The funeral arrangements for our Sister in Christ Mary Ann have been finalized and are the following.

Thursday, May 21 – Muehlig Funeral Home
Viewing 4:00-8:00 p.m.
Pannykhida 7:00 p.m.

Friday, May 22 – St. Vladimir's
Divine Liturgy 8:00 a.m.
Funeral 10:00 a.m.
Internment at Forest Hill Following the Funeral

Please join us as your personal schedule allows and please remember Mary Ann in your prayers.

There will be no Liturgy this morning since Fr. Gregory is ill. We ask your forgiveness for this inconvenience.

Please join us for the Divine Services for the Great Feast of the Ascension of the Lord! Vigil is at 6:00 p.m. on May 20 and Divine Liturgy at 8:00 a.m. on May 21. On this 40th day after His Resurrection our Lord rises again to Heaven from whence He came. Come celebrate the feast as your personal schedule allows!

Unfortunately Fr. Gregory has picked up a stomach virus and will be unable to come to church tonight. What that means is:

1. There will be no Pannykhida tonight at 5:00 p.m.

2. There WILL be a Reader's service tonight at 6:00 p.m.

For now Liturgy is still scheduled for tomorrow. A message will be posted here and sent to the St. Vladimir's email list by 7:00 a.m. if Liturgy is canceled. If there is no message then Liturgy will take place as scheduled.

We ask your forgiveness for this inconvenience and this late notice.

Please join us for the final Paschal services of the year at St. Vladimir’s. On Tuesday, May 19 we will serve Paschal Vespers and Matins beginning at 6:00 p.m. And on Wednesday, May 20 we will serve the Paschal Divine Liturgy at 8:00 a.m. The next evening we are already celebrating the vigil for Ascension and our Paschal celebration will have ended. Don’t miss this last chance to prayerfully participate in the special Paschal Divine Services!

The founding of the “Strengthening of Orthodox Marriage League”. Or perhaps we will call it something else. In any case, this is a meeting you won't want to miss. You will want to tell your children “I did everything I could to strengthen marriage and I was there when this group was founded.” Marriage is struggling in the world and in our society. Why? This is a thought-provoking article in this regard and this is our homework for the Adult Discussion Group that will meet at Fr. Gregory's home in Saline at 7:00 p.m. on May 22:

http://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2god ... suffering/

This is not to say that we are being told to agree with everything in this article. But it is though-provoking, and that is a good thing to prepare for a discussion group!

Let's work on the answers to this issue together! How do we strengthen our own marriage? How do we help others without being intrusive? What do we do?! Do we found a group that supports us in this regard? We don't have every answer – but with God's help and our sincere effort we must – as Christians – believe that there is hope. Join us! Help us to strengthen marriage in our parish now and in the future!

This is an excellent article. Not too long, not too short, but filled with important information for us as Orthodox Christians living in the contemporary world:

“Orthodox theology stresses man’s regeneration and transformation in Christ through seeing and participating in God within the body of the Church by means of watchfulness, ascesis, prayer, sacramental life, purification, illumination and sanctification.”

“...pure life and a clear mind are preconditions for Theology and pure theoria...”

Those quotes should sound very familiar and very right to us. But there are those that seem to want to throw out the Fathers of the Church as “dated” and “old fashioned”. Read this article to find out why a jettisoning of the Father of the Church is not at all a good idea and that doing so would have real, dilatory effects on our spiritual lives.

http://orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/meta-p ... ology.aspx

At about noon today our Sister in Christ Mary Ann McCulloch fell asleep in the Lord. More information regarding funeral arrangements will be forthcoming in the next day or so. In the mean time, please remember the newly-departed in your prayers. May her memory be eternal!

Today marks the last activity for our 9-12 year old and Teen Youth Groups this academic year. We will meet at 5:00-7:00 p.m. at Fr. Gregory's home in Saline. The topic of our discussion will be “Spiritual Life Does not take a Summer Vacation”. Please join us as we talk about how to live one's faith during the summer vacation months! We'll have ice cream sundaes today since this is our last meeting and deserves a special treat. RSVP ASAP to Fr. Gregory or Matushka Elizabeth so that we will know how much ice cream to buy. See you this afternoon!

Unfortunately Bishop Peter has taken ill and is not able to travel today to Lansing. This hierarchal visit will be made up in the nearest future, but for those who were traveling to Lansing for this service we want you to know that His Grace will not be there this morning.