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NATIVITY OF OUR LORD 2018
To the Reverend Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of the West
Dearly beloved:
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)
These words of the Archangel Gabriel, while belonging to our knowledge and celebration of the Annunciation, speak eternal truths about our celebration of the Incarnation of the Son of Mary. The first truth is that the pre-eternal Son of God, existing from before time with the Father and the Spirit, takes His flesh from the Virgin Mary. He took our flesh.
The second eternal truth is that the One who took that flesh from the Virgin Mary is in very fact the Son of God, uniting in Himself the divine nature which He had from the beginning with the human nature in which He humbly clothes Himself. He assumes the fallen human nature completely, so that we can be clothed by Grace with the Divine. “Flesh” seems to be the painful source of so much sin from the beginning, so much corruption. Gluttony, drunkenness, promiscuity, even a disgust for the flesh that God clothed me in — seeking to alter it surgically or hormonally. St. Paul uses the term “flesh” to generally describe the fallenness of our world, and each of us individually. But it is, ironically, precisely “Flesh” that saves us, if we but clothe ourselves in that flesh transfigured by Him.
“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”
“Now when these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
“By your endurance you will gain your lives.”
(Excerpts from Luke 21)
Something unique to our times is the constant barrage of stimuli that seems to pound us into distraction. We are left overstimulated, captivated with earthly things, and far from God. It almost seems unfair that we are doomed to live in these crazy times. Yet defeat is not our destiny. All that we are going through has been foretold. We are called to live in these perilous times for a purpose and for our salvation. It is never impossible to for us to have a vibrant, intimate relationship with God and with our fellow Christians. This is what we are destined for: transformative, heart-changing, and life-giving relationships. To do this, we must make the first steps to gather together and connect with God and each other on a very personal level. This is our strength, and (we will discover) this is our joy. When we do this, we can see clearly that our despair is merely the lie that the Enemy wants to ensnare us in. We are not fated to muddle through life defeated by the spirit of this world. Our life in God is, by definition, exciting and full of meaning and vibrant. We cannot expect to be understood by the world or even noticed, but this should not trouble us because our orientation is toward the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is steadily breaking forth into this world. We have to learn to create silence and find paths to illumination through contact and contemplation of the created world. With our eyes of faith we can begin to see it. And having seen it, we yearn to join it and unite our wills to God's will for humanity and the whole universe.
Come join Young Adults of the DOW at a Winter Retreat at St John's Monastery in Manton, CA December 27th-29th.
For more information, download the program schedule
To register, e-mail klpieracci@yahoo.com by December 16th!
By now many of you have heard of the "Camp Fire" which has been raging here in Northern California. This fire has now become the deadliest and most devastating wildfire in California history. As of this writing, the death toll is at 71 and is bound to rise considering the number of missing persons. The fire has burnt 146,000 acres, it is currently 50% contained. So far 9,844 residences, 336 commercial, 2,067 other buildings have also been destroyed. Sts. Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Mission, here in Chico, is only 15 minutes from the town of Paradise, the town which has been completely devastated by this fire. The two towns of Chico and Paradise are closely intertwined, as many people live in Paradise and work in Chico.
Along with thousands of other people, five of our own parishioners have lost their homes as well. Most importantly, we are thankful to God that they all made it out alive! Their stories are harrowing! Many of them drove through flames while evacuating. The fire advanced very quickly and they received no advanced warning from any official source, and fled their homes with very little! We are glad that they are safe and being taken care of by friends, relatives, and fellow parishioners, but they are now left with the task of having to rebuild their lives.
We look forward to helping our parishioners and others within our local community get back on their feet. It will be a long road, but we know that tragedy also has the capacity to bring us closer together and remind us of what is truly important: our unity in Christ and our love for our neighbor. We are setting up a "fire relief" fund to help our parishioners and others affected. We appreciate your prayers and donations to those suffering in our community.
Donations may be sent to:
So. Cyril and Methodius Orthodox Church
2956 Cohasset Rd
Chico, California 95973-0921
Fr. Ian Shipley
To the Very Reverend and Reverend Clergy and Faithful of the Diocese of the West:
The Lord bless!
It seems like it was only yesterday that fire threatened the clergy and faithful in the Napa and Sonoma valleys. Once again, a fast moving fire has devastated the community of Paradise, CA where some of the faithful from the Chico parish live. As I write, it has been reported 1,000 homes have been destroyed by fire. And the fire is moving rapidly towards the city of Chico. I would ask you all to pray for the victims. I will most likely ask we take up a collection to benefit the victims. I am afraid such fires may become a regular feature of life here in California.
I would also ask you to remember the victims in the terrible shooting in Thousand Oaks. Not only is this a considerable evil, it also appears to reflect the unseen mental wounds that exist in so many of our veterans who have seen and experienced the tragedy of war. May God give the departed rest and protect us all.
This Sunday's Gospel is the Parable of the Good Samaritan where Christ calls us to care for our neighbors. Indeed, to paraphrase St. Anthony the Great, salvation rests in our neighbor.
+Benjamin
Choir workshop
With Benedict and Maria Sheehan
Benedict Sheehan
Director of Music, St.Tikhon Seminary & Monastery and Artistic Director, Chamber Choir of St.Tikhon’s Monastery.
Maria Sheehan
Professional vocalist & Voice instructor.
Saturday, September 22, 2018
Church of the Annunciation, Milwaukie, Oregon
11:00-12:00 Registration, Lunch
12:00-1:00 Vocal workshop with Maria Sheehan
1:00-2:30 Repertoire Rehearsal with Benedict Sheehan
2:30-3:00 Q&A: The Mission of Orthodox Musicians in America
3:00 Refreshments
8:00pm All-Night Vigil, S.Rachmaninov, St. Mary’s Cathedral.
Benedict Sheehan will be appearing as guest conductor.
Suggested donation for the workshop & lunch fee is $30 per participant.
On Sunday, September 9 2018, with the blessing of His Eminence, Archbishop Benjamin, the clergy and faithful of Holy Trinity Cathedral celebrated the blessing of the newly completed iconography now adorning the interior of the cathedral dome. We were honored by the presence of Iconographer Dmitri Shkolnik who painted the icons of Christ the High Priest, His Holy Mother, the Forerunner, and the Bodiless Powers of Heaven. Archpriest Kirill Sokolov, Dean, served the rite of blessing holy icons assisted by Protodeacon Brendan Doss. Archpriest James Jorgenson preached the homily at the Divine Liturgy.
Challenge grant: An anonymous donor will generously match gifts in support of this iconography project, up to a total of $20,000. For every pledge made to Holy Trinity for this beautification project, your gift will be doubled! To make your gift or for further information, please contact Fr. Kirill Sokolov, frkirill@holy-trinity.org, 1520 Green St., San Francisco CA 94123.
The new icons were prayerfully commissioned in honor of Holy Trinity Cathedral's sesquicentennial anniversary which also marks the foundation of the American Mission south of Alaska. The festive Divine Liturgy and luncheon commemorating this jubilee will be held Saturday, October 20, 2018. More information can be found at holy-trinity.org/150.
A photograph gallery from the blessing of the icons is available here: https://holy-trinity.org/community/2018-0909-blessing-of-new-dome.html
The Nativity of the Holy Virgin Church in Menlo Park had a VIP visitor on Sunday, August 26th! Igumen Arseny (Sokolov), the representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ to the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East traveled all the way from the Moscow Representation church in Damascus, where he is rector, to visit friends who happen to be parishioners of Menlo Park.
Priest Andrew Smith received a surprise call from Bishop Daniel on Saturday morning (Archbishop Benjamin was still in Poland at the time), informing him of the planned visit. To make matters even more interesting, Igumen Arseny and Vladyka Daniel were already acquaintances from their participation in the World Summit in Defence of Persecuted Christians in Washington DC, 2017 (https://oca.org/news/headline-news/metropolitan-tikhon-addresses-world-summit-in-defense-of-persecuted-christi). Owing to Vladyka DANIEL’s roots and Igumen Arseny’s 13 years of living and serving in Lisbon, they converse in Portuguese!
by Father John Dresko
Annually, our country pauses to honor and remember, at least officially, workers in our country on Labor Day. It is important to reflect on the words of Saint Paul from his first letter to the Corinthians regarding a labor dispute in the early Church. In that reading (1 Cor. 9:2-12), Saint Paul talks about the rights of the apostles to make their living from the Church because they have worked so hard in the Church. Now I know that in the Orthodox Church none of our parishes have ever had a dispute about whether their pastor should be paid more or less (!), but nonetheless, it is a very important reading for us to dwell on. What's important is not just that Paul defends very vigorously the fact that the Church has a responsibility to care for its workers, but also that Paul points to the Church, to the Corinthians, as the sign that he has worked in the Church. He says to them, "Am I not an apostle?...You (meaning the Corinthians, the faithful of the Church) are the seal of my apostleship." (1 Cor. 9:1-2) He is saying, "You are the example that what I have done is work very hard in the vineyard of the Lord and that work has brought forth fruit, because you, the people of Corinth, are the seal of what I have done." They prove the apostleship of Paul; they justify his labors.
In America, we have a funny idea of labor. Generally speaking, we have laws that prohibit people from working until they're about 16 years old. We also have laws that say when you reach a certain age (about 65 or 70), you have to stop working. You have to retire. We have really three areas of labor that we have defined for American society: labor, retirement and, perhaps most important, inheritance. The American ideal is to reach working age, start out in your life's career, make your money, put away enough for retirement, and then, by not squandering it, leave an inheritance to those loved ones whom you choose. The problem in America is that we tend to take the same ideas and ideals about labor, retirement and inheritance and apply them to our Church life and our individual spiritual lives. We look at labor and say, "You aren't supposed to work until sixteen." But in the life of the Church, if we waited until everyone is sixteen and then expect them to take up some of the burden of the life of the Church, we will shoot ourselves in the foot. They will not be involved enough in the life of the Church to want to stay until they're sixteen.
The most recent issue of Orthodox Arts Journal (August 1) is headlined by a interview of Iconographer Matushka Ann Margitich of St. Seraphim Cathedral in Santa Rosa, California. The article, entitled A Surpassing Gentleness: An Interview with Iconographer Ann Margitich, by Andrew Gould, can be access by clicking
A video highlighting the work going on in the Diocese of the West, prepared for and debuted at the 19th All-American Council held July 23-27 in St. Louis is now available online. If you wish to view the video, click
The Diocese of the West is the geographical district of the Orthodox Church in America consisting of the Western United States. The diocese has active parishes in Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Washington, Oregon, California and Hawaii. San Francisco is home to the diocese’s cathedral, Holy Trinity, as well as the Chancery offices. The diocese is led by His Grace Vasily, Bishop of San Francisco and the West.
