What a great, great weekend! Thank you to ALL who worked so hard to make the visit of the Kursk Icon to St. Vladimir's such a huge success over the last weekend! The church was full to overflowing, we had lots of volunteers (and lots of visitors) for the Saturday to Sunday overnight vigil, the choir was wonderful, the food was plentiful and delicious – everything was just wonderful! Thank you to all who made this all possible and gave us a little tasted of Pascha a few weeks early with the visit of the Mother of God to our parish family!

Learn more about the Kursk Icon at the links below.

English:

http://stvladimiraami.org/pamphlets/kurskicon.pdf

Russian:

http://stvladimiraami.org/pamphlets/kurskicon_ru.pdf

Wednesday – Matins, Great Canon, Life of St. Mary of Egypt 6:00 p.m.
Thursday – Great Lenten Hours, Typica, Presanctified Liturgy 5:00 p.m.
Friday – Matins, Hours, Presanctified Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Liturgy begins about 11:00 a.m.)
Friday – Matins for the Laudation of the Theotokos (Akathist Saturday) 6:00 p.m.
Saturday – Divine Liturgy for the Laudation of the Theotokos 8:00 a.m.
Saturday – Open Time/Confession 3:00 p.m.
Saturday – Church School 5:00 p.m.
Saturday – Vigil 6:00 p.m.
Sunday – Divine Liturgy 10:00 a.m.
Sunday – Great Lenten Lecture following Liturgy
More information: http://stvladimiraami.org/flyers/greatl ... ns2016.pdf
Sunday – *FINAL* Great Lenten Sunday Vespers following Lecture
More information: http://stvladimiraami.org/flyers/sunday ... rs2016.pdf
ORPR Camper Meeting 4:00 p.m.
More information/RSVP: http://goo.gl/forms/CGS82zAv1b
Monday – St. Vladimir's Parents Group 5:30 p.m.
More information/RSVP: http://goo.gl/forms/3ivdHPVF72

Michigan Deanery General Unction Service at Dormition Cathedral April 11

Please save the date! With the blessing of Bishop Peter, the annual General Unction service for our Michigan Deanery will be held at Dormition Cathedral at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, April 11. The address for Dormition Cathedral is:

2101 Livernois St.
Ferndale, MI 48220

Unction is a sacrament of the Holy Church and thus although we welcome all to be present at the beautiful Divine Service, only Orthodox Christians who have recently been to confession (within the last three weeks before the Unction service) may be anointed. The ideal situation would be to confess and partake of the Mystery of Holy Communion on Sunday, April 10 and then partake of Unction on April 11.

The Sacrament of Unction is tied very closely to both repentance and healing, and thus, although this sacrament is generally reserved for those who are very sick (to aid in their healing or their prayerful departure into the next life) the practice is to hold this service one time per year during Great Lent to strengthen all of us on our path towards spiritual healing through repentance – the path we tread each year during Great Lent. Please see Fr. Gregory with questions and please plan to prepare yourself and to partake of this Holy Mystery as an aid to spiritual (and bodily) healing at Dormition Cathedral on April 11.

More about the Mystery of Unction:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/flyers/my ... nction.pdf

Please note that we have moved the Children's Liturgy from May 7 to May 2. That is, from Bright Saturday to Bright Monday. This is important because we are urging parents to have their children excused from school on May 2 if at all possible. At least for the morning. We realize this is not as convenient as having the Liturgy on a Saturday, but because of some scheduling conflicts that cannot be resolved we have had to move to Monday. Thank you for your understanding and please plan to join us! Parents should sign up for their children to fill the various duties surrounding the Divine Liturgy at this link:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/137Tvs8DyJyoluZ-2N0lrWu06RjLDLITO4aGzU92FSQg/edit?usp=sharing

Please note that Great Lent began this year on March 14. During Great Lent we abstain from meat and dairy products including fish (although fish is allowed on the Annunciation – April 7, and Palm Sunday – April 24). Let us recall that fasting is a tool given to us by God to aid us spiritually. For some it is easy to fast, for others it is difficult. However, what is most important is that we make a sincere effort to follow the fast. Why? Simply because the fast helps us to see our sins by helping us to focus spiritually. Eating “light” foods, or perhaps rather, abstaining from “heavy” foods such as meats and cheeses, allows us to be less focused on our stomachs and more focused on our souls, and of course, in this season when we undergo our journey to the Resurrection of our Lord we dearly wish to improve ourselves spiritually that we might meet the risen Christ better than we were when we began Great Lent. St. John Chrysostom writes that we abstain from meats that we might abstain from our sins. This nicely sums up the reason the Holy Church, as a loving mother, gives us the gift of fasting. Pascha is May 1 – may God grant us all a spiritually profitable Great Lent!

The Holy Church appoints several special Saturdays throughout the year on which we especially commemorate our departed friends and loved ones. At St. Vladimir’s we will serve the following memorial services on the following dates this Great Lent:

March 5: Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Vespers and Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.)
March 26: Divine Liturgy 9:00 a.m. (Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.) - All English Cycle
April 2: Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.)
April 9: Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m. (Matins for the departed the evening prior at 6:00 p.m.)

Please join us for those services that you are able to and for those you are not: please assure the commemoration of your friends and loved ones at the services by emailing their names (please distinguish between Orthodox and non-Orthodox departed) to info@stvladimiraami.org or by otherwise contacting Fr. Gregory.

Please find the April schedule of services and activities (and yes - Bright Week is there too!) at this link:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/calendars ... lendar.pdf

Please find the April Vladcast at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldcvCsEibU0

Happy April! Please make this month spiritually profitable for you and your family by joining us for as many of the Divine Services as your personal schedule allows!

Starosta's Corner

Volume 3, issue 1
April 2, 2016

(there are fewer than 1,700 words in this installment--read it three minutes a day and you’ll be done by the end of the week)

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

First and foremost--an incentive to read this: there is a small piece of information hidden in this installment that you very likely did not know about me before. If you find it please send your answer to me (starosta@stvladimiraami.org) and you will be entered into a drawing to win a $20 gift certificate for an item from the kiosk. There are two other smaller, $5, prizes that will also be drawn for that day. One is for showing me you know what I write should be the first and foremost thing the parish should do if our OARS grow as much in 2016 as they did in 2015. The second $5 drawing will be from the right answers to my wrong math (it isn’t much, but it isn’t right. Helping hint, just copy and paste the tables into an Excel sheet and compare). We’ll do the drawing on Doubting Thomas Sunday, so you have some time.

So, on to the bulk of this quarter’s “Starosta’s corner”

If you are surprised to see this first quarter 2016 issue of “Starosta’s Corner” coming out so shortly after the end of the quarter, imagine how surprised I am. Getting something done on schedule is so out of character for me that I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t just postpone this for a few weeks.

No, I shouldn’t just postpone this for a few weeks. Our parish is tremendously busy and there is every advantage to getting everyone as up to date as possible.

First things first, please keep engaged. Please help get “everyone as up to date as possible.” After services ask your friends if they have read this quarter’s “Starosta’s corner”. If they haven’t, and you have read past this sentence, please share its basic message and suggest your friends read it, too.

This quarter the basic message is just slightly more complex than “please increase your offering.” It is “We are going to take on some debt to ramp up the pace. Please be engaged.”

At the March 6, 2016 annual parish meeting the starosta’s report provided a short list of our 2016 hopes and plans. I’ll copy them here:

http://stvladimiraami.org/pamphlets/starostascorner.pdf

Please join us this Satuday at 4:00 PM at St. Vladimir's as we compile International Orthodox Christian Chatities' emergency hygiene kits. For those who are suffering from war, famine, and other natural and man-made disasters these kits are a huge help. Please join us to help others much less fortunate than ourselves by making these kits! Children and other young people are especially urged to participate but all are welcome!

Please join us for the Great Feast of the Annunciation on Wednesday evening at 6:00 p.m. for Vigil and Thursday morning at 8:00 a.m. for the Divine Liturgy. This is one of the two days this Great Lent when fish is allowed. Learn more about this important date in the Church Calendar at the links below and please join us at St. Vladimir's for the Divine Services in person, or if that is not possible, on our live stream!

English:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2016/03/25/ ... nd-ever-vi

Russian:

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life707.htm