the celebration of theophany january 6th · the celebration of theophany – january 6th ......

VOL. XXXVI, NO. 1

“I AM THE VINE, YOU ARE THE BRANCHES” (John 15:51)

JANUARY 2014

THE CELEBRATION OF THEOPHANY – JANUARY 6TH

Epiphany comes from the Greek and means "Manifestation": Christ has manifested himself to the world.

In the Early Church, Christians celebrated the various manifestations of Christ to the world on the same

day (January 6): the birth of Jesus, the visit of the magi, and the baptism of Christ. The January 6 date was

selected in order to replace the pagan cult of the winter solstice. Instead of worshipping the sun, the Church

teaches the people to recognize the Sun of Righteousness in the person of Christ.

At the beginning of the fourth century, pagan Rome changed its calendar and moved the solstice up to

December 25. The Church of Rome, always anxious to combat idols and to replace the pagan cults with the

knowledge of the true God, moved the celebration of the first apparition of the Savior from January 6 to December

25. This is how the birth of Jesus, the incarnation of God, came to be the unique event celebrated on the day of

Christmas.

The Eastern Church adopted the Roman practice toward the end of the fourth century. From this time,

the entire Church celebrates the birth of Christ on the same day, December 25. But the East has combined the birth

of Jesus and the visit of the magi into a single feast, while Rome has kept the ancient custom of celebrating several

manifestations of the Lord to the world on the same day, beginning with the revelation to the nations, i.e., revelation

to the magi, foreigners in Israel.

( Note: several Eastern churches, including the Armenian Church, do not celebrate the Nativity on

December 25. They have preserved the ancient practice of celebrating all the apparitions of Christ on a single day:

January 6. )

Theophany

The Orthodox Church commemorates only one event in the life of Christ on January 6: the baptism of the

Lord is the only manifestation proclaimed on this day.

The four evangelists consider this event to be as significant as the cross and the resurrection. Each of them

describes it in detail.

On the banks of the Jordan, God reveals himself in the person of Jesus. He is the Word of God, on him

rests the Holy Spirit from all eternity, the Father witnesses to the divinity of Jesus and proclaims him to be his Only

Son:

This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. (Mt3:17)

It is after the baptism that the world can know the three persons of the Trinity. This is the mystery which

allows us to call on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as one God. After the manifestation in the Jordan, we

too can baptize "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19).

For the first time in history, God reveals himself in three persons. The visit Abraham received at the oak of

Mamre was the prophecy, the announcement of this revelation. Only the incarnate Son made man could initiate us,

make us enter into this mystery.

The Orthodox Church has decided to separate this manifestation of Christ from all the others (birth, magi,

and wedding at Cana), because on this day God reveals himself fully: He is one in three persons. Nothing can be

added to this vision.

This is why the word Epiphany was replaced in the East by Theophany. The first term means

"manifestation," the second specifies and develops the meaning of the feast as the manifestation of God.

Taken from The Incarnate God, Vol. 1 Crestwood: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press

THE VINEYARD A MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA

(714) 827-0181

*****************

REV. FR. JOHN KARIOTAKIS

REV. FR. HARALAMBOS FOX

Parish Council President ............................................................................. Harry Benetatos

Philoptochos President ...................................................................................... Cindy Kezos

Religious Education ....................................................... .Patricia Bangos & Kaliope Attard

Chanter ....................................................................................................... .John Mestakides

Senior Citizens (St. John=s Golden Stars) ........................................................ Freda Chrest

Organist/Choir Director ................................................................................... Elsa Libowitz Secretary .................................................................................................... Patricia Gauvain

Secretary ....................................................................................................... Janice Herrera

Custodian ............................................................................................................. .José Perez

Schedule of Sunday Worship Services

Orthros & Divine Liturgy.....................................9:00 A.M.

Memorials at Conclusion of Divine Liturgy

Fellowship in Church Hall Following Divine Liturgy

WEEKDAY/HOLY DAY SERVICES......9:00 A.M.

Parish Programs

ALTAR BOYS - Each boy serves in the Altar once every four weeks

STUDIES IN THE FAITH - Wednesdays 11:00 A.M.

GREEK LANGUAGE SCHOOL - Tuesdays - 4:00 P.M.

CLASS FOR THOSE ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED - As scheduled

FOLK DANCE GROUPS - Rehearsals Sundays - 1:00 P.M.

GOYA - See Schedule

PHILOPTOCHOS SOCIETY - First Wednesday of the month - 7:00 P.M.

CHURCH SCHOOL - September to June each year

CHOIR PRACTICE - Thursdays, December 12th & December 19th, 2014 at 1pm

ST. JOHN=S GOLDEN STARS FOR SENIOR CITIZENS - Meets informally

Please visit us at: www.stjohnanaheim.org

Email: [email protected]

JANUARY 2014

ACOLYTES OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST

TEAM 2 February 9th & January 12th

Alexios Angeletakis Thanasi Halfhill Michael Bangos George Skordi Anthony Christofer Dionyiosos Tasigeorgos

TEAM 3 February 16th & January 19th

Christopher Bangos Nikolaos Sigas Aleko Culp George Sigas Christos Sigas Anastasios Tasigeorgos

TEAM 4 February 23rd & January 26th

Argiri Alexopoulos Dino Giakoumis George Bovetas Dimitri Kouloumbis Dimitri Dimopoulos Yanni Kouloumbis

TEAM 1 February 2nd & January 5th

Theophanis Fox Nick Pieratos

Spiro Gabriel Gregory Roumpos Donald Glinkie Michael Vino

Dimitri McLain

WORSHIP SERVICES

1.) Acolytes should be in the altar and vested by 10:00 A.M.

2.) Clothing preference is white (or light) shirt and tie with dark shoes.

NO SNEAKERS PLEASE.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The Circumcision According to the Flesh

St. Basil

Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 9am

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Sunday before Theophany

EVE OF THEOPHANY

Othros 9am & Divine Liturgy

& LESSER BLESSING OF WATERS

Monday, January 6, 2014

HOLY THEOPHANY OF OUR LORD

Orthros 9am, Divine Liturgy &

GREAT SANCTIFICATION of the Waters

Festal Hierarchical Great Vespers, 6pm

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

SYNAXIS OF ST. JOHN THE

FORERUNNER & BAPTIST

FEAST DAY OF OUR PARISH

The Festal Orthros 9am &

Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, 10am


Sunday after Epiphany

Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy 10am

Friday, January 17, 2014

St. Anthony the Great



12th Sunday of Luke Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy, 10am

Cutting of the Vasilopeta


15th Sunday of Luke

Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy 10am

Thursday, January 30, 2014

SYNAXIS OF THE THREE HIERARCHS


JANUARY 2014

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4

5 6 7 8 9 10 11

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

19 20 21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30 31

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 THE CIRCUMCISION ACCORDING TO THE FLESH ST. BASIL


NEW YEAR’S DAY CHURCH OFFICE

CLOSED

2 3 4

5 Sunday before Theophany Eve of Theophany

Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy & LESSER BLESSING OF WATERS

6 HOLY THEOPHANY

Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy & GREAT SANCIFICATION of the Waters Festal Hierarchical-Great Vespers, 6pm

7 SYNAXIS OF ST. JOHN THE FORERUNNER & BAPTIST FEAST DAY OF OUR PARISH Festal Orthros 9am & Hierarchical Divine Liturgy, 10am Greek Lang School, 4pm

8 Studies in the Faith, 11am

9 10 11

12 Sunday after Theophany Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy 10am

Stewardship & St. John Nameday Luncheon

13 14 Greek Language School, 4pm


16 17 St. Anthony the Great Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 9am

18

19 12th Sunday of Luke Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy 10am

Cutting of the Vasilopeta



23 24 25

26 15th Sunday of Luke Orthros 9am & Divine Liturgy 10am



30 SYNAXIS OF THE THREE HIERARCHS Orthros & Divine Liturgy, 9am

31

Fr. John Kariotakis,

Fr. Haralambos Fox

and the Parish Council wish a

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!

December 15, 2013

The 70th Anniversary of the

December 13, 1943 Holocaust of Kalavryta

December 22, 2013

Mary George - 24 Years

Vasilios Sklavounos - 36 Years

Stavroula Sklavounos - 17 Years

December 29, 2013

Catherine Thanos - 2 Years

John Thanos - 26 Years

CHURCH REGISTRY

PARISH COUNCIL

ELECTIONS RESULTS

Congratulations to the new Parish Council members!! The NEWLY elected Parish Council members are as follows:

Dino Basdakis, Chad McLain, Spyridon Rados, Randall Wemmer.

December 8, 2013

George Voulimeneas - 7 Years

Sofia Voulimeneas - 1 Year

December 15, 2013

Chris Bonorris - 7 Years

Dino Bonorris - 16 Years

Kostandinos Treantafelles - 41 Years

Zoe Treantafelles - 3 Years

Elias Halias - 22 Years

Georgia Halias - 4 Years

Vassilios Pergantis - 30 Years

+MEMORY ETERNAL+

BAPTISMS

December 7, 2013

Scott Michael Henry

Parents: Michael and Diane Henry Godparent(s): Andreas Psaras

December 15, 2013

Nancy Marie Soares

Proud Parent: Katina Dramitinos

Godparent (s): Lambrini Revelas & Emmanuel Dramitinos

CONGRATULATIONS!

MEMORIALS

DATE PREPARER

01/05/13 Voula Kitisigianis 01/07/13 Kathy Tseheridis 01/12/13 Maria Tambouris 01/19/13 Rica Zounatiotis 01/26/13 Katherine Glavas

JANUARY PROSFORO SCHEDULE

Merry Christmas to all of our Youth! December was a great month for us as we continue to gather the

everyone together into our fellowship. Congratulations to Michael Bangos and Bella Vino for their participation in the annual Bible Bowl at St. Sophia. By themselves they stood up to teams of 4 from other parishes from throughout Southern California and they did very well! I hope that we will have more team members join them next year for this great fellowship event. God bless all of our parishioners who enthusiastically supported our Angel Tree project. Your support allows our kids to actively participate in showing God's love to the less fortunate children in Orange County. Your response was overwhelming and we look forward to expanding the project next year. TWO UPCOMING RETREATS! Please contact Fr. Bob or Andrea Hamud if you are able to come to either of the upcoming retreats in January --- 1st ANNUAL GOYA HIGH SCHOOL WINTER RETREAT – Make new friends or see your old ones from Summer Camp at St. Nicholas Ranch! Coming up on January 2-4 – please see the at-tached flyer. GOYA EPIPHANY LOCK-IN AT LONG BEACH – This promises to be an awesome event culminat-ing in the cross dive on Sunday morning – January 4-5 at Long Beach. Then our regularly scheduled events: January 3rd - For those unable to attend the retreats, Ice Skating in Anaheim hills – GOYA and JOY. Jan 17th – Youth night for JOY and GOYA – in the gym at 7:00 pm Jan 31 – GOYA home gathering – details TBA God bless you all for getting your children more involved with the life of the

church – may this be a very blessed New Year for all of us!

Happy New Year to all of you!

Christmas Program – December 2013 We would like to thank all the students that participated in the reenactment of the

Nativity so beautifully. A big thank you to all our teachers who helped coordinated

their classes. We also appreciate the helping hands of the parents, grandparents and

friends who helped with the children, got the hall ready for the reception and who

handled the bake sale. Also, a big thank you to Santa for making time in his busy

schedule to come visit us.

Godparent Sunday – February 2, 2014

Celebrating Godparents Sunday is one way of celebrating our relationship with God

and the special relationships we enjoy with our godparents. Students will invite their

godparents to participate in the Divine Liturgy with them on Sunday, February 2,

2014. If your godparent lives somewhere else, we encourage you to come with

another member of their family if they live in town or simply come and offer special

prayers for your godparent. After the Divine Liturgy, students will go to their Church

School class with their godparent. They will participate in the class together and

enjoy refreshments.

Oratorical Festival – Spring 2014 The students have received the topics for the 2014 St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival. They were passed out to them in their Church School class. Father Bob has also come and discussed the importance of participating in the Oratorical with our classes. There are 3 divisions; Senior Division for 10 – 12th graders, Junior Division for 7 – 9th graders and the Elementary Division for 4 – 6th graders. We hope you will encourage your child to participate in this wonderful program. Our parish’s Oratorical Festival will tentatively take place on March 15, 2014. There will also be special projects done during Sunday Church School class, so please be present so you can participate. We look forward to seeing you at these events and each Sunday. We wish all our Church School students and their families a healthy and happy 2014!

Kally Attard and Patricia Bangos, Directors

SUNDAY CHURCH SCHOOL NEWS

Τα Νέα Του Ελληνκού Σχολείου News from Greek School

The Greek School had their annual Christmas program on December 17

th. The

program was beautiful. The students all did a great job performing their poems and songs. We would like to thank everyone that participated. A special thank you to the teachers that organized the program and all the parents that helped with the dinner.

ρόι Πoλλά κι ευτυχισμένος o καινούργιος χρός 2014

Up Coming Events for the Greek School January 7

th- Greek School Resumes

January 14th- Cutting of the Vasilopitas

March 22nd

- Greek Independence Day Celebration If anyone would like to enroll their children in the Greek School Program please contact the church office.

+R E M I N D E R

Stewardship and other donations are accepted by Credit Card on St. John’s website at www.stjohnanaheim.org

Parish News

As we reflect on 2013 we are blessed to have so many parishioners that give their time and

resources for the good of St John the Baptist. The Parish Council appreciates your time and

efforts. It does not go unnoticed. Thank you!

The results of the elections are in!! Congratulations to Dino Basdakis, Chad McLain,

Spyridon Rados and Randall Wemmer who will start their 3 year term in January 2014.

Parish Council members that are leaving us are Sperry Pappas, Nick Kokkinos and Larry

Halfhill, your contributions in the past three years have been invaluable. Thank you for

serving St. John the Baptist.

St John the Baptist Vesper Services will be held on Monday, January 6th. His Eminence

Metropolitan Gerasimos is scheduled to celebrate Vespers with our community on Monday,

January 6th at 6 pm. Immediately following Vespers the Parish Council will be hosting a

dinner. Kostas Kapogianis is dinner chairman.

We invite you to attend Stewardship Sunday which will be held on Sunday, January 12th

immediately following Divine Liturgy. Chairman of the Stewardship Committee Dino

Basdakis will be presenting the 2014 Stewardship report. Please plan on attending. It’s

important that all parishioners are informed on the importance of our Stewardship program.

Lunch will be served that same day celebrating the name day of St John the Baptist. Louis

Chelekis is chairman of the luncheon.

Vasilopita Sunday will be held on January 19, 2014 immediately following Divine Liturgy.

In closing, on behalf of Harry Benetatos and the 2013 Parish Council we wish you a happy

and healthy New Year.

Warmest Regards

Pennie Contos

1st Vice President

2013 Parish Council

You are cordially invited to participate in the celebration of the

feast day of our patron

ST. JOHN THE FORERUNNER AND BAPTIST

Monday, January 6, 2014 The Festal Hierarchical

Great Vespers, 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014 The Festal Orthros 9:00am

& Hierarchical Divine Liturgy 10:00 a.m.

"Behold, I send my messenger before

thy face, who shall prepare thy way; the

voice of one crying in the wilderness:

Prepare the way of the Lord, make his

paths straight -- "

(Mark 1:2-3)

Non-Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

P A I D

Buena Park, CA

Permit No. 65

Time Dated, Please Do Not Delay

Address Correction Requested - JANUARY

St. John the Baptist

Greek Orthodox Church

405 N. Dale Street

Anaheim, CA 92801 (714) 827-0181

the celebration of theophany january 6th · the celebration of theophany – january 6th ......

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