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2 THE SHEPHERD • NOVEMBER 2020 • SAINT SPYRIDON GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH OF SAN DIEGO By the time this letter reaches you, anks- giving will nearly be upon us. is year has been like no other and it is easy to lament its passing. Normalcy ended in March as the virus emerged sending us into our homes and secluding us from our friends and families. As the restrictions have loosened, we have ventured out little by lit- tle. Yet, as the cloud of uncertainty looms, we can still nd much to be grateful for. is month we are going to have our rst vir- tual General Assembly. We will do our usu- al business, elect the audit committee, the election committee and delegates to the Me- tropolis Clergy-Laity which will take place in February 2021. We will also update the community on the state of our parish. e Agenda and information on how to join the Meeting will be forthcoming. ese months have also given us more time at home. I stumbled onto a book “Blueprints for the Little Church: Creating an Orthodox Home” by Elissa Bjeletich which some of you might enjoy. In the book, she talks about our family homes as the “little church.” e fol- lowing is a beautiful passage about the be- ginning of each of our little churches: “In the marriage ceremony, the new husband and wife are crowned, both as martyrs for the sacri ces they will make and as the right- ful leaders of their new household, their little church. Christ is invited inside to become the center and the head of the little church, just as He is both center and head of the larger Church. e little church has its own hierar- chy and its lay versions of the sacraments— we break bread together, we bless one anoth- er, anoint one another, pray for one another, and love one another in this little community, striving together to grow ever closer to Christ.” As anksgiving arrives, I hope you can gather in your little church with loved ones and that we will all be united in our faith as the Body of Christ. I hope and pray that we can all rejoice in the moment and give thanks to God for all things. While we cannot con- trol what happens in our lives, we can always control what we feel and how we respond to life. I hope your little church is lled with hope, with faith and with love. Giving thanks, Jim Gilpin Parish Council President Yes, the storage dungeon is fewweeknights and aweeken adjacent to the Kitchen. Reno anddisposalofallcabinetsand walls were prepped and RFP open, and brighter room via u lighting, aswell as heavy duty have a few finishing touches t nextcoupleofweeks. Special thanks for theirhardwo somewell-deserved breaks) fo JimLeventis,CoreyLeventis, a request forall topleasemakea cleanandorganized,whilealso that youmay“forget”behind. Πιστεύουμε ότι θα σας αρέσε στην Κουζίνα. Όλη η ομάδα π διατηρήσουμε και μελλοντικά καθαριότητα αυτού τού χώρο μας! Regards, Vlassiand theTeam FROM THE PARISH COUNCIL PRESIDENT WOMEN WORD OF THE Our study during the month of October continued with a focus on prayer as a way of centering our daily lives around Christ and of developing a habit of frequency – specif- ically, how we use the Jesus Prayer, “LORD JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON ME, A SINNER.” During this session we looked at passages in the New Testament (Mark 10:46-52) that support the phrasing of this brief prayer like the story of the blind man by the roadside, Bartimaeus, who cried out many times, “Jesus, Son of Da- vid, have mercy on me,” believing in his heart that Christ was indeed the messiah come to heal the sick and the blind; and how St. Paul refers to our belief that Jesus Christ is the “Son of God” (Phil.2:10-11). We also shared the many ways that we use this prayer throughout our day – in the morning when the alarm goes o , at night as we’re falling asleep, in front of our icons, as we back out of our driveway, in line at the store, silent- ly when we nd ourselves in the midst of a challenge or an argument, whenever we need to bring peace into a situation or to take away the noise around us, and “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, save, help, illumine ___”as we pray for others we love. We also took a deeper look at icons with the support of a video entitled “ e Icon as Scrip- ture” along with a variety of other sources to help us understand how icons are not just paintings but another language that we use to translate Holy Scripture as the Orthodox Church interprets it, and how they are pur- posely “written” to invite us into the spiritual realm and into the life and revelation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On another week a er that we returned to a fourth discussion about prayer with a focus on the popular Morning Prayer of St. Philar- et which begins: “O Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace. Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will. In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me. Bless my deal- ings with all who surround me. Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with the rm convic- tion that Your will governs all” and ends with “Direct my will, teach me to pray, pray You Yourself in me.” As a writer at blogs.goarch. org expresses: “Prayed daily, this prayer helps us reorient our attention from the world’s distractions and passions and towards a fo- cus and trust in God. Saint Philaret calls us to look at our inner world, to align our will with God’s, and to be attentive to how we interact continues 3 TREASURER UPDATE I hope that this message nds all of you healthy and in good spirits during these di cult times. Many of you have expressed interest in the nancial health of our church and the encouraging news is that our community has been blessed by a tremendous display of generosity over the past six months. Despite the many challenges caused by the pandemic, many of our families continued to sup- port our church through regular stewardship giving as well as online donations through the church website. Understandably, some in the community have faced their own nancial chal- lenges and our prayers go out to all of them, but through God’s boundless grace, others have stepped forward and given more to close the income gap. ankfully, we have seen our oper- ating expenses consistently track less than budget, even with the expenses required to upgrade our Live Broadcast system. To put things into perspective, it would be fair to say that our rst nine months of the year were on par with those of last year and it is largely due to the generos- ity and dedication of our parish family! As we move into the Fall, we are starting to experience a noticeable dip in giving when October is typically one of our strongest stewardship months. It is also important to share that both Sunday tray and candle incomes have been signi cantly reduced this year, making stewardship giving a very important component of our operating income. With your prayers and help, we will continue to go above and beyond, to support our parish families and friends, bearing the burdens of others and ful lling the law of Christ. ank you for your faithful generosity and I look forward to the day that we can again worship together as one. Together in Christ, Ben De La Riva