As the weather improves missionaries from various religions tend to appear at our homes. At St. Vladimir's we have many pamphlets and booklets on the Orthodox Faith that are free for anyone to take. These can be found at the back of the church near the main entrance doors. Please feel free to take information home with you to share with the missionaries that come to visit you. It seems only fair that if they want us to take their information that we offer them information about Orthodox Christianity. Many missionaries have found the Orthodox Church in this way. No one is mandated to do this, but if you would like to you are welcome to. Please feel free to contact Fr. Gregory with questions in this regard.

We are often asked about this topic. Is it ever OK to talk in Church? How do we greet our friends when we see them in Church? When is it allowed to walk about during the services? Or is it ever? What to do if we see a child or adult clearly violating decorum? Who makes these decisions? We do not have a shared understanding of these and many other questions of etiquette in our parish. That is not something unique to our parish by any means. But this causes temptations for everyone. We can’t stop all temptations, but we can work on educating ourselves in this regard and being more clear about expectations. In order to help us come to a shared understanding that will make this part of parish life easier for everyone we will hold a series of lectures and discussions in this regard in June of this year. Please begin to think of issues you would like to discuss – and solve – when we hold this series. We hope that what will come from this effort are clear guidelines that will allow everyone to be more at peace when worshiping at St. Vladimir’s. If you would like to share a thought or a suggestion in this regard please email info@stvladimiraami.org.

Join us for our monthly youth group meetings this coming Sunday! These will be the last meetings of the academic year. After this meeting we will take a break until September - so don't miss this last chance before summer!

9-12 Year Old and Teen groups have homework. Young Adults don't. But we need to hear from you that you are coming. Please let us know that by visiting the appropriate form on our Youth Group page:

YOUTH GROUP PAGE

We present here a short educational offering for both children and adults on the upcoming Sunday's principle Gospel reading so that all can better prepare for the Divine Services. Parents are asked to review the children’s portion with their children. It is very important for us to attend the Divine Services on Sundays and whenever else we are able, but in addition it is our spiritual responsibility to educate ourselves and our families in the faith. It is our hope that this mid-week offering will be an aid in this regard. Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions or suggestions.

For Adults: from the writings of Blessed Theophylact

For Children: from the Antiochian Archdiocese (various age groups)

Our own Joshua Jobst has been named Choir Director at Holy Transfiguration parish in Livonia! Congratulations to Josh and to our St. Vladimir’s choir! Why congratulations to our own choir for losing Josh?! The fact that one of our parish choir members can help another parish like this shows the strength of our choir and our choir program! And anyway – Josh will still join us for weekday services on a regular basis, so we will see him and he will continue to sing at St. Vladimir’s. We should take this opportunity to thank our Choir Director, Julia Easson, and all our choir for their extraordinarily hard work. It is not easy to sing well at all the services – it is a ministry. And we are VERY thankful for our choir’s efforts to glorify God on behalf of our parish family!

PLEASE JOIN US AS YOUR PERSONAL SCHEDULE ALLOWS!

Congratulations to our Deacon Vladimir Pyrozhenko on being granted tenure by the University of Michigan Regents at their May, 2019 meeting! This is very good news for Fr. Vladimir and his family (and for our parish!), and is indicative of Fr. Vladimir’s excellent academic work. May the Lord grant Fr. Vladimir and his family many years of service in His Vineyard!

And not many days after,” it says, “the younger son gather all together, and took his journey into a far country” (Luke 15:13). Why did [the Prodigal Son] not set off at once instead of a few days after? The evil prompter, the devil, does not simultaneously suggest to us that we should do what we like and that we should sin. Instead he cunningly beguiles us little by little, whispering, “Even if you live independently without going to God’s Church or listening to the Church teacher, you will still be able to see for yourself what your duty is and not depart from what is good.” When he separates someone from the divine services and obedience to the holy teachers, he also distances him from God’s vigilance and surrenders him to evil deeds. God is everywhere present. Only one thing is far away from His goodness: evil. Being in the power of evil through sin we set off on a journey far away from God. As David says to God, “The evil shall not stand in thy sight” (Ps. 5:5).

+ St. Gregory Palamas

"This is the cause of all evils: the ignorance of the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?" -St. John Chrysostom, Homily IX on Colossians.

In order to help increase the general knowledge of scripture in our parish family we present here for your edification the scripture readings for the coming week. At least one Gospel Reading and one Epistle reading are assigned for each day of the year (although during Great Lent the readings are from the Old Testament). Hearing or reading only those readings appointed for Sunday merely scratches the surface of the great spiritual wealth that the scriptures provide us. Some of the readings are easily understandable – others are less so. As Orthodox Christians we do not make private interpretation of scripture, but rather consult the fathers of the Church for their explanations to aid us in our understanding. Those wishing to have access to such explanations are asked to contact Fr. Gregory or inquire in the kiosk for further reading in this regard. Bibles may also be acquired in the kiosk.

Monday: Acts 10:1-16 & John 6:56-69
Tuesday: Acts 10:21-33 & John 7:1-13
Wednesday: Acts 14:6-18 & John 7:14-30
Thursday: Acts 10:34-43 & John 8:12-20
Friday: Acts 10:44-11:10 & John 8:21-30
Saturday: Acts 12:1-11 & John 8:31-42

Please find below several very nice articles on how to read the scripture from an Orthodox point of view.

By St. Justin (Popovich):

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/bible_how.aspx

By Bishop Kalistos (Ware):

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/ware_howto.aspx

This short article explains to us not just HOW to read the scriptures, but also what our goal should be in reading the scriptures. A short read and well worth it:

http://www.chrysostompress.org/reading_scripture.html

As noted in the article above we need God's help and blessing to read and understand the scriptures correctly. What better way to entreat God's help in this regard than through prayer? Please find the prayer before reading the scriptures here:

http://www.chrysostompress.org/prayer_b ... pture.html

Our weekly bulletin, "Sunday Reading", has been posted at the following link:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/SundayRea ... eading.pdf