V. Rev. Josiah Trenham, Pastor Church Phone (951) 369-0309 ● Fax (951) 369-6609

For information and schedule of services, go to www.Saintandrew.net

To submit articles contact Lucy Hanna, editor, at lucy.hanna@sbcglobal.net or Martha Metroka, field reporter, at mmetroka@att.net

Volume 23 Issue 2 February 2014

A Publication of St. Andrew Orthodox Church 4700 Canyon Crest Drive, Riverside, California 92507

Dear St. Andrew Parishioners

The Lord’s blessing be upon you.

The first month of the year has already passed us. As I

think of the remaining months in 2014 it is my sincere

wish that this year finds each of our people in greater

spiritual health. What is a standard by which to judge

the health of a parish as a whole? How can we know if

a parish is healthy before the Lord's eyes? In the past

our Archbishop JOSEPH has spoken to us about being

a healthy parish. What do we mean by this?

One of the ways we can know that a parish is healthy

is that a healthy parish keeps the feasts of the Church.

The Great Feasts of the Church Year are an expression

of the Lord God's own priorities for us. Each of us has

many goals and aspirations for the year 2014. The

Lord God also has goals and aspirations for us. The

Almighty has priorities for us, and these priorities are

to join Him in the company of the saints and angels in

celebrating His mighty acts and wondrous works as

expressed in the Great Feasts of the Church.

You have heard me say that whenever one of our parishioners is considering moving away I tell them to make sure

that they only move where there is a healthy parish community. Invariably they ask, "How will I know Father?" I

also answer by saying, "Look at their parish calendar." If a parish keeps the feasts, and does not ignore the Lord's

sacred summons into His presence on Theophany, Ascension, Transfiguration, etc. then we have a good indication

that this is a praying people, and a people concerned with fulfilling the Lord's priorities. If a parish only gathers on

Sundays this is a very bad sign. We are not a Sunday only folk as certain anti-church calendar Christians are. The

people of God have never been a Sunday only folk. In the Old Covenant our forebears worshipped every Sabbath

day in the synagogue, AND celebrated the Great Feasts of the Old Covenant: Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles,

Hanukah, Purim, etc. We Christians of God's New Covenant do the same- we gather on each Lord's Day (Sunday)

and we gather to celebrate the Great Feasts of our salvation that fall on days other than Sundays.

This is the sacred rhythm. This is the way to be an evangelized and evangelizing people. Attached in this newsletter

is a copy of the Great Feasts for 2014! I encourage all of you to be healthy! Take the feasts and note them down in

your planner and let us keep the feasts!

I send you my love with this message

Fr Josiah

Page 2 Volume 23 Issue 2

Part 6 of 7 Read through the Bible in a year...

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Page 3 Volume 23 Issue 2

The Church is a theandric organization: divine because

she is the living body of Christ and human because she

is a particular human society. As a human hierarchical

organization, she is tied to the mystery of the

priesthood and the synod of bishops. The head of the

Church is Jesus Christ, the God-Man and her visible

head in the local church is the bishop, the image of

Christ locally.

The bishop is a

spiritual father and

shepherd, on the

model of Jesus

Christ, "the Good

Shepherd." He

shepherds his flock

"rightly dividing the

word of truth." Next to the bishop, there is the priest

and the deacon. The priest performs the mysteries such

as the divine liturgy and the mystery of baptism, except

for the mystery of chiertonia (ordination to the clergy).

The priest is a spiritual father and pastor for his parish.

As spiritual father he administers the mystery of

repentance and confession.

The deacon helps the bishop or the

priest in performing the mysteries and

in performing social work.

The priest, according to Saint John

Chrysostom, enjoys a service that

surpasses the service of the holy angels. This comes,

not from the priest's personal worthiness, but from the

divine grace that "in all times heals the sick and

perfects the lacking." Thus the Church becomes a

hospital where the Gospel of the Kingdom is

announced and where the bishop (or priest) pastors the

people of God as a spiritual guide and physician of

souls by means of the mystery of repentance and

confession and psychological and spiritual guidance.

It must be mentioned that the Church, in human terms,

is not made up of the clergy (the bishops, priests and

deacons) only, but also of the lay faithful. All of them

constitute the people of God, the communion of Jesus

Christ, the God-Man. According to St Dionysius the

Areopagite, the deacon is required to be free of

passions, the priest enlightened, and

the bishop united to God as "a saint."

This is true, but in practice we are all sinners struggling

through repentance for the salvation of our souls.

Hence we seek inspiration from the following

observations: that the clergy without exception remain

weak and sinful humans who themselves are also

struggling for the salvation of their souls. However,

they must, as much as possible, be a model for other

people and far from significant, scandalous sins. Thus

Saint Gregory the Theologian said that their work is

pedagogical in guiding souls to salvation.

From all this we understand that the

priest's work is not limited to

performing the mysteries (the

liturgy, baptism, marriage,

funerals...) in a routine manner, but

rather it also includes, as we

mentioned, teaching, guiding and

pastoring souls. He is not an

employee

but rather

a pastor

and father.

As we said above, this comes from the divine grace that

they receive at the time of the laying-on of hands. Last

but not least, the Church teaches in all wisdom that the

holy mysteries (such as the Eucharist) are active in the

faithful by virtue of the grace of priestly service, and

not by virtue of the purity of his soul and his general

behavior.

Met. Ephrem Kyriakos (Archdiocese of Tripoli, Lebanon) on the Priesthood

The Mystery of the Priesthood

Volume 23 Issue 2

THE ANTIOCHIAN WOMEN OF NORTH AMERICA:

Who are they? And what is their Focus and Purpose? By Lucy Hanna

Celebrating 40 years of Service

Page 4

The Answer to the first question is simple: Every Orthodox

woman, 18 years or older, who is a member of a parish of

the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North

America is an Antiochian Woman, regardless of ethnic

origin or ancestry and whether your parish has an

organized chapter or not.

The answer to the second question, while also simple, may

be a bit more lengthy. Women have a natural capacity to

love and nurture. This is what His Eminence Metropolitan

PHILIP capitalized on when he founded the National

Organization of Antiochian Women in 1973. Then, to help

us in our ministries he formed a committee to establish a

focus and a purpose for our organization as a roadmap to

guide us in a spirit of Christian leadership, awareness and

commitment, fostering love through charitable acts and

creating a sense of fellowship and understanding of our

heritage and traditions.

It has been said that the women are the backbone of all the

parishes throughout the Archdiocese. Besides teaching

Sunday School, singing in the choir, serving on the parish

council, running church bookstores, cleaning, cooking and

baking the Prosphora, they still have time to do charitable

and humanitarian work within their parishes, in their

communities and even for national and international

charities. One of the main purposes of having a national

organization is to guide women across the Archdiocese

focus on deserving charities. To accomplish this, we have

a North American Board who, with the guidance of the

Metropolitan, the overseeing Hierarch and the Spiritual

Advisor, investigate and find these deserving charities.

Then, in order to pass along the information, we have

counterparts on the diocesan level, who in turn pass along

the information to the parishes. It is therefore very

important to have women representatives from every parish

who are responsible to receive and distribute this

information. These would be the chapter board or officers.

Other materials trickled down from the NAB to the

chapters through the diocesan boards are the Religious

programs (the “Read the Bible in a Year” and the “Lives of

Women Saints” programs are two such past examples), the

DIAKONIA newsletter, humanitarian projects,

membership programs, etc. are others.

Some parishes feel that they don’t need an elected board to

do their charitable work. Of course, they don’t, but to

make matters more orderly, it is important for the diocesan

board to know who is to receive the information, in most

cases it is the “President”. It is important to have someone

in charge of the money collected from the fundraising

events for the charities. This would be the “Treasurer”

who will then send the money to the diocesan treasurer,

who in turn will send it to the NAB treasurer. The NAB

treasurer then writes a check for the total amounts received

from all dioceses to the Archdiocese for the Metropolitan

to oversee the distribution to the charities. To keep record

of all the decisions and plans, it is important to have

someone take notes. That would be the secretary. It is not

“titles” we are seeking, but rather an orderly process.

Among the many charitable acts of the Antiochian Women

are those that help our own women such as the annual

scholarships offered to women 25 years or older who are

members of the Antiochian Archdiocese and who need to

return to school to further their education. Others include

our annual projects, which are worthy causes for which we

have raised over 3 million dollars since 1975. These

projects are too many to list and they include Pastoral

Education, Balamand Seminary and University, Missions,

Orthodox Media, Seminarians, Antiochian Village,

Patriarchal Charities, St. George Hospital in Beirut,

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC),

Orphanages, and Retired Clergy Housing, Children with

Special Needs, Convent of St. Thekla, Tornado Relief

Fund, and now our current project is “Helping the

Orphans of War in Syria”.

So, who are the Antiochian Women? They are all these

women who sacrificially give of their time, talent and

means to help the less fortunate. They are the women who

strive to emulate our Most Holy Mother, the Theotokos,

and all the Saints in doing charitable works. They are every

woman in the more than 300 parishes in our Archdiocese.

In our parish of St. Andrew, our Antiochian Women have

chosen the “Myrrhbearers” as their patron saints and thus

we call ourselves the Myrrhbearers of St. Andrew.

Once a year we hold a fund raiser for the Annual Project.

This year, as mentioned above, the project is “Helping the

Orphans of War in Syria”. We hold this fundraiser on

Palm Sunday by having a Fish Fry. The men of St. Andrew

help with the frying and all of you help by contributing to

the fund while enjoying a delicious fish meal. Please plan

on attending and supporting this worthwhile project on

Palm Sunday, April 13, 2014.

Through the prayers of our Mother the Most Holy

Theotokos, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy upon us

and save us. Amen.

Page 5 Volume 23 Issue 2

West Coast Walk for Life, a huge success...

ST. ANDREW COMMUNITY NEWS...

Feast of the Presentation of our Lord into the Temple...

Thank you to “Team St. Andrew” who

represented us at the West Coast Walk

for Life in San Francisco on Saturday,

January 25th.

They joined the tens of thousands of

demonstrators who gathered at the Civic

Center Plaza in San Francisco, CA, for

the 10 annual West Coast anti-abortion

march and rally.

Notice their shirts which read “Keep

Calm and be a Mom”. We are proud of

you and wish we could have joined you.

The little (and big) boys of St. Andrew gathered at the Solea on Sunday, February 2nd, to receive a blessing

on the occasion of the entry of our Lord and a little child into the temple.

Page 6 Volume 23 Issue 2

Congressman Mark Takano visits St. Andrew...

New Babies born to St. Andrew Parishioners! God grant them many years!

Memory Eternal...

The community of St. Andrew was shocked at the loss of one of its beloved

members. Our sister in Christ, Sandra (Mary) Hensley, fell asleep in the

Lord on January 15 while recuperating from open-heart surgery at Kaiser

Ontario Hospital.

Sandra is the mother of Michael and Matthew Hensley, mother-in-law of

Amaly and Tammy Hensley and grandmother of Noah, Nicholas and

Joseph Hensley, all from St. Andrew as well. She is also the aunt of our

Rdr. Andrew Thomazin. May her memory be eternal and may God comfort

her husband Don and all the family.

Congratulations to Rdr.

Jeremy and Katherine

Phillips on the birth of their

son on February 5, 2014.

The little prince made his

entrance into the world

weighing 7 lbs., 8 oz., and

measuring 20” long.

Congratulations to Nicholaus

and Lisa Mueller on the birth

of their daughter on January

31, 2014. Following in her big

sister’s footsteps, the little

fashionista emerged weighing

7 lbs., 7 oz..

Congratulations to the Mayo family on the birth

of their daughter Karina Josephine on December

28, 2013. Baby Karina weighed 8 lb., 8 oz. at

birth and measured 21”. Her godmother will be

Olena Colosimo who is soon to be a member of

St. Andrew Church. No picture available at

time of printing.

On Sunday, January 19, St. Andrew hosted Congressman

Takano for lunch following the Divine Liturgy. During the

lunch, he addressed the congregation in the Fellowship hall

after which the parishioners had an opportunity to meet and

interact with their parish’s congressional representative.

Page 7 Volume 23 Issue 2

Special Orthodox Symposium at St. Andrew in Two Weeks...

Dear and Faithful Parishioners

Blessings!

Last year, we held our first Orthodox symposium at Saint Andrew, where our featured speaker was

Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia and our theme focused on prayer. Many of you came and enjoyed

our first experience of having a Ss. Cyril and Athanasius Institute Symposium here at our parish. I am hoping

that all of you will want to partake of this wonderful opportunity this year.

Our Riverside symposium for 2014 is now only two weeks away (22-23 February 2014), on an incredibly

important topic for our day: the suffering witness of Orthodoxy in the twenty-first century, and the role of the

Holy Martyrs in preparing Orthodox Christians of today for the struggles to face us in the coming generations.

We have, as last year, a wonderful line-up of speakers arranged for this two-day symposium, featuring

Hieromonk Calinic (Berger) of the Romanian Episcopate; Archimandrite Nathaniel (Symeonides) of the

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America; Archpriest Lawrence Russell of the Orthodox Church in

America; and Hieromonk James (Corazza) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia — all of whom

will be examining the fierce struggles facing Christians in this new millennium, and the way that the martyric

voices of the Church urge Orthodox Christians on towards a deeper, more joyful and spiritual Life in Christ.

As in previous years, all registrations are handled through the Institute's web site, through a process that can

be handled in only a few minutes — and by registering on-line now you'll still receive a 20% discount off the

door price!

As there are only two weeks to go, I'd like to encourage you to register as quickly as possible so that we can

make appropriate arrangements for the number of people in attendance. You can register at

www.sforthodoxinstitute.org/feb2014

I also have the very good news of informing you that our father in God,

His Eminence, Archbishop Joseph, will be here on Saturday morning

Feb. 22nd to open the conference with his blessing and prayer, and to

deliver a short presentation on the present martyric trials of our much-

suffering Patriarchate of Antioch and All-the-East.

I look forward to seeing a great many of you at the symposium!

With love,

Father Josiah

Symposium Speakers:

Symposium Topic: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

They are our past, they speak to our

present. How shall the witness of the

Martyrs speak to the future of every

Orthodox Christian?

St. Andrew Orthodox Church

4700 Canyon Crest Drive

Riverside, CA 92507

St. Andrew Orthodox Church of Riverside is a parish of the Self-ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America,

Diocese of Los Angeles and the West, the See of the Most Reverend Archbishop JOSEPH