The Lighthouse October 2017 I will build you a lighthouse from which the light of Christ can shine. Christ the Savior Orthodox Church, 1070 Roxbury Road, Southbury, CT 06488 Archpriest Vladimir Aleandro, Pastor (203) 267 1330 www.christsaviorchurch.org For the past decade, seminarians in their last year at St. Vladimir s in Yonkers are assigned as interns at our parish. During the nine months of the school year they come each Sunday, often with their family, to worship, serve in the altar, preach, teach, visit the sick, be pastoral at coffee hour, shadow the priest, be mentored and get a bit of firsthand experience of the ministry of a parish. As you read the short biography below of Seraphim O Keefe, I think you can picture some of the many ways that we, as a parish community, look forward to our growth and learning that will come from the presence of the O Keefe family. My Name is Seraphim O Keefe. My wife, Ilaria, and I have three children; Herman (6), Ida (3), and James (2 months). I am an iconographer, and a third year seminarian in the M. Div program at St. Vladimir s Seminary. I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, in an artistic family; my father has his degree in visual art, and all my brothers have become visual artists. I wanted to be an artist from an early age. My family s beliefs were atheist, and so far I am the only one to convert. This process began in 1999 when I went to study painting in the Republic of Georgia for the Summer before my last year of high school. I had powerful experiences encountering the ancient churches, monasteries, music, and celebrations of that land, and I accepted my teachers invitation to return as an apprentice after high school. My teachers and their families inspired me and walked with me as a seeker, and the Georgian bishop recommended I be baptized at St. Herman s monastery in Platina, California, which came to pass on January 7 th, 2002. For the next two years I continued to live and study with my teachers, both in Georgia and in Russia, until I entered a Georgian monastery, where I was a novice for a little over a year. The life of our monastery was very intense, and the time I spent there was both formative and traumatic. It is also the place where I was first blessed to learn icon painting, and given a teacher. After departing the monastery, I returned to my painting teachers, but the seed planted in me of iconography slowly grew. After finishing my studies, I returned to America, where I worked as a visual artist, and I practiced iconography on the side with various mentors, including Fr Andrew Tregubov, who painted the main icons at Christ the Savior. I met my wife, Ilaria, in 2008 during an US east-coast tour of a Georgian choir, Zedashe, whose leader is my painting teacher s wife. I was the tour van driver. Ilaria had recently spent half a year in Georgia learning music with this choir, and my painting teacher had sponsored her baptism into Orthodoxy. We were married in August 2010, and we spent our first year in Georgia. That was the time I began to paint icons full time. We returned to America for the birth of our first child. Since that time, our family has been itinerant, following the call to work on iconography and music in various churches. This call has brought us to Kodiak, Alaska; Baltimore, Maryland; and Richmond, Virginia, and now to seminary. Especially as I have been working on major walliconography projects in churches, my family has recognized the many opportunities for ministry and outreach that this work offers, and so we came to seminary to prepare ourselves for the work ahead. Now, in our third year, we are looking forward to wherever the Lord calls us next! 1
October 7, 2017 St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary 575 Scarsdale Road Yonkers, NY 10707 Orthodox Education Day: Modern Martyrs The Seminary s annual open house and fall festival Orthodox Education Day will address one of the most painful realities of the 21 st century: Modern Martyrs: Christians of the Middle East and North Africa. The Reverend Dr. George L. Parsenios, associate professor of New Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary, and sessional professor of New Testament, St. Vladimir's Seminary, will present the Keynote: "Dying, and Behold, We Live: Martyrdom in the New Testament." Father George will focus on sections of Scripture in 2 Corinthians and in the Gospel of John, chapter 9 (the healing of the Blind Man), where suffering is connected to assimilation to Christ and being "in Christ." Although Christians have lived in the Middle East the birthplace of Christianity for nearly two thousand years, as a result of war, and years of persecution and discrimination, especially in the past 15 years, they now constitute no more than 3 4% of the region s population, down from 20% a century ago. And all of us are aware of the recent horrific murders of Coptic Christians in Egypt, and the daily bigotry and discrimination they suffer. On Saturday, October 7, 2017, we invite the public both to learn about the history of Christianity in the Middle East and North Africa, and to reflect upon what it means to witness to Christ in the face of persecution. In Greek, the word witness is mártyras, and we will be praying for faithful Christians for whom this word holds immediate import and exacts real consequence as they profess their faith. The day will begin with Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m., and other chapel services will include an Akathist service to the New Martyrs and Great Vespers. Three Hierarchs Chapel and the SVS Bookstore will be open to the public throughout the day, and children s activities and lectures centered on the day s theme will be offered. And, we will be providing special hospitality to our guests with tables of ethnic food and poured over coffee. Please join us as we remember and stand in solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Middle East and North Africa. Admission to the grounds and events is free. Advice from a Pumpkin Be well-rounded. Get plenty of sunshine. Give thanks for life s bounty. Have a thick skin. Keep growing. Be outstanding in your field. Think big! Ilan Shamir Let All You Do Be Done in Love 1 Cor. 16 2
October 2017 Announcements Saints in the Orthodox Church A mini series presented by Father Dennis Rhodes St. George Orthodox Church 5490 Main Street Trumbull, CT 06611 (203) 598-4678 Time: 6:30 P.M. Akathist Glory to God for All Things! 7:00 P.M. Presentation on Saints October 25, How do They Make a Saint? The discussion will focus on the glorification of saints. Father Dennis will also share his personal experience serving on previous Church Commissions on the Canonization of Saints. November 29, Who is my Saint? This discussion will focus on our own personal Saints and what meaning they have in our lives. Refreshments will be served. We Welcome to our Parish John and Marina Skelton. We pray that we will all grow together in Christ for many years. All women are invited to the Women s Morning of Retreat on Saturday, October 14. We will discuss Shark Tooth Grace, in the book, Being Bread. Please join us for the Akafist at 9AM followed by a short talk and quiet meditation time, fellowship, food and discussion. Georgetta Marion will lead the discussion this month. See the bulletin board for details. Our Weekly Study Group has begun again on Monday mornings. Everyone is welcome! It is for one hour starting at 10:00 am and will end by 11:00. This year with the overall parish education theme of The Teachings of Jesus? The basis for these classes will be The Beatitudes and the Parables of Jesus. Our study of the Beatitudes will be based on the book: The Ladder of the Beatitudes by Jim Forest. Men's Thursday Night Gathering will be on Thursday Evening October 12. We will start at 7:00 pm with prayer and use the book: Being Bread, which is structured with short thought provoking chapters followed by a few questions that relate to our daily life. This month the chapter: Indian Givers and the Holy Trinity will be led by Paul Williams. Men of all ages are encouraged to come and recharge your battery. Saturday Vespers will remain at 6:00 PM until the Saturday after daylight-saving. Beginning on November 11, we will assemble at 5:00 PM until the Saturday after Pascha. October 1 is the Sunday of the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos and St. Romanos the Hymnographer. In our parish tradition we will remember with gratefulness all our Church Singers, Choir Members and Readers. When we assemble to worship with song and praise, they are the backbone that helps all of us to join in song and praise. Thank you!!! Remember the Food Bank during this month of October. It is caught in Post Summer and Pre Thanksgiving giving. Do you remember what you promised the Lord last December when you tithed or pledged to Him a top portion of all He has given to you? It was a covenant between you and God. No one else keeps track of it but the two of you. As we enter into the last three months of the year, it is a good time to be sure that you have been faithful to your end of the promise. 3
2017 Harvest Walk To End Hunger Southbury Woodbury Interfaith Ministries (S.W.I.M.) will hold our 5 th Annual Harvest Walk to End Hunger on Sunday, October 15th in Woodbury. All proceeds from this event benefit emergency food assistance programs in Southbury, Woodbury and Waterbury. This 5K walk will start and finish at Mitchell Elementary. The walk starts at 1:00 pm. Representatives from local nonprofits benefiting from this event (including Southbury Food Bank, Community Services Council of Woodbury and Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministry) provide information about their organizations. Please note: Sunday October 15 is our Annual Assembly. Everyone is expected to be there. We will try to make it move along as smoothly as possible so we can all join the Harvest Walk at some point. Miraculous, Myrrh-Streaming icon of the Mother of God "Tender Heart/ Kardiotissa" will be at St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in New Britain November 3rd and 4th. Everyone welcome. Information on our Bulletin Board. All are invited to a Pilgrimage in honor of St. Nektarios of Aegina. The celebration of the Feast of St. Nektarios will be on Sunday, November 12 at 4:00 pm. This is the Sunday after his Feast Day. We are most blessed to have Archbishop NIKON presiding at that Vespers. For the past twenty-four years, the fall season at Christ the Savior brings memories and anticipation of the Feast of St. Nektarios of Aegina. Miracles happen on St. Nektarios night - and they do. This year we will gather for Great Vespers on Sunday November 12 th at 4:00 pm. There will be a procession with his relics, prayers for the sick and anointing. A light buffet will follow. Please invite friends and relatives to come with you to this powerful evening of faith! On the feast, Wednesday, November 9, there will be a Divine Liturgy at 9:30 am. The Beatitudes Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:3-10) 4
Loving God, shine Your light on my path today. Elizabeth Sherrill Lord, let our eyes be opened. Matthew 20:33 I keep the letter in a folder labeled GBGFB (God brings good from bad). It s filled with letters, articles, scribbled notes that I pull out as an antidote to the negatives in my life. I chose this particular letter after getting a discouraging report from my eye doctor about my worsening macular degeneration. The letter was dated March 9, 1993. The writer was a retired medical missionary who d worked for many years in Congo/Zaire, where blindness caused by a river parasite was an all-too-common malady. There s no cure, she told me. All we could do in these cases was try to help them cope. Then two years before she and her husband retired, a young German couple with the Christoffen Blinden Mission came to Zaire. They introduced farming techniques developed specifically for the blind and brought Braille Bibles in the local language and began teaching them to read. The most wonderful thing is happening! She wrote. Of course there s no electricity in these remote villages. Nights are long and dark. But blind people can read any time! A whole village will gather around one or two of them to hear the Scriptures read aloud. Nights aren t long enough for all the stories and questions and excited conversation. I d picked that letter because eyesight was on my mind. But it s about so much more than a disability turned to good! It tells me there s no darkness too thick for God s light to enter. Digging Deeper: 2 Samuel 22:29, Psalm 139:12, 2 Corinthians 4:6 The Beatitudes with Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain (Taken from the Elder Sixth Epistle) Blessed are those parents who avoid the use of the word don t with their children, instead restraining them from evil through their holy life a life which children imitate, joyfully following Christ with spiritual bravery. Blessed are the pure in heart Let mercy outweigh all else in you. Let compassion be a mirror where we may see in ourselves that likeness and that true image which belong to the Divine Nature and Divine Essence. A hard and unmerciful heart will never be pure. -St. Isaac of Syria How else but through a broken heart may the Lord Christ enter? 5
Those who have stood in these places of the spirit may ask in dismay, Where are we to look for a criterion by which to distinguish genuine communion with God from delusion? Blessed Staretz Silouan explicitly asserted that we have such a criterion love for enemies. He said, The Lord is meek and humble, and loves His creature. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is humble love for enemies and prayer for the whole world. And if you do not have this love, ask and the Lord Who said, Ask, and it shall be given to you will grant it to you (Archimandrite Sophrony, St. Silouan the Athonite, pp. 162-163). 6