Schedule of Services, Studies, Youth Groups, and other dates of interest (through 12/9)

The weeks ahead will be extremely busy for us as a parish.   Below is a listing of services, studies, youth events, and a few other items of interest through December 9.  A blessed continuation of the Nativity Fast!


Services: 
11/29 Akastist Service, 6 PM
11/30 Orthros & the Divine Liturgy, 8 AM (Feast of St. Andrew the Apostle)
12/2 Great Vespers, 5 PM
12/3 Orthros & the Divine Liturgy, 8 AM
12/4  Orthros & the Divine Liturgy, 8 AM (Feast of St. Barbara, the Great Martyr)
12/5 Orthros & the Divine Liturgy, 8 AM (Feast of St. Sava)
12/6 Orthros & the Divine Liturgy, 8 AM (Feast of St. Nicholas of Myra)
Akathist Service, 6 PM
12/8 Orthros & the Divine Liturgy (Feast of the Conception of the Theotokos by Saint Anna, 6 PM)
12/9 Great Vespers, 5 PM


Studies & Chant Practice:
11/27 Early Church Reading Group, 6 PM (a link is on the website)
11/28 Old Testament Bible Study, 11 AM -12:30 PM (Founders’ Hall)
“Come and See” Orthodox Christian Catechism, 7 PM (Founders’ Hall)
11/29 Byzantine Chant Practice, 6:30 PM
12/5  Old Testament Bible Study, 11 AM -12:30 PM (Founders’ Hall)
“Come and See” Orthodox Christian Catechism, 7 PM (Founders’ Hall)
12/6 Byzantine Chant Practice, 6:30 PM

Youth:
11/27 Junior High School Youth Group, 6:30 (meal and activities) RSVP to Nick Pasco, nrpasco@gmail.com or 916-917-6824
12/4 High School Youth Group, 6:30 (meal and activities) RSVP to Nick Pasco, nrpasco@gmail.com or 916-917-6824


A few other items of interest: 

12/2

The Tommy Apostolos Fund Shopping Spree for Roseville City School children begins at 5:30AM (Kohl’s on Fairway). For more information and to volunteer, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0d4ba4ae22abf8c25-tommy3

Prayer Shawl Ministry, 11 AM - 12:30 PM (Founders’ Hall). Please join us for prayerful fellowship as we knit and crochet prayer shawls that will be blessed and gifted to those needing healing. All skill levels are welcome! For mor information, please contact Angelilki (rosenberg369@msn.com), Stella (stellasideris@yahoo.com) and Vassie (kyritv2@gmail.com) 


12/3 

Parish Potluck and the Fall General Assembly (after services).  Please bring an item to enjoy after service (items can be placed in the kitchen prior to services). An Agenda, Minutes from the last meeting, and reports are found at https://www.saintanna.org/parish-news-1/2023/11/27/fall-general-assembly

12/9 

Christmas Concert, 7 PM, hosted at Ss. Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, Rocklin (Proceeds benefit St. Vincent de Paul)

12/15

Campfire Carols:  Please join us for singing, doing holiday crafts, eating tasty treats and pizza, sipping hot cocoa, and more. We ask you to dress in your warmest Christmas pajamas and bring your gloves, scarves, and blankets. For more comfortable seating, we encourage families to bring their own outdoor chairs. To assist with the evening, https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F4FABA62CA4FA7-46127722-2ndannual  

12/16 

Traditional Christmas Carols will be performed by the award-winning John Adams Academy choir, Virtus, at 6 PM.  Coffee, hot chocolate, and treats for our parishioners and guests will be provided.  A free-will offering will be taken at the end of the performance to help raise funds for the choir program.

Fall General Assembly

Our Fall General Assembly is scheduled for Sunday, Dec 3, following Divine Services. A proposed Agenda, Minutes from our Spring Meeting, and reports are provided below. Please check back throughout the week as other reports are submitted.

 Fall General Assembly

Agenda (proposed)

Sunday, December 3, 2023

The following is the proposed agenda for the next General Assembly meeting. Join us on Sunday, December 3, immediately following Divine Services. All active stewards* of the Church of Saint Anna are encouraged to participate.

1.     Prayer & Call to Order

2.     Selection of General Assembly Chair

3.     Approval of Minutes of previous GA

4.     Clergy Report

5.     President’s Report

6.     Treasurer’s Report

  1. Community Updates (reports will be posted on the parish website).

    1. Philoptochos 

    2. Religious Education  

    3. Archangel Gabriel Bookstore 

    4. Byzantine Chanting

    5. Youth & Young Adult Ministries

    6. Stewardship

    7. 2023 Greek Food Festival

    8. Sanctuary Construction

    9. St. Vincent de Paul

    10. Men’s Fellowship

8.     Old Business

a.     Sanctuary Beautification and Capital Campaign

9.     New Business

a.     2024 Operating Budget

10.  For the Good of the Parish

11.  Closing Prayer

12.  Adjournment

*To be considered a member in good standing, the member must regularly participate in the life of the parish and have fulfilled the previous year’s stewardship commitment and contributed toward the current year’s commitment.  New members may exercise their vote at Parish Assemblies if they have been in good standing at the parish for at least three months.

Stewardship Report/Marci Pelka

Stewardship is based on scripture (1 Peter 4:10, 2 Corinthians 9:6-7, Proverbs 16:3, 1 Corinthians 4:2) and many more.  I must quote 2 Corinthians 9: 6-7: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”   Our faithful Stewards certainly live up to this.  We give from our hearts.  It is a blessing to be able to support the ministries of St. Anna’s through Christ’s Church.   As Orthodox Christians, we recognize that everything, truly everything we have, is a gift from God.  We are to be grateful to Him for His blessings and generous with our gifts to others.  Peter 4:10: “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”   Good stewardship brings joy into the lives of others.  Our philanthropy includes but is not limited to IOCC, Kenya Mission, Skete of St. Anna, and Life-Giving Monastery, to name a few.

In 2023, our budget is $460,000.  As of October 31, 2023, our year-to-date (collected) is $372,345.  Our year-to-date budget is $383,333.  We are (-) $10,988.

 We have 208 Stewards.  Some are pledged, others give on a regular basis, and others give randomly.   We do not have annual stewardship drives.   If you need to change your pledge, don't hesitate to get in touch with Morfoula (Church Administrator 916-772-9372) or (Marci 916-258-3769).

We welcome all new Stewards.  If you want to be a Steward, don't hesitate to get in touch with Morfoula or Marci at the above numbers.  We need your name, address, phone number and email.  A member of our stewardship team will then send you a stewardship packet.

Stewardship also includes our time and talent.  Some of the areas supported by St. Anna’s include our prayer shawl ministry, serving in the altar as an acolyte, volunteering at St. Vincent de Paul, assisting in the bookstore, straightening the chairs and hymnals after service (good ones for the kids), clean the candle box, volunteer for candle duty, become a member of Philoptochos, or when needed sign up for a meal train and many more.  No activity is too small.

Once again, I am grateful to all of our faithful stewards who continue through easy and tough times for their support of our beacon on the hill, our new church, and to the glory of God. 

If you use a phone or tablet, an easy way to give, not only for stewardship but for many of our ministries, you may consider downloading the APP Church Center, following the prompts, and inputting your info.  This will also be used for our Church directory.

Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus Himself said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Byzantine Chant Program

Our chanting program, led by Tim Burkhard, has a Divine Liturgy team and a weekly chant practice program.

Nick Pasco has led the Divine Liturgy team through the worthwhile effort of implementing the green liturgy hymnal. I am immensely appreciative of his sticking with it to accomplish this challenging task. Moving forward, we want to continue refining toward proficiency with the new hymnal, introduce the Digital Chant Stand music for variable hymns (e.g. resurrectional apolytikia) so that those among the congregation who wish to look up the music on their handheld devices may follow along, and train up a couple more people to lead the liturgy with proficiency.

 We meet for chant practice on Wednesday evenings, following the Akathist service. We are studying basic Byzantine music theory using western notation (not Byzantine neumes). The near-term goal is to train up a couple people who can chant services outside of Divine Liturgy. In the longer term, we want a decent-sized group of people able to perform unison singing as a small choir. We'll need a few more recruits to accomplish this, so please feel free to join us if you are interested! 

 In the meantime, we are also refining the new sound system to strike a balance between making homilies and scripture readings comprehensible, while not bombarding the congregation with electric noise. 

2023 Greek Food Festival

submitted by Mike Dindio

The September 2 day festival based around our feast day celebration was a big success.  Our faith and hospitality were on full display and brought in many community folks who were curious and needed our spiritual offerings. Not only did patrons love our festival, but the gross income of $251K was a surprisingly great outcome. After all expenses were paid, our profits came in at around 85K. Father has decided future festivals will remain a two-day event and be held in September.

Thank you to all who participated in making this an overwhelmingly positive experience.  It could never have happened without all who volunteered and worked so hard prior to, during, and after the festival.  We are looking for a few folks to step up and lead the festival moving forward. We look forward to 2024.

Christmas Campfire Carols

2nd Annual Campfire Carols

We are very excited to have our 2nd annual Campfire Carols on Friday, December 15th, from 6pm-8pm. Please join us for singing, doing holiday crafts, eating tasty treats and pizza, sipping hot cocoa, and more. We ask you to dress in your warmest Christmas pajamas and bring your gloves, scarves, and blankets. For more comfortable seating we encourage families to bring their own outdoor chairs. And as always, we need volunteers to make this event a success! Thank you for your loving support of our beloved St. Anna's family ministry and for coming together for fellowship. Please reach out to Annie Moore (978-473-4756) with any questions. 

Annual Piece Meal (Nov 14) and Holy Unction (Nov 15)

On Tuesday, November 14, we will host our “Piece Meal,” an annual family potluck Thanksgiving dinner before the start of the Nativity Fast. This is a wonderful opportunity for our families to come together in Christian fellowship. Don't hesitate to contact the Church Office with questions.  Dinner will begin at 6 PM.  Please sign up below.

We will pray the Service of Holy Unction on Wednesday evening, November 15 (6 PM), to begin the Nativity Fast. May we be granted healing, forgiveness, and every good gift as we prepare to receive our newborn Lord Who took flesh for our salvation. If there are members of our community who are unable to attend Holy Unction, we ask that they remain after services (Vespers or the Divine Liturgy) the following weekend or that the family schedule a time for the clergy to visit them at home to be anointed.

Please click here to sign up for the Piece Meal

Saint Porphyrios intercede on our behalf!

We were saddened to learn last evening from the Holy Patriarchate of Jerusalem that an airstrike from Israel hit the Church of St. Porphyrios in Gaza.  The Church is the oldest active Church in Gaza City, dating to the 5th century.  Archbishop Alexios of Tiberias confirmed that the offices and entrance to the Monastery were bombarded, with sections of the building collapsing. 

The Holy Order of Saint George the Great Martyr has set up a fund to assist families. Please consider giving to the Order or through IOCC. I also encourage you to read about the life of the Saint whose holy Relic we received at our parish some years ago.  Finally, I ask that you heed that request of the Order of Saint George to  "pray for the repose of the souls who were killed in the bombing; for strength and healing of the injured; for mercy on everyone, including the perpetrators; and for peace in the Holy Land and an end to this devastating war. Let God arise! Let his enemies be scattered!"

May Saint Porphyrios ever intercede on our behalf!

To Donate through the Holy Order of St. George

To Donate through IOCC:

More about St. Porphyrios