NOW is the time for your generous support of our ongoing and great parish financial needs.
The projected budget for 2011 still includes a large deficit, of about $17,000.00 - $18,000.00 for the year, or about $1500.00 a month. If you are renewing, if at all possible raise the amount of your pledge.  If you have not made a pledge before, now is the time to start.  A central part of the Christian life is setting and keeping a pattern of giving as part of our Christian life. The amount we pledge should represent a sacrifice and not simply a comfortable amount of our resources.

The deficit is going to make it difficult for the parish to fully pay the housing allowance.  Though the parish does not pay the rector a salary, he relies on the housing allowance.  Please see the addendum below, excerpted from the ROCOR parish bylaws.  There is no on-going external source of income for our parish outside of your pledge and other individual donations.

Consider making an extra donation to the General Fund, which covers the operating expenses of the parish. Speak to the Treasurer if you would like to make a one time donation to cover all or part of the deficit.  This is a time of great trial for our parish.  If you are able to help, now is the time.

Father John Townsend will be visiting our parish this coming weekend.  He will begin his visit with us for the following events:

1. Friday 1/28, 7:00 PM at the rectory - the meeting of the St. Joseph the Patriarch Orthodox Young Adults.  All are invited to this meeting, not just the young people.  Father John will talk about his conversion to Orthodoxy, and will lead a discussion on the ways in which we each found the Orthodox Faith, and how to be missionary - how we can bring others to our holy Faith. We will offer hot mulled cider.  If you would like to bring cookies or a light snack to share, please let Claire or Matushka Deborah know.

2. Saturday 1/29 5:00 PM & Sunday 1/30 9:40 AM, Father John will be serving on the weekend for the Vigil and Divine Liturgy, 1/29 and 1/30.

Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God to Visit Us – SAVE THE DATES!

Wednesday, February 2^nd at 6 PM and Thursday, February 3^rd at 8:40 AM, we will celebrate an Evening Vigil and Divine Liturgy before the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God, Protectress of the Russian Diaspora.  We always need her help, and we should be grateful that the diocese is the willing channel for this help.

St. Joseph’s Young Adults – “Orthodoxy Awareness Week”

St. Joseph the Patriarch Young Adults Group is getting ready to sponsor “Orthodoxy Awareness Week,” during this coming Lent.  They and we hope to draw to the Faith those of college age who are now at the University of MD in College Park, two miles from here.  We also plan to advertise the event locally, in the Beltsville News, and put out flyers.  Please pray for them and us, as we prepare for this.

Theophany Houseblessings are available by appointment.  Please speak to Fr. George if you would like to have your house blessed.  The following excerpt is from Fr. Sergei Sveshnikoff’s article on houseblessings.  The full article can be found at: http://frsergei.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/on-the-blessing-of-homes-on-theophany/

Why Bless a Home?

The Orthodox Church teaches that we do not have two separate lives–a secular one and a spiritual one–but one human life, and that all of it must be holy.  We must not be Christians for just a few hours on Saturday and Sunday, spending the rest of our life godlessly, that is to say, without God.  The person who has united with Christ in the sacrament of baptism cannot be a part-time Christian, but must be faithful to Christ everywhere and at all times–in church, at work, at home, in relationships with other Christians, and in those with non-Christians–we must be faithful to Christ in the fullness of our life.

The Holy Orthodox Church teaches us that a temple is not only a building in which we worship, but that we are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16); that the Body of Christ is not only that of which we partake at the Divine Liturgy, but that we are the Body of Christ(1 Cor. 12:27).  And just as the Gifts of the Eucharist are treated with reverence and kept in sanctified vessels in the altar, so should every Christian’s life be full of reverence and sanctity not only during a church service, but likewise outside the walls of the temple.  A Christian’s home must become a small temple, work–labor for the glory of God, and family–a small Church.

The Orthodox Church helps her children strive for holiness in their lives and brings sanctification to every Christian home–a small temple.  The Church blesses the very foundation of a home in the same way that it blesses the foundation of a church, it blesses a new Christian home in the same way that it blesses a new temple, and yearly, after the blessing of a parish temple with the water of Theophany, the Church brings this holy water into the homes of the faithful.  The prayers for the blessing of a temple are different from those for the blessing of a home, because the function of a home is different from that of a temple, but the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit is one.  And just as in the baptism of our Lord all of creation is washed clean and sanctified, every year after the feast of the Baptism of the Lord (January 19, according to the secular calendar) Christians sanctify themselves and their homes with the water of Theophany.

The Church teaches us to sanctify everything: dwellings, places of work, all our pursuits, and the fruits of our labor.  And just as a temple and sacred vessels, once sanctified and set aside for sacred use, can no longer be used for anything profane, in the same way a Christian washed in the baptismal waters, and his home, and all his works can no longer be the dwelling of sin and the works of satan, but only and always–the temple of the Holy Spirit and the fulfillment of the will of our Heavenly Father.  This is why the Church blesses everything that can be found in a Christian home; and if something is not worthy of being blessed, then there should not be a place for it in the home of a Christian. (1)

From the ROCOR Parish Bylaws:

2. It shall be the aim of the parish to unite the believers around the parish church on the basis of the teachings, the canons, the traditions and the rules of the Russian Orthodox Church for the satisfaction of the religious needs and moral benefit of its members.

3. It shall be the object of the parish to mutually assist the believers, forming part thereof and united in the Faith in Christ our Savior, by means of prayers, Sacraments, Christian teaching and Church discipline, in attaining salvation through the participation in sacraments and Christian enlightenment, worthy life and Christian charity. Accordingly, the immediate aims of the parish shall include:

a) the care of the church and its adornment;

b) the maintenance of the clergy;

c) the economic prosperity of the parish and the care of the needs of the church, the clergy and all parish institutions, the diocesan and social needs;

d) charitable work, and

e) educational work in the spirit of the Orthodox Church.

4. In conjunction with the parish church there shall be a clergy staff of not less than two members, the rector and the deacon, or the psalmist/precentor, who shall receive living accommodations and subsistence from the parish.