Saint Andrew's Orthodox Church

Remembering Barbara Ondris

We are reprinting here a memoriam offered at the time of +Barbara’s repose by Ginger Jerosh. As Ginger notes, Barbara was truly a pillar of our community, who bore her illness with grace before the Lord, and who we miss dearly.

There are many different roles our parishioners fulfill in order for St. Andrew’s Church to function as a living parish. Some preach, some teach, some clean, others plan. We have some who sing or beautify our surroundings in other ways. Without the multiplicity of talents that each person offers, we wouldn’t be able to grow and thrive as a living organism.

Liturgy in the time of coronavirus

We celebrated Liturgy today (June 14) for the first time after the Church being closed for three months, due to the coronavirus. Richard McLaughlin kindly met with me to set up things on Saturday afternoon, and was a huge help. We brought out the old altar that had been used by the community from its earliest times, and the matching Table of Oblation, and covered them with green cloths for the Feast of Pentecost, which was exactly one week ago. We placed the Altar on the cement walkway immediately outside the doors to the Narthex, which we left closed, and the Table of Oblation just to the left of the Altar. Nilus and Moses assisted as altar servers, and were invaluable. Lasha was on hand to conduct, and Juliana and Andrea were the singers. In attendance for the service were Richard, Jan & Mike, Andrew, Steven, and Gabriella.

Parish reopening

Dear parishioners,

Christ is in our midst!

I write to announce the reopening of our parish church. Because the reopening will be strictly limited in many different ways for some time, this is not the reopening that we would like to have, but it is what we are permitted to have under the combination of governmental, Synodal and Diocesan directives, all of which we must follow.

The Feast of Holy Pentecost

Blessed art Thou, O Christ Our God / Thou hast revealed the fishermen as most wise / By sending down upon them the Holy Spirit / Through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net / O Lover of Man, Glory to You!

– Troparion of the Feast

The Feast of the Ascension

O Christ God, Thou hast ascended in Glory, granting joy to Thy disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit. Through the blessing they were assured that Thou art the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world!

With great joy, we greet you on this holy feast! While we are unable to come together to celebrate by sharing the Eucharist, we hope that this feast will provide an opportunity to abide in God’s grace, filled with joy, hope, and love. We encourage you to pray the “reader’s services” for this feast at home, in your icon corner. The services, made available by our diocese, can be downloaded below:

Reader’s Vespers (for the eve, Wednesday May 27)

Reader’s Typika (for the feast, Thursday, May 27)