Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Feast!
The second celebration in this beautiful festal season will be The Feast of the Circumcision. We will offer Great Vespers on Tuesday, December 31, at 7pm, and then, on Wednesday, January 1, the day of the feast, we will serve Orthros at 6am and Divine Liturgy at 8am (please remember there will not be any coffee or refreshments following the Divine Liturgy).
Our Calendar
Fasting Days
December 25th through January 4th is fast-free (Wha-Hoo!). The regular fasting schedule will resume the week of January 6th.
Daily Services
Monday, December 30- Friday, January 3: Orthros 5am; Vespers 5pm (but check the schedule for the festal services; it’s always a good idea to check the day before and make sure nothing has come up to change the regular schedule).
However, Fr. Andrew, Seth Hart, and Matthew Groh and many other folks continue to broadcast daily readings from spiritual books online. They are now reading “The Ecclesiastical History of the English Speaking People” by Bede of Jarrow. The schedule is as follows: M-F at 12pm.
In addition to the daily Synaxarion readings posted in the #synaxarion channel on Discord, the online team is now posting daily Bible Readings that will allow you to read through the Bible in a year. These readings are posted in the #bible-365 channel.
Tuesday, December 31
Great Vespers 7pm
Wednesday, January 1
The Feast of the Circumcision
Orthros 6am
Divine Liturgy 8am
Thursday, January 2
The Bible Study, New Testament Edition 7pm; you can access this group on Discord
Friday, January 3
Royal Hours for Theophany Noon
Saturday, January 4
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, January 5
The Sunday Before Theophany
Orthros 8am
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Great Vespers for Theophany No Later Than 1pm
Monday, January 6
The Great Feast of Theophany
Orthros 5am
Divine Liturgy 7am
Tuesday, January 7
Orthodoxy 101 7pm; you can also access the group on Discord
Saturday, January 11
St Thomas School 4pm
Great Vespers 6pm
Sunday, January 12
The Sunday After Theophany
Orthros 8am
Church School 8:15am
Divine Liturgy 10am
Fellowship Hour Noon
Outdoor Blessing of the Waters 1pm
St Thomas School
In 2025, some big changes are coming to St Thomas School. To better serve our community's needs, we've written our own catechetical curriculum, which we'll start using in January. Each month will have a theme: The Church, Salvation, etc. The goal is to provide a solid introduction to Orthodoxy in 12 months. These Orthodox Foundations classes will be taught on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month.
On top of that, we'll continue to have our popular Orthopraxis classes on the first Saturday of the month, where Fr Aidan will teach on practical subjects like serving at St John's, money in the Orthodox life, and the Orthodox view of angels and demons.
We're also adding special sessions, usually on the fifth Saturday of the month. Sometimes this will be a guest speaker coming to give a lecture on an important book or thinker from Orthodox history, and sometimes it will be Fr Andrew hosting a Theological Q&A. Our first Theological Q&A will be January 18. Come prepared with those questions you've always wanted to ask a priest!
On the third Saturday of the month – except for this January, when we're hosting a theological Q&A – we'll continue to have Catechumen Check-Ins, led by Fr Andrew and Fr Dcn Michael.
The full St Thomas School schedule can be found on Discord.
Anniversary / Memorial Blessings
You can use the links in the email version of the newsletter to sign up for anniversary blessings and memorial services that will be offered in 2025. Please note that things have changed for 2025 to accommodate our growing parish (i.e. some were not able to get on the schedule for anniversary blessings in 2024 because all of the slots were taken).
Memorial Services, will now occur at the end of Great Vespers on Saturday, and they may only be offered for Orthodox Christians who have departed this life. If your departed loved one was not an Orthodox Christian, visit this page on our website to learn about and request an Akathist for the Departed rather than signing up for a memorial service.
Anniversary Blessings may be requested for the first wedding anniversary and every fifth anniversary thereafter (i.e. 1st, 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, etc.). They may only be offered if one of the married couple is an Orthodox Christian. Approach the solea immediately after the hymn “Blessed be the Name of the Lord” at the end of the Divine Liturgy. If you have marriage crowns, bring them with you as you come forward. Those celebrating anniversaries that are not eligible to sign up, are invited to come forward during the “Birthdays, Anniversaries, and Namedays” segment of the announcements after the Divine Liturgy.
Coming Up
The most important celebration in this upcoming festal season will be The Great Feast of Theophany. We will start the festivities by serving The Royal Hours for the feast at noon on Friday, January 3. Then, on Sunday, January 5, after a brief Fellowship Hour, we will offer Great Vespers and The Lesser Blessing of the Waters no later than 1pm. On the morning of the feast, we will serve Orthros at 5am and the Divine Liturgy and Greater Blessing of the Waters at 7am.
On Sunday, January 12, we will join with all the other Orthodox parishes in the area to offer The Outdoor Blessing of the Waters at Twin Lakes Park. After a short Fellowship Hour, we will all head over to the park (204 E Little Elm Trail); the service will be held in the amphitheater just off the parking lot, and we’ll get started no later than 1pm. Our choir will be singing, so plan on joining us and all of our sister communities as we bless the creation with the grace and mercy of the Most Holy Trinity.
It may seem like a long way off, but it will be here before we know it. Also, our parish constitution requires that we post the agenda and the reports and announce the candidates for parish council well before the Annual Meeting—which, in 2025, will be on Sunday, February 9. So just follow the link in the email version of the newsletter (the link is also available on Discord) and read up on everything that’s been going on in the past year and everything that we have planned for the coming year—and, if you have any questions, just check with Father Aidan Wilcoxson or our parish council president, Bessie J.
Our Moment of Grace and Courtesy
When the Divine Liturgy is offered on a Sunday, we do not typically make prostrations during the service. However, when the Liturgy is served on a Saturday or a weekday, it is customary to make a full prostration when the Holy Gifts are consecrated. That means we need to remember to wear clothes that permit that sort of activity, but we also need to remember that, if we are not physically able to get all the way down on the floor, a bow or the sign of the cross is also an appropriate way to respond.
an unworthy priest
aidan