Weekly Announcements

THIS WEEK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Sunday, November 29th, 2020    13th Sunday of Luke

 

13th Sunday of Luke, November 29th

13th Sunday of Luke

8:15am Orthros

9:30am Divine Liturgy

 

Monday, November 30th  

St. Andrew the First-Called

8:15am Orthros

9am Divine Liturgy

 

Tuesday, December 1st  

7:45am Orthros

8:30am Divine Liturgy

 

Wednesday, December 2nd     

St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia

8:15am Orthros

9am Divine Liturgy

10:30am Paraklesis to the Theotokos

Everyone is invited and welcome to attend

The service is about 45 minutes and we are asking for prayers

from the Panagia for healing, help and any other issues we may

have in our lives. You can also submit names of your loved ones.

 

Thursday, December 3rd 

7:45am Orthros

8:30am Divine Liturgy

5-6pm  Adv. Adult Greek School

7-8pm  Eng. Bible Study

   

Friday, December 4th    

St. Barbara, St. John of Damaskos and St. Seraphim.

8:15am Orthros

9am Divine Liturgy

10:30-11:30am Eng. Bible Study

 

Saturday, December 5th  

St. Savas – Nameday of our Metropolitan

7:45am Orthros

8:30am Divine Liturgy

6pm Vespers

 

40-Day Memorial was held today for Theodore Vellios and 5-year Memorial for Katherine Vellios on behalf of their family. May their memory be eternal.

 

Memorial Service was held today for the deceased Order of Archons’ Members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. May their memory be eternal.

 

Artoclasia Service (Blessing of the Loaves) was held today for the good health of our Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and for the health of the Order of Archons’ Members of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

 

Next Sunday all the Churches of our Metropolis are sponsoring a 40-day Memorial Service for the repose of our former Metropolitan Maximos. We invite our Parishioners to please consider to come to Church next Sunday and participate. Metropolitan Maximos had a special love and appreciation for our Cathedral. Let us come and pray for Him. Thank you.

 

“STEWARDSHIP SUNDAY” was last Sunday, November 22nd. Everyone was mailed a Stewardship Package that had your 2020 information concerning stewardship; if you have paid in full, if you are still paying and those who have not contributed yet for the 2020 year.  We, also, ask that you please fill out your Stewardship Pledge for 2021 with careful and prayerful consideration and please return it to the Church Office.

If you have not pledged or given anything for 2020, we ask that you please consider donating and thus helping the House of the Lord. Also, since these are days that we support financially different charities, we should support the Cathedral as the Church should be our charity priority.

 

Coffee Hour will not be held in the Hall because of the covid virus. If the weather permits, we will have it outside. We thank all those persons that helped with the Coffee Hour and especially our Philoptochos ladies. 

 

General Assembly on Sunday, December 13th after the Divine Liturgy in the Church. We will be discussing different topics and the budget.  Please plan to stay for the General Assembly.

 

Bookstore news:   The Bookstore is open every Sunday after church. This is a special ministry in our Cathedral. There are many wonderful books, icons and other items that you may wish to buy for your home or give as gifts. Please come by and see our bookstore.

 

Preparing for Christmas

  1. The Christmas Fasting Periodbegan on Sunday, November 15th.  During this fasting period, as the Church teaches us, we refrain from all types of meat, poultry, eggs and milk products.  From November 21st the feast day of the Presentation of the Virgin Mary to the Temple till Dec. 12th the feast day of St. Spyridon, fish is permitted except on Wednesdays and Fridays. 

 

  1. Also please note again this yearwe will be having Divine Liturgies every day for 40 days. We will have Orthros Service at 7:45am and Divine Liturgy at 8:30am except for the feast days and Sundays that times are mentioned in the SOURCE Calendar or this announcement page.  This is a special opportunity to give the names of the living and deceased to be remembered for all the 40 days at the Oblation Table.  Please see the attachment to the SOURCE or in the Narthex.  Also please make an extra effort to attend these services and pray for your beloved family members.

“When the Priest cuts out sections of bread and commemorates the names of the faithful (living and deceased) during the prothesis (preparation of the gifts before Divine Liturgy begins), an angel of the Lord descends and takes this commemoration and places it before the throne of Christ as a prayer for those commemorated”.  St. Iakovos Tsalikis of Evia

 

HOLY TRINITY COMMUNITY AND PHILOPTOCHOS are sponsoring a Food Drive from November 8th till December 16th. We are collecting for the less fortunate in our area. Items needed are: Canned food, Dry Goods, Turkeys and Ham.  Please check the expiration dates on your items that you will donate. We will have boxes in the Hall Foyer. 

 

GOYA has a Christmas tree in the Hall for those persons wishing to donate hats, gloves, mittens and socks.  Any of these items would be most helpful to those in need.  Please bring your items to place on the tree.  The deadline is December 16th.            

 

Bible Classes are on Thursday evenings from 7-8pm and on Friday mornings from 10:30am-11:30am via Zoom. Please email Fr. Michael at frmichael@holytrinityhbg.org to let him know that you would like to participate and to give him your email address.  Then, he will send you an “invite” through your email to join on Zoom.  We are studying 1st Corinthians.

 

Volunteers are needed for the Church. We are grateful to our parishioners who are volunteering to clean the Church. We need volunteers to sanitize the pews and also to vacuum the Church. If you wish to volunteer for the Church, please talk to Fr. Michael 717 818-1160 or any Parish Council Member.

 

When you enter in the Church please make sure you are wearing a mask, or one will be provided for you. Make sure you cover your nose and mouth.  Please no shaking hands, no hugging, no embracing, we will keep social distancing etc. Also, please use the hand sanitizer that is available to all at the entrance.  Children that are 10 years old and younger, may not wear masks. You may venerate or kiss the icons OR if you wish to only bow.   

 

 

An Important Note:  Many of our parishioners do not get these mass emails. If you are aware of them who do not, please call them and read to them what these announcements say. Also please notify Fr. Michael at frmichael@holytrinityhbg.org for their email addresses and we will add them to the list.  Thank you to those who have responded to add them on our email list.

 

If you need any help, please call Fr. Michael at 717-818-1160 or email him at: frmichael@holytrinityhbg.org. Please keep the Clergy, the Parish Council members and all the parishioners at Holy Trinity in your prayers, as well.  Please also pray for the health of the medical personnel, emergency personnel and all the front-line health providers and workers during this difficult time. Please pray for the families that are sick, the families who have lost loved ones and especially please pray for the entire world to be rid of this virus.

 

Our Church Office is closed till further notice. For emergencies, especially, please call the clergy directly, email us or text us to reach us. All meetings and events are functioning virtually due to the Corona Virus.  We will let you know via email concerning the Church activities.  We hope and pray that everyone will be safe and healthy. 

 

Stewardship Pledges for 2020: We would like to thank all those who have responded with their stewardship to the Church during this crisis. This is helping tremendously. By postponing this year, the Festival, we are having a strain on available funds. Those who are able, please provide your financial help to our Cathedral.

Thank you to our 81% of families that have filled out their Stewardship Card commitments for this year bringing to a total of $286,989 of pledges with the actual contributions more than $339,934 up to October 29th.   We would like to ask those who have not submitted the 2020 Stewardship Form with your annual commitment to the Office, to please do so. We encourage you to please consider and be generous with your annual pledge to our Church, especially during these difficult times. Since the Budget for the 2020 Stewardship year is $400,000, we are hoping for the average pledge to be a little over $1,200 for the year. We are requesting if possible, for you an average of 10% increase over your last year’s pledge. May the blessings of the Lord always be with all of you and with our families keeping all safe, healthy, and spiritually strong.  Thank you.

 

 

To all parents and Sunday School Teachers:

News from the Department of Religious Education

Religious Ed @ Home: https://www.goarch.org/educators-articles 

 

Each week, a variety of discussion questions, activities, lessons, and crafts arranged by general age groups is posted for use on Sunday.

More have been posted here also: https://pittsburgh.goarch.org/religious-ed

 

On the Archdiocese website use this link and find activities and programs for all ages for your children. https://www.goarch.org/departments/family.     This is done by the “Center of Family Care”.

 

Once you get on that website, you will find many different programs that you may like. One program for younger children is "Soak Up the Son - The Wonder of God's Creation." This 10-week series will explore various themes from Genesis, with new content released each Monday. You can access past videos, handouts, and additional content. You can also view past weeks’ videos about the first day of creation and accompanying handout and activities! 

 

Also, another one is “Comfort Food for Families”. It has different topics for all ages. This is also very interesting with different persons speaking on a specific topic about our faith.

 

Please look into these different apps and also other topics that they have. It is a highly informative section that I believe most parents would like to see with their children.

I hope these are helpful to you and your family.

 

Every Monday, new episodes of “Be the Bee”

This is the complete series of “Be the Bee”. 

The speaker does an excellent job with relating

to the students.                                                                                                      

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbyQMR-_r8bJTrcWpWxSUPdJHdZJsq_zG

Those who would like to donate in memory of Metropolitan Maximos please see the guidelines below:

In lieu of flowers, those wishing to memorialize Metropolitan Maximos are encouraged to donate to:

  1. St. Gregory Palamas Monastery, Perrysville, OH (where Metropolitan Maximos is buried)
  2. The Metropolitan Maximos Endowment for Youth & Young Adult Ministries, continuing his legacy of promoting joyous, engaging, spiritually deep ministries to the young members of the flock of Christ.

Donations to this Endowment may be made online at:

https://www.pittsburgh.goarch.org/en/support

Donations to this Endowment by mail may be made via checks written to "Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh" with "Met. Maximos Youth Endowment" in the memo line. Please mail these contributions to our secure lockbox at:

Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh

PO Box 645953

Pittsburgh, PA 15264-5257