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1 THE SHEPHERD • OCTOBER 2025 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO continues 8 www.theshepherdnews.com The Shepherd Newsletter The official newsletter publication for the parish of Saint Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church of San Diego I S S U E 3 5 3 • O C TO B E R 2 0 2 5 IN THIS ISSUE FROM THE DESK OF FR. ANDREW ...... p. 1 PRESIDENT OF THE PARISH COUNCIL, WOMEN OF THE WORD, BOOKSTORE .p. 2 DIVINE SERVICES, BIRTHS, STEWARDSHIP CORNER, NEWS FROM THE LOFT, HOLY SACRAMENTS, DEATHS, MEMORIALS .............................................. p. 3 YOUTH MINISTRIES ................................. p. 4 DANCE & CHORAL .................................. p. 6 GREEK LANGUAGE SCHOOL ............... p. 7 PHILOPTOCHOS NEWS .......................... p. 9 YOUNG AT HEART SENIORS ................ p. 10 PARISH CALENDAR ................................. p. 14 CONTACT INFORMATION....................... p. 16 FROM THE DESK OF FATHER ANDREW STEWARDSHIP IS ABOUT MORE THAN FINANCES My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Good stewardship of the “Three T s” of our T ime, our T alent, and our T reasure is im- portant. Yes, the practical and real concern for the positive financial condition of our parish, our Church, and our families is in- deed very important. However, so is taking care of our planet and the environment that we engage and live in. I grew up in a time and in a household that didn’t throw anything away and looked for ways to extend the life of something and/or repurpose it in some constructive way before eventually tossing it into the trash heap. With our Patriarch Bar- tholomew’s recent visit to the United States, I was reminded of this reality as I came across an encyclical that His All-Holiness Ecumen- ical Patriarch Bartholomew wrote many years ago. Patriarch Bartholomew, who is recognized as the “Green Patriarch,” is deeply concerned about the health and well-being of the plan- et and has written extensively over the years about our proper stewardship of it. His All-Holiness begins the encyclical by noting that a dozen years ago “…it was not envi- sioned how soon natural conditions would deteriorate on account of harmful human interference and how horrific the losses and damages to human lives resulting from them would be.” The following are his words: The recent floods in Europe, India and Russia as well as those occurring during the current year and the previous ones in various other parts of the earth, bear witness to the distur- bance of the climatic conditions caused by the overheating of the atmosphere of our planet. These disasters have persuaded even the most incredulous persons that the problem is real, that the cost of repairing its damages is com- parable to the cost of preventing them, and that there is no margin left anymore for con- tinuing to remain quiet. The Orthodox Church, being a pioneer in her love and interest for humanity and its living conditions on the one hand, recommends us to live virtuous lives, but on the other hand, she does not forget that according to the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, our virtue will not be assessed on the basis of individualistic criteria, but on the basis of applied solidarity, as is so characteristically described in the parable of the future Judgment. According to this para- ble, the criteria for accepting one among those saved who inherit the Eternal Kingdom, is the supply of food to the hungry, clothes to the na- ked, aid to the sick, sympathy to the prisoners and generally the offering to our fellow human beings the possibility to live in our planet un- der normal conditions and to come to know God so that they too may enter into His King- dom. This means that the protection of our fellow human beings from destructive floods, fires, storms, tempest and other such disasters is our bounding duty; and consequently, that failure to take appropriate measures for avoid- ing such phenomena is chargeable to us as an unpaid debt and constitutes a crime of negli- gence, which incurs a plethora of other crimes, such as the death of innocent people, the de- struction of cultural monuments and property as well as regressive progress. We pray to God to remove natural destruc- tions, which we cannot avert by our own care and foresight, but at the same time, it is our bounding duty to engage in the labor of study and the expense of taking necessary measures for avoiding those disasters that are derived BUSINESS ADS AND PERSONAL GREETINGS & ANNOUNCEMENTS AVAILABLE AT LOW RATES FREE DESIGN FOR YOUR AD! FOR DETAILS, EMAIL INFO@THESHEPHERDNEWS.COM THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT! ADVERTISE IN NEWSLETTER!