ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Please join us for an Orthodox Women's Retreat on September 13 and 14, 2008. The theme is Being an Orthodox Christian Woman in a Protestant Society presented by Mother Nektaria of St. Paul Skete.
  Registration begins at 8:00 AM CST
  Retreat 9:00 AM - 3:30 PM; Vespers at 4:00 PM Cost: $30 per person.
  Please call Cynthia Bodnar, 219-730-4698, for more information or to request financial assistance.
  Mother Nektaria has lived the monastic life for over twenty years. She was tonsured in 1994 at Holy Dormition Monastery in Rives Junction, MI, and in 1997 went to Memphis, TN in response to a request for a monastic presence in the Mid-South.
  St. Paul Skete in Grand Junction, TN has been her home since 2004.
  http://www.ptvm.com/womensretreat.asp
  
  
• One of the four great fasting periods of the Church year, the
  Dormition Fast, begins Friday (or, as most of us will do, begins right
  after our Nameday celebration today).  It always lasts the first half of
  August, culminating in the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos on
  August 15th.   Fasting is a great gift of God, leading to our growth in
  hope and faith and love.  Let us talk ourselves into the Fast, not out of
  it!  We're in this together!
  
  
•  Next Sunday a guest speaker, Elder Damien Slick, who will speak to us
  after our Divine Liturgy on his experience in being won to Christ by his
  wife.  His is a wonderful testimony, and will be encouraging to anyone,
  especially those of us whose spouses aren't at Saint Stephen's.
  
  
• The Monastery of the holy Dormition in Michigan is soon to have its
  annual pilgrimage for the Feast of Dormition August 15th.  Our Archbishop
  JOB will be special homilist.  Since this feast falls on a weekday (a
  Friday), perhaps those who will be attending Saint Stephen's for that
  feast may be interested in going together to the monastery to celebrate
  the feast?  It seems an opportune time to go, if everyone who would
  attend here wishes to go.  If you are interested, see Father or
  Presbytera.
  
  
•  A retreat in Cincinnati on Saturday, September 27 will feature Madre
  Ivonne from the Hogar San Rafael Orphanage in Guatemala City.  She will
  speak of the orphanage and her experience of working with abandoned,
  abused and orphaned children.  Stay tuned for more details!
  
  
• In November our OCA will hold our first All American Council (AAC) since
  our financial scandal was publicly revealed.   In preparation for the AAC
  it was proposed that a series of "Town Hall" style meetings be held to
  encourage honest feedback and participation (the AAC is made up of the
  parish priests and an equal number of lay delegates from each parish plus
  the bishops).   The purpose of these Town Hall meetings is to allow YOU,
  as members of the OCA to express your concerns, hopes and thoughts for
  the consideration of the entire church.  There will be two such Town Hall
  meetings near us: July 17th (a Thursday), in the Cleveland area at St
  Theodosius' Ridge Manor from 6:30-9 pm, and, July 31st, (also a
  Thursday), in Indianapolis at St John's, from 6-9 pm.  I encourage as
  many of you as are willing to attend one of these meetings and to make
  your voice heard in the OCA.   I would like to encourage us to consider
  carpooling.  To get a sense of the wide variety of comments the OCA is
  getting regarding the OCA you can go to
  http://oca.org/PDF/15thAAC/2008-0619-15aac-email-comments.pdf