St. James Parish News
November 3, 2023
Feast of Acepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Presbyter, & Aeithalas the Deacon
Lift your heads, ye downcast, rejoice, ye sorrowful! Come together, ye who are scattered! Arise, ye fallen! Although your soul may be filled with evils and your life have drawn near to hell, may the storm of the sea of life not engulf you who are in sorrows.
Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy victory? Where is the darkness that thought to hide the Sun of justice?
Leap in spirit, all ye faithful, and joyfully cry out: “Thou didst rise as Conqueror, O Christ our God, announcing to the myrrh-bearing women, Rejoice…to Thy Apostles granting peace, and to the fallen giving resurrection! St. John Maximovitch
Byzantine Chant Class
Kh. Rebecca is starting a class on Byzantine Chant. It is open to all: both prospective chanters and also anyone who would just like to learn more about our chant in the Church!
It will be held at Church every other Saturday evening after our Great Vespers service and continues this coming Saturday (Nov. 4).
Giving at St. James
I know for sure that you all love our St. James parish and community. I know that you all love God and I am always uplifted when praying together with you! We are a beautiful and powerful Christian family here. I also know that you all desire for this St. James community to continue into the future.
As you all are aware, I have a secular job outside of Church that supports my family and myself. So when I discuss giving, it is not for myself. However, thinking about myself, I am led to be frank and say that the time is drawing near when I will either depart this life or will need to retire. I hope this is not an immediate concern: but it is getting near and is something we should begin to consider and prepare for. Which leads to the question of what will happen at St. James when this moment arrives? Generally, in the U.S., an Orthodox priest is supported fully and only by the local parish. There are no funds from the Archdiocese nor from the government (which is perhaps the case in many countries with an Orthodox culture).
At our current giving level, St. James cannot support a priest and his family. If there do not exist the funds for this, it is highly unlikely that a new priest will be able to be sent to St. James. What then will happen to our beloved St. James parish without a priest? Presently, I only know of one other priest who works a secular job in addition to his parish work. To obtain a new priest in the future, we will need to be able to provide full support for him and his family so that they can live a life comparable to our own in the Fort Collins area. Please remeber that this includes much more than the base livable salary: it includes many additional items like housing, insurance, retirement, FICA taxes, paid time off, travel/registration for required functions, etc. I have not done the math for all of these at current conditions, but I am sure this total package adds up to near or over $200,000 annually.
Thanks be to God; we do have money in the bank after our land sale to the State. However, as you can see, the amount in the bank will not even cover one year of salary, so it really does not factor in as a solution to this issue.
To begin the discussion: I am sure that some will suggest that we should then do fundraisers. Firstly, I would ask why we should ask our neighbors in the area to pay for our Church instead of ourselves? It is our loving obligation to do this for ourselves. Also, life is very different today: we are all very busy already with life outside of Church. I know that it is difficult for us to make time just to get to Church services: myself included. Do any of us honestly have the time to commit to 3 or 4 major fund-raising events every year (each one invloving weeks of preparation, execution, and cleanup), in addition to everything else in our lives, in order to raise this amount of money? And what would we do? I am not aware of anyone in our parish family who has the knowledge and experience to organize and lead such events.
I am convinced that it is our loving desire and our Christian duty to fully financially support our St. James parish. There are really no New Testament teachings as to the amount one should give. But they clearly speak of our obligation to do so. The only New Testament example I am aware of is the early community in Jerusalem sharing everything in common (Acts 2:42–47; 4:32–37). No one is asking this: I am just clarifying what I know of the teaching. The other broader biblical teaching is the tithe: 10 percent of all of our various incomes and talents (not only our paycheck). This is also the common Christian teaching. I think this is the goal we should all be striving to attain. It is difficult, I know. But it is also promised in Scripture that our dedication to financially supporting the Church will be rewarded and blessed by God.
St. Paul said to the Corinthians, “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:6–8).
I repeat: I think (and hope) that I still have time here as your priest and father. I am not hinting at nor suggesting any thought of leaving. I am writing this so that we can begin now to prepare for that inevitable day. With God’s help and blessings, let us begin now to discuss and work toward the goal of being a fully financially independent community!
Fr. Mark.
Name days, Birthdays and Anniversaries
Cecilia H. – Birthday: 11-09
Paul G. – Nameday: 11-09
May God grant you many years!
Upcoming Feasts / Celebrations
| Saturday November 4 | |
|---|---|
| St. Raphael of Brooklyn | |
| 8:00 AM | Orthros |
| 9:00 AM | Liturgy |
| Monday November 13 | |
| 6:30 PM | Men’s Spirituality Group |
| Wednesday November 15 | |
| Nativity Fast begins | |
| Tuesday November 21 | |
| 6:30 PM | Women’s Group |
Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php
Prosphora
| Nov 5 | Natalia M. |
| Nov 12 | Shana V. |
| Nov 19 | Anna H. |
| Nov 26 | Peggy Y. |
| Dec 3 | Nana D. |
Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2023 web.pdf
Readers
| Nov 5 | Ken | 22nd after Pentecost | Gal. 6:11-18 |
| Nov 12 | John the Merciful | II Cor. 9:6-11 | |
| Nov 19 | Isaac/Micah | 24th after Pentecost | Eph. 2:14-22 |
| Nov 26 | Nate | 25th after Pentecost | Eph. 4:1-7 |
| Dec 3 | Thomas | 26th after Pentecost | Eph. 5:8-19 |
Full schedule:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2023.pdf
Scripture Readings for this coming Sunday
Epistle: ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 6:11-18
Brethren, see with what large letters I am writing to you with my own hand. It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that would compel you to be circumcised, and only in order that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. For even those who receive circumcision do not themselves keep the law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Peace and mercy be upon all who walk by this rule, upon the Israel of God. Henceforth let no man trouble me; for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen.
Gospel: LUKE 16:19-31
The Lord said, “There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazaros, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazaros in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Lazaros to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazaros in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses, and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to them, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’
Spiritual Reading
The Perennial Trilemma
Fr. Lawrence Farley
Despite the fact that many people in the past have predicted that the works of the late C. S. Lewis would fade into obscurity and be forgotten (one social commentator once described enthusiasm for his works as a “fad”), his books on Christianity seem to be in no danger of fading. Indeed, soon after the breakup of the Soviet empire his book Mere Christianity was published in Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Romanian, Russian Slovakian, and Slovene. It is also popular in (of all places) repressive China, with a 2007 translation selling 60,000 copies by 2014 (the stats are from Marsden’s 2016 book C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity: A Biography).
This is not to suggest that Lewis was or is universally loved. Far from it—in fact many people heartily detested him for his Christian faith and his apologetics. Thus Dorothy Sayers (a friend and fan of Lewis) wrote to a friend asking, “Do you like C. S Lewis’ work, or are you one of the people who foam at the mouth when they hear his name?”—for there were many who thus foamed at the mouth.
One of the things that caused many such mouths to foam was Lewis’ famous and oft-used “tri-lemma”, the assertion that, given the claims of Christ to divinity, there were only three possible conclusions about Him: either He was the Lord, a lunatic, or a liar. Lewis’ actual words, (found in his Mere Christianity) were as follows:
“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him [that is, Christ]: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic–on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg–or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse…. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come up with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
…
To draw together these threads and connect the dots: we may trust our Bibles that in the Gospels we have what the apostles reported that Jesus said. Jesus clearly claimed to be divine. The tri-lemma, brilliantly and concisely stated by Lewis, remains: either Jesus of Nazareth was the Lord, a lunatic, or a liar. His miracles point away from the latter two options. The only remaining question is: what do you think? Is He the Lord? And if so, what are you going to do about it?
Read the entire article:
https://nootherfoundation.ca/the-perennial-trilemma
St. James Orthodox Church
2610 S.E. Frontage Rd.
Fort Collins, CO 80525
970.221.4180