MESSENGER THE. Newsletter of All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church. Christ is Risen!

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1 THE MESSENGER Newsletter of All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church May 2014 Christ is Risen! The magical night of the Midnight services is slowly becoming a memory, albeit a wonderful memory. Oh, the light! Oh, the shout Christ is Risen! The brightness of the night.and the fireworks! Yet, life is continuing, with its consistent disregard for the past. Life keeps coming, and throwing at us new concerns and situations. Are we returning to normal, to our busy normal without any real change? It was a wonderful night but it belongs in the past, like any photo. The power of the Paschal night can transcend time and pounce on life. With every new concern in life, there is Christ is Risen!. In every new situation that life has placed us, the escape, the Way out, is Christ is Risen! It is a lasting joy, and we have been changed. The victory of Christ has renewed us in the struggle. The Savior gives us encouragement, whether we are alone, betrayed by friends, let down by loved ones. For He was alone, and betrayed by his friends, and let down by everyone who loved him, he knows. He empowers us when we enter the garden of Gethsemane and pray. For, He was there, praying for hours, unto great perseverance. He accompanies us to our ever closer personal crosses, sent to us from the devil, and his evil ones. For, He bravely encountered evil, face to face, and struck it head on. He leads us out. He leads us the heavens, to a Kingdom. For, he went there first and prepared it for our arrival. Remember all of these things that we have learned, all because of Christ is Risen!. What great knowledge that comes through faith in the Risen Lord! True knowledge changes our life, and teaches us how to live. What have you learned from Pascha night? For whatever you have learned will remain with you, even as the memory fades away. Christ is Risen! Fr Alexander

2 CHRIST IS RISEN! CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRISTOS VOSKRESE! April 20th, 2014 PARISH INFORMATION Address: 9012 Q Street, Omaha, NE Office Hours: Monday Friday: 10am 5pm Phone: Fax: Fr. Alexander Lukashonok: FrAlexander@allholyspirit.com Website: Services: Church: AHSoffice@allholyspirit.com All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church Fall/Winter/Spring hours Each Sunday Morning Prayer 8:30 am Divine Liturgy 9:30 am December

3 THANK YOU It s a great honor to offer the bread that will become the body and blood of Christ during Divine Liturgy and we thank the following people who provided Prosphora for April: Joanne Sgourakis, Effie Bitsos, Mary Moustakes, and Maria Laws. April Coffee Hour sponsors: Mary Mitchell and Helen Petrow. Deb McDonald and David Rakes for the great Lenten meal. The Dance troupe for an excellent Greek Independence Day program. The Dance troupe for their contribution to the capital campaign Thank you to everyone who so generously donated icons, flowers, sand stands for Pascha, decorated, cooked and provided palms. Thanks to you we had a glorious Holy Pascha! Memorial A 40 Memorial was offered on April 6th for John Mitchell. May his memory be eternal. CHURCH FAMILY PICNIC We invite you to a Church Family Picnic on Saturday, May 3rd, 2 pm 8 pm. We will have Great Vespers at 6 pm outside, mushroom picking contest & prizes, grilling and much more! OCF and In the Loop groups are invited. All are welcome! We provide hamburgers, please bring a side dish, a drink, and lawn chairs. Location: Two Rivers Park, F St., Waterloo, NE (Signs will be at the gate). Contact Jason & Tammy Gill at if you have any questions. USHER SCHEDULE May & June If you are unable to usher on your assigned Sunday please find a replacement within your group. SACRAMENTS 05/04 John Birge Katie Elfering John & Elaine Berger 05/11 Andy Karavas Jordan Fox Brian & Sheila Zachariae 05/18 Chris Hoegemeyer Tammy Gill Mike Bouzis & Josh Busch 05/25 John Sgourakis Steve Hurst Bill & Cindy Lambert 06/01 Nick Petrow Jeff Johannesmeyer Mike & Nikki Moravec 06/08 John Treantos Anastasia Jones Jim McDonnell & Paul Bitsos 06/15 David Rakes Adam Karavas John & Elaine Berger 06/22 John Birge Tesfaye Kinde Brian & Sheila Zachariae 06/29 Andy Karavas Christina Knowles Mike Bouzis & Josh Busch 3 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church May

4 PRESANCTIFIED LITURGY TOGETHER It was a beautiful Presanctified Liturgy at St. Nicholas Church on April 2nd. Fr. Sasha from St. Nicholas Church, Fr. Don from St. Mary Antiochian Church, Fr. Steve, a retired priest from St. Mary Antiochian Church, and Fr. Alexander with All Holy Spirit Church gave us a wonderful liturgy. It was great to see different Orthodox parishes unite on that day! AXIOS! (WORTHY) Ted Warren was received into the Orthodox Church through the sacrament of Chrismation on April 6th. Please congratulate and welcome Ted into our Church family. Presanctified Liturgy at St. Nicholas Church Pascha in May? Ted Warren s Chrismation Did you enjoy Holy Resurrection service in April? Come enjoy and experience it all again on May 27th, Tuesday, at 8 pm Matins & Divine Liturgy of the Leave-Taking of Pascha! ORTHODOX ADULT EDUCATION Bible Class is coming this May again! We are doing a 6 week unit. Each Wednesday, May 7th-May 28th, at 7 pm. NEW! Inquirer s Class Are you new in Orthodox Church? Do you know someone who is interested in becoming Orthodox? We introduce a new class for those who are seeking answers, who want to learn about the church, for those who are interested in becoming Orthodox. Starting this May, we will have Inquirer s Class twice a month. May classes: May 8th, Thursday, 7 pm; May 22nd, Thursday, 7 pm. 4 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church December

5 FISH FRY & AHEPA As you all know, our local AHEPA Chapter does a weekly Fish Fry during the Western Lent. We are on the verge to break all previous records by over 30%. A full accounting should be available by the middle of June. CONGRATULATIONS Vasili Sgourakis won first place in the Metropolis Oratorical Festival. Great Job Vasili!! CONGRATULATIONS Congratulations to my son John who is graduating with a dual degree from University of Nebraska Law School with a J.D and from the University of Nebraska Business School with a MBA. He is starting a job at First National Bank in the trust department. He will Fish Fry 2014 marry Lia Sleder on May 25 in Kansas City. Congratulations to my daughter Melissa Darling who is finishing her residency at Texas Tech and moving to Charlottesville Virginia for her fellowship in Derm Pathology for one year. Nikki Diamantis LAZARUS SATURDAY We celebrated Lazarus Saturday on April 12th. Everyone enjoyed a great Pancake breakfast after the Divine Liturgy and palm crosses making! Thank you to all who helped make the breakfast such a success. Palm Crosses Making May

6 PHILOPTOCHOS Xristos Anesti to everyone! I'd like to thank everyone who worked, baked and purchased our delicious pastries at the fish fry bake sales. We averaged around $300 per sale with our last sale topping off at $430! Great job ladies!! I'd also like to thank you for helping make our annual Palm Sunday Dinner so delicious and successful. Special thanks this year to Tom Denich for making and donating his DELICIOUS sauce, Jason Gill for preparing and cooking the fish, Helen Lazanas for donating the fish and Voula Kotrotsios and Nikki Diamantis for their help cooking in the kitchen. Thanks also to Teddy Petrow, Deb McDonnell (and family), and Maria Laws for helping to set up the tables. We made over $700 thanks to everyone who stayed and those who took lunches to go. Another special thank you also to Effie Bitsos & Tammy Gill for dying the beautiful red Easter eggs for Pascha. Our 2nd Philoptochos social outing was held April 26th at Canvas and Cabernet at Aksarben Village. Everyone who attended had a wonderful time sipping wine, painting and discovering their inner Van Gogh. Enjoy your masterpieces ladies! We're having a NEW FUNDRAISER this year for Mother's Day that is for the entire congregation. For a minimum of a $5.00 donation, you will be able to remember "In Honor Of" OR "In Memory Of" your mother, aunt, nouna, sister, cousin, niece or special friend etc. on Mother's Day. Father Alexander will do a memorial service for all of the women you would like to remember on Mother's Day and also a special artoclasia for everyone you would like to honor. All of those to be remember will be listed in a special Mother day handout to be passed out on Mother's Day. In addition to this, a card will be sent to them personally wishing them a "Happy Mother's Day" and informing them that a special donation has been made by you in their honor. There will also be a line on the card inviting them to join you in church on mother's day if they are able. You can send one to anyone!! All you need to do is give us a list of everyone you would like remembered with your donation and addresses, and we do the rest!! Contact Maria Knowles at or mariaknowles@cox.net to participate. Lastly, our final meeting of the year will be a LUNCHEON MEETING on Saturday, May 3rd at the Greek Islands Restaurant at 12:00. Please make every effort to attend. Maria Knowles St. Nicholas Church Slava Saturday, May 17th 6 pm Akathist to St. Nicholas 7 pm Authentic Serbian Menu (including: Cevapi, Burek & Gibanica) 7:30 pm Dance Admission to Dance: $5 (age 12 and older) Music provided by Majstori Sunday, May 18th 10 am Divine Liturgy 12:30 pm Banquet Music provided by Soko Orchestra Please join us for this joyous event! 11 6 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church May

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9 By Sarah Elfering Christ is Risen! My life in Christ started for me at a very young age. I have been raised in the Greek Orthodox Church my whole life and I cannot imagine my life any other way. When I think about growing up in the Church, I instantly think about going to Sunday school. Starting at a young age, I would color pictures of Bible stories, participate in the church Christmas program. Later as I took part in the Oratorical Festival, the deepness of our Orthodox Church became clearer to me. By learning to speak about our faith, I really started to understand more of what it means. I believe that in order to strengthen a relationship with God, everyone has to go through good and bad times. Some of the good times for me would be going to vacation church school and church camp because I made friends and I also learned about my faith. I also greatly valued the opportunity to baptize my two Goddaughters and helping the younger kids in Sunday school. When I would go and work with the younger kids I enjoyed helping them learn, just as I did when I first went to Sunday school. These experiences help me understand my calling to be a pediatric nurse, helping others in need through compassion and care. Another important lesson in my Orthodox journey was learning how trials help shape our faith. Psalm 12:6 talks about silver being purified by fire. As I ve grown I learned that life has painful setbacks; even within the church. When I was in high school I had a hard time understanding why God would want to lead me down this path, especially in my Church family. I now know that God wanted to show me the dangers of gossip, the importance of forgiveness and keeping focus on Christ rather than popularity. After this experience my relationship with God has grown stronger and through faith any obstacle can be overcome. My life with Christ started at my earliest memories, and will be a journey throughout the rest of my life; my faith is continually growing stronger every day. 98 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church December May

10 PLEASE MEET We welcome Ryan & Heather Newell to our Church Heather and I both grew up outside of the Orthodox Church (in fact, it was at a protestant church that we first met). Heather was raised in the Roman Catholic Church and attended Marian High School, but eventually left the Catholic Church to participate in evangelical churches for several years. I was raised in a very strong Evangelical family and attended Grace University after graduating from Plattsmouth High School. Although we are both very thankful for the wisdom bestowed upon us by the all wonderful people we met during those years, we both - each in our own way - became disillusioned and disenchanted with Christianity as we understood it. Interestingly enough, I just happened to be looking into the Orthodox faith when I met Heather, and - unbeknownst to me - Heather's mom had been received into the Orthodox Church just a few short years before. After falling in love with each other and with the Orthodox Church, we decided to embark on a new journey together. On Holy Saturday in 2011 at St Mary Antiochian Church, we were together received into The Church by chrismation. Heather is currently working towards earning her Master's degree in Clinical Counseling and has been a barista at Starbucks for over six years. I currently work at Harrison Hills as a leasing agent and I plan to return to school this fall to study Behavioral Science. I also feel called to eventually attend seminary and enter the priesthood. Heather and I would both like to express how incredibly moved we are by the immense kindness shown to us by everyone at All Holy Spirit. We feel so welcomed here and already consider you our family! - Ryan & Heather Newell 10 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church December

11 Icon Corner By Tom Denich The month of May for Saints and icons is rich for the Orthodox Church. Our most popular would be Ss. Constantine and Helen, May 21, but there is an American Saint in May worthy of mention since it hits so close to home for us. Abbamoses.com tells us this about St Alexis Toth of Wilkes Barre, May 7th: St Alexis Toth St Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (1909) (April 24 OC) This light of Orthodoxy in North America was born in Austro-Hungary in 1854, to poor Carpatho-Russian parents. His father was a priest in the Eastern-rite Roman Catholic church and, following in his father's footsteps, he was ordained in In 1889 he was appointed to serve as pastor to a Uniate parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Prompted partly by the strong hostility of the American Roman Catholic hierarchy at that time to Eastern-rite practices, he convened a meeting of about ten Eastern-rite priests in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, where the divinely-led decision was made to seek to return to the Orthodox faith. Fr Alexis contacted Bishop Vladimir of the Russian church in San Francisco, who, in 1891, received Fr Alexis and 361 of his parishioners back into the faith of their ancestors. From that time forward, Fr Alexis worked tirelessly, at great personal sacrifice, to proclaim the truths of the Orthodox faith, especially to those still attached to its mimic, Byzantine Catholicism. For long periods of time he received little or no salary and (despite claims that he had embraced Orthodoxy to enrich himself) worked in a bakery to support himself. Through his work, thousands of Christians in North America were led into the fullness of the Orthodox Faith during his lifetime. May 21 Holy Equals-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine (337) and Helen, his mother (327) Saint Constantine was born in 272, the son of Constantius Chlorus, ruler of the western part of the Roman Empire, and St Helen. When his father died in 306 he was proclaimed successor to the throne. The empire was ruled at that time by several Caesars, each with his own territory. When Constantine learned that the Caesars Maxentius and Maximinus had joined against him, he marched on Italy. It was there that, on the eve of a decisive battle outside Rome, he saw in the sky a radiant Cross with the words "In this sign conquer." He ordered that a battle-standard be made bearing the image of a cross and inscribed with the Name of Jesus Christ. The following day he and his forces attacked and won a spectacular victory. He entered Rome in triumph and in 312 was proclaimed "Emperor of the West" by the Senate. (His brother-in-law Licinius ruled in the East.) Soon thereafter he issued his "Edict of Milan," whereby Christianity was officially tolerated for the first time, and persecution of Christians ceased. (Many believe, mistakenly, that the Edict made Christianity the only legal religion; in fact, it proclaimed freedom of religion throughout the Empire). Licinius, though he pretended to accept the Edict, soon began persecuting Christians in his domain. In response, Constantine fought and defeated him in 324, becoming sole Emperor of the entire Roman Empire. In 324 he laid the foundations of a new capital in the town of Byzantium; in 330 he inaugurated the new capital city, naming it "New Rome" and "Constantinople." In 325 he called the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea, attending its sessions himself. Shortly before his repose in 337, he received Holy Baptism; he died on Holy Pentecost, at the age of sixty-five, and was interred in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. St Constantine's holy mother Helen, in her role as "Augusta" of the Empire, founded countless churches. She traveled to Jerusalem and found the True Cross on which the Lord was crucified. In the Holy Land she established churches at the sites of Christ's Nativity and burial, which still stand today in much-modified form. She died at about eighty years of age. 9 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church May

12 All Holy Spirit Greek Orthodox Church 9012 Q Street Omaha, NE (402) office (402) fax PRESORT STANDARD U.S. Postage PAID Permit No Omaha, NE Address Service Requested Holy Resurrection Service at AHS Church