the letter which He had written to Abgar, were transported from Edessa to Constantinople. This event is commemorated as the Translation of the Savior and is celebrated on August 29th.

In Russian folklore the “Third Spas” is also called “The Savior on linen”: first of all, because of the linen cloth on which the image of Jesus Christ was imprinted, and secondly, because it was the village custom to associate this holiday with the sale of linens and canvases. In folklore this feast is also called the “Walnut-Spas” (ореховый Спас), because in Russia, usually walnuts ripen at this time.

The Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God - which combines two events: Her death and Her resurrection in the body on the third day - has been for centuries, indeed, from the very beginning of the existence of the Russian Orthodox Church its Feast, its joy, its glory.

The Mother of God has not been a passive instrument of the Incarnation; without Her 'Amen' the Incarnation would have been as impossible as without the will of God. She is the response of the whole creation to God's love and to God's gift of self not only to mankind but to the whole Cosmos He has created. And in that we rejoice, because Her word is our word. Her word was perfect, as Her trust was, Her faith was, Her gift of self was. Ours is imperfect, and yet our voices resound within Hers, weakly, hesitantly at times, but with faith and also with love.

She is the glory of all Creation; the Mother of God: one might have expected that death could not touch Her; but if death and a death so cruel could touch Her Divine Son, the Son of God and the Son of Mary, the Son of God and the Son of man - of course She had to pay the tribute of all the earth to the sin of man and also die. But according to Orthodox Tradition, death could not keep Her prisoner. She had given Herself unreservedly and perfectly to God, and it was to God, no longer to the earth that She belonged. And on the third day, when the Apostles came and reopened Her grave for one of them to be able to venerate Her, who had not been present at Her burial, it was found empty: She had risen because the bonds of death could not hold Her, and corruption could not touch a body which had been the body of the Incarnation. What a wonderful joy to think that now, side by side with the risen and ascended Christ, one of us, of mankind, a woman of flesh and blood is enthroned and in Her we can see the glory which will, we believe, be ours if we are faithful to God as She was.

So, let us rejoice… with the whole Russian Church, and with all those who belong to it and are scattered over the face of the world, one with the Mother Church, one with the Mother of God, worshipping the Lord with all there is in us and seeing in Her the image of the whole Creation in adoration before the Living God. Amen.

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) began providing emergency supplies this week to people affected by fires in the Ryazan region of Central Russia. The response was made possible through a $5,000 gift from the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and a $25,000 matching grant from the John G. Rangos Sr. Family Charitable Foundation.

Aid to the region southeast of Moscow will reach 640 people and includes personal hygiene kits, blankets, towels and bed linens. The relief is being provided in cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian Round Table, an ecumenical forum for social service in Russia.

The grant from the John G. Rangos Sr. Family Charitable Foundation will support IOCC's aid projects in Russia by creating a matching gift program. The Foundation will match every dollar contributed to IOCC for relief projects in Russia up to $25,000. Rangos, a founder of IOCC, was instrumental in one of IOCC's first humanitarian missions – an airlift of relief supplies and medicines to Russia in 1992.

In addition to the gift from the Orthodox Church in America, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah called upon parishes to provide support for the relief efforts. "I am also asking that members of the Orthodox Church in America offer financial assistance through IOCC, which will convey our donations to the appropriate Church partners and Church programs in Russia." www.iocc.org

You can help the victims of disasters around the world, like the Russian Heat Wave and Wildfires, by making a financial gift to the IOCC International Emergency Response Fund, which will provide immediate relief as well as long-term support through the provision of emergency aid, recovery assistance and other support to help those in need. To make a gift, please visit www.iocc.org, call toll free at 1-877-803-IOCC (4622), or mail a check or money order payable to IOCC, P.O. Box 630225, Baltimore, MD 21263-0225.