Holy Cross Mission Bulletin March 28, 2010

Just a few thing:

1. Great Vespers at 5:00 p.m. this Saturday. We are back. Woo-hoo! There will be a special choir rehersal at 3:00 for specific parts of the Holy Week services. At 4:00 there will be a general choir rehersal for everyone interested in learning some of the basic melodies for the Holy Week services. Make sense? I hope so because I have a head cold and things are a bit fuzzy for me right now.

2. Divine Liturgy at 10:00 a.m. with the hearing of confessions and the reading of the Hours at 9:30 a.m. Please be advised that we will be blessing the pussy willows at the beginning of the service so that you may hold them during the liturgy, and espeically during the reading of the Gospel, “13. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel!”, we can all wave our pussy willows and proclaim with joy the entry of our Lord King into His city.

3. Just a reminder of the schedule of services:
Holy Wednesday, (March 31) – Holy Unction at 7:00 p.m. at All-Saints in Transcona
Holy Thursday, (April 1) – Reading of the 12 Gospels at 6:00 p.m. at Holy Cross
Holy Friday, (April 2) – Shroud Service at 3:00 p.m. at Holy Cross
Holy Saturday, (April 3) – Vesperal Liturgy at 11:00 a.m. at Holy Cross
Holy Pascha, (April 4) – Paschal Matins at 5:15 a.m., Divine Liturgy to follow. We will be breaking the fast together in the multi-purpose room in the basement at St. Andrew’s College so you are invited to stay.

4. Holy Cross has a new webpage/blog set up. Thanks to the hard work of Bob Kaminsky, we have revamped our web-page. Now you can be up to date on everything that is happening in the wonderful world of Holy Cross, and let’s be honest, your lives were just a little bit empty not knowing, right? No? You were doing okay? I don’t believe you. You are all just putting on a brave face. You can check out the new site at www.holycrosswpg.ca

Anyhoo, we have revamped the site. You can now check out pictures of some of the activities Holy Cross has been involved with. You can catch up on missed bulletins. Heck, you can now collect them all, maybe get them bound in a book, put it on the shelf. If you ask nicely I will even autograph it for you. No, no one is asking? Anyone? did I mention that the site is www.holycrosswpg.ca?

Check it out. We would love to hear from you. If your own parish has a webpage let us know so that we can post a link to it. Let us know what is going on in your parish, in your part of the world. www.holycrosswpg.ca

5. Came across an interview that I wanted to share a portion of with you. The interview is with Ed Dobson, who is the subject of the book, “The Year of Living Like Jesus”. The book records his journey of eating kosher, attending synagogue, observing the Sabbath, celebrating feasts and festivals, and trying to think and act like Jesus Christ. (sounds like he was trying to be, oh I don’t know, say…Orthodox?)

One of the quotes from the interview that struck me as really interesting is this one: “When I pastored at Calvary Church (Grand Rapids, MI), we canceled all programs for a year – all youth activities, outreaches, Christmas and Easter programs, everything. We only had Sunday and Wednesday services. We read the Bible, shared the faith, and invested in relationships. We lost hundreds of members who were attached to the programs.”

One of the big things a priest will be asked is, “How active is your parish?” Do you have a Sunday School program, Bible Study, Catechism Classes, an active women’s group/sisterhood, an active men’s group? Do you have youth programs? Do you have an outreach program? And if the priest says no then the priest is seen as a failure. That the church is dying. And here we have a pastor that cancelled all of that and got down to what is the basic fundametal activity for a Christian: Worship and glory of God.

In my humble and sinful opinion I think the success of a church is not in the financial success of the perogie dinners it puts on, it is not in number of members in the women’s organization, it is not even in the number of paid members.

The true measure of the life a church, its health, is on that Sunday morning, or at the various other opportunities that we are called to come together and worship and give glory to God and whether or not the faithful come to that. You will have many that will say, “I do my part. I express my devotion to the church in the kitchen, in the meetings, etc.” They are sadly, attached to the programs…and not the church.

Pastor Ed Dobson tried to reverse that trend in his church. He spent a year eating kosher. For Orthodox Christians, the equivalent is following our fasting guidelins. He attended synagogue. For Orthodox Christians, the equivalent is attending the Divine Liturgy. He observed the Sabbath and celebrated feasts and festivals. For Orthodox Christians the equivalent is actually making an effort to participate in the liturgical calendar of our Holy Church. He cancelled the programs and told his flock that it was time to get down to basics.

It is time for all of us to get attached to our Church again it is time for us to get to the basics again. To make the worship and glory of God the reason for attending and allowing the joy and spiritual fulfillment that comes from it, then, and only then, inspire everything else we do in God’s name.

Answer to last week’s question:
Who did Jesus say would be remembered whenever the gospel was preached throughout the world? The woman who poured expensive perfume on Jesus’ head.

This week’s question:
What are the final words of Jesus, as recorded in the Book of Acts?

See you in church!

In Christ,

Fr. Evan

The Way of the Cross – March 28, 2010