Support the Keaton Raphael Memorial and St. Baldrick's

On Saturday, March 9, Fr. Seraphim and Fr. Christopher will again be shaving our heads (and a beard) to support the thousands of infants, children, teens, and young adults fighting childhood cancers.  Please consider donating to our cause and the members of “Bald and Beautiful." 

To donate to our team, please visit our page:  https://www.stbaldricks.org/teams/mypage/137098/2024#content

 To make individual donations:

Most importantly, we ask your prayers.

Middle School & High School Lenten Retreat (March 29-31)

Our middle and high school youth are invited to participate in a lenten retreat at the Marin Headlands on March 29-31.   Please see the attachment for more information.  If you want to register your child, please do so at https://www.goholycross.org/Files/Files/Lenten%20Retreat%202024%20fillable%20web.pdf. I would also ask that you please let Fr. Seraphim or me know that your child will be attending AND whether or not you can assist with driving to and or from the retreat.  


2024 St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival (information for our 7-12 grade families)

Our Parish St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival will be held on Sunday, March 17, 2024, and we invite the participation of all 7th to 12th graders.

General information and instructions on registration are included below. 

Step1: Review topics 

Topics (Tips and Resources)

 Step 2: Register to participate by 1/30 at https://sforatorical.net/for-speakers/


Information you will need to include for the registration

Parish Name: St. Anna Greek Orthodox Church 

Parish Address: 1001 Stone Canyon Drive, Roseville, CA 95661

Parish Priest: Fr. Christopher Flesoras

Parish Chairperson: Angeliki Rosenberg

Email of Parish Chairperson: 

rosenberg369@msn.com

Step 3: Prepare Speech

Step 4: Submit Speech to the chairperson by February 25th

Step 5: Mentoring and Practice will be coordinated.

Parish Festival: March 17th      



May it be blessed! 

Angeliki Rosenberg, 2024 Oratorical Festival Chair




An accredited course on the foundations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity

Hellenic College will offer an “Introduction to Orthodoxy” course from January 13-May 13.  It is an online/synchronous 3-credit course that Fr. Christopher will be privileged to teach.  This is a global course, meaning students, young or older, from all over the world are invited to register for college credit or audit the class.   The class will meet on Tuesdays from 3:30 - 5:50 PM (PST).  The course overview is as follows:

"This course introduces students to Orthodox Christianity by surveying Orthodox theology, liturgy, the sacraments and rituals, art and culture, the veneration of saints, asceticism and monasticism, prayer, and spirituality.  In addition to course readings, students will follow the daily Scripture readings and feasts and create/build upon daily devotions.  The course is at once a study and practice of Orthodox Christianity: “A theologian is one who truly prays, and one who prays is truly a theologian” (Saint Evagrius).”

For more information, please visit: https://enrollment.hchc.edu/religion-3017

Archepiscopal Encyclical on the Feast of Christmas

Prot. No. 350/2023

Archepiscopal Encyclical on the Feast of Christmas

December 25, 2023

Thus says the Lord: a rod shall come forth out of the root of Jesse, and a blossom shall rise from that root.
(Prophecy of Isaiah 11:1)

Beloved sisters and brothers in Christ,
Christ is Born! Let us glorify Him!

Although He comes to us in humility, in swaddling clothes and in poverty, He is the powerful Rod of the Root of Jesse. In assuming our human nature from his Most Holy Mother the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, He bears all the suffering and sin of humanity across all the ages. What strength in this Rod! What glory in His powerful love for every creature!

He also comes as a blossom of inner and truthful beauty, to restore our human nature to its original shining loveliness. The Prophet Isaiah says elsewhere, “He had no beauty nor glory...” (53:2), but such was the humility that bowed down the Son of God to become the Son of Man. The flower of His virtues, His sinless life, His sacrificial love, is a bloom that will never fade. The root of His human nature is his Holy Mother, who

Unto the Most Reverend and Right Reverend Hierarchs, Pious Priests and Deacons, Monks and Nuns, Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils, Honorable Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Members of Leadership 100, Day and Afternoon Schools, Philoptochos Societies, Youth, Greek Orthodox Organizations, and entirety of the Christ-

loving Plenitude of the Sacred Archdiocese of America:

bore him in a cave in Bethlehem of Judea. But from this root out of dry and virginal ground, there arose the first fruits of them that slept (I Corinthians 15:20)! For the Lord was born in cave in order to arise from another cave. He was wrapped as an infant in swaddling clothes in order to proclaim His own Resurrection by leaving behind the grave-linens set aside in the tomb (John 20:5). And He was laid in a manger — used to feed the mute beasts of burden — so that we might be fed with His Holy Body and Precious Blood and proclaim Him risen from the dead.

Therefore, my beloved Christians, let us receive this Rod of glory and Blossom of beauty with gratitude and honor. Through his Holy Mother, His human nature is our human nature, and there is nothing that He cannot make whole and pure. Let us worship Him with all our hearts, and minds, and souls.

Christ is Born! Let us glorify Him!

† ELPIDOPHOROS Archbishop of America

Patriarchal Encyclical for Christmas

Prot. No. 828
Patriarchal Encyclical for Christmas

+ BA R T H O L O M E W

By God’s Mercy, Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch to All the Plenitude of the Church Grace, Mercy, and Peace from the Saviour Christ Born in Bethlehem

Most honorable brother hierarchs, Beloved children in the Lord,

With the grace of God, we are once again this year celebrating in chant, hymn, and spiritual song the Nativity according to the flesh of the pre-eternal Son and Word of God, namely the manifestation of the mystery of God and humankind. According to St. Nicholas Cabasilas, what occurs in the Divine Liturgy is “the mystagogy of the Lord’s incarnation,” while its introductory acclamation “Blessed is the Kingdom of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” is evidence “that it is through the Lord’s incarnation that people first learned that God is three persons.”1 The same saintly Father proclaims that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was the first and only to demonstrate the authentic and perfect human being, concerning His ethos, life, and everything else.”2

The assumption of human nature in the person of the Son and Word of God, along with the opening of the way of human deification through grace, add unsurpassable value to humankind. Forgetting this truth leads to the diminishment of respect for the human person. The denial of the supreme destiny of human beings does not only liberate them, but also leads to diverse reductions and divisions. Without being conscious of their divine origin and their hope for eternity, humans struggle to remain human and are unable to handle the contradictions of the “human condition.”

The Christian perception of human existence provides a solution to problems created by violence, war, and injustice in our world. Respect for the human person, peace, and justice are gifts from God; however, establishing the peace that comes from Christ demands the participation and cooperation of human beings. The Christian view on the struggle for peace lies in the words of Christ our Savior, who proclaims peace, addressing His disciples with the greeting “Peace be with you” and encouraging us to love our enemies.3 The revelation in Christ is called the “gospel of peace.”4

This means that, for us Christians, the way to peace is through peace and that non- violence, dialogue, love, forgiveness, and reconciliation have priority before other forms of resolving differences. The theology of peace is clearly described in the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s document For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church (2020):

“Nothing is more contrary to God’s will for His creatures fashioned in His image and likeness than violence one against another . . . We may justly say that violence is sin par excellence. It is the perfect contradiction of our created nature and our supernatural vocation to seek union in love with God and our neighbour. . . Peace is a real revelation of the still deeper reality of creation as God intends it and as God fashioned it in his eternal counsels.”5

Peace cannot be taken for granted; it is not self-evident. It is an obligation, an achievement, and an incessant struggle to preserve it. There are no automatic solutions or permanent recipes. In the face of ongoing threats to peace, we need to have vigilance and willingness to resolve problems through dialogue. The great heroes of politics are the champions of peace. As for us, we continue to underline the peacemaking role of religion. This is during a time when religions are criticized for nurturing fanaticism and violence “in the name of God” instead of being forces of peace, solidarity, and reconciliation. However, this indicates an alienation of religious faith and not an integral part of it. Genuine faith in God is the harshest critic of religious fanaticism. Religions are the natural allies of all human beings who strive for peace, justice, and the preservation of creation from human destruction.

This year, the world honours the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948), constituting a summary of fundamental humanitarian ideals and values, “the shared standard, to which all peoples and all nations should aim.” Human rights, whose central point of focus includes the protection of human dignity with its individual, social, cultural, economic, and ecological conditions, are only understood in their original dynamics if they are acknowledged as the basis and criterion of global peace, associating it with freedom and justice. In this sense, the future of human rights and peace is also linked to the contribution of religions in the matter of respecting them and making them a reality.

With these thoughts and festive sentiments, in full conviction that the life of the Church in itself comprises resistance against inhumanity, wherever such inhumanity arises, we invite all of you to the good fight of constructing a culture of peace and solidarity, where people will see in the face of their fellow human beings a brother or sister and a friend, rather than a threat and enemy. Moreover, we remind you all, dear brother Hierarchs and children, that Christmas is a time of self-consciousness and thanksgiving, of the revelation of the difference between the God-man and “man-god,” of the realization of the “great miracle” of freedom in Christ and of the healing of the “great wound” of alienation from God. Finally, we kneel respectfully before Mary, the Mother of God, who bears in her arms the incarnate Word, and we convey to you the blessing of the Mother Holy Great Church of Christ, wishing you an auspicious, healthy, fruitful, peaceful, and joyous new year of the Lord’s favour.

Christmas 2023 + Bartholomew of Constantinople Your fervent supplicant of all before God

1 On the Divine Liturgy XII, PG 150.392D.

2 On the Life of Christ VI, PG 150.680C.

3 Cf. Mt. 5:44
4 Eph. 6:44
5 §42,43and44.