SAINT STEPHEN THE PROTOMARTYR
ANTIOCHIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
609 LANE AVE., SOUTH PLAINFIELD, NJ 07080
TEL. (908) 756-0410 - www.ststephenchurch.net
THE V. REV. Fr. STEPHEN TEWFIK, PASTOR - TEL. (908) 654-4301
JULY, 2013 NEWSLETTER
The Epistle and the Gospel Readings
Sunday, July 7th Epistle: Gal. 3:23-4:5 Sunday, July 21st Epistle: Ro. 6:18 to end
2nd Sunday after Gospel: Mt. 4:18-23 4th Sunday after Gospel: Mt. 8:5-13
Pentecost Tone: One Pentecost Tone: Three
Sunday, July 14th Epistle: Tit. 3:8 to end Sunday, July 28th Epistle: Ro. 10:1-5
3rd Sunday after Gospel: Mt. 5:14-19 5th Sunday after Gospel: Mt. 8:28-34; 9:1
Pentecost & of the Tone: Two Pentecost Tone: Four
Holy Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Council
_____________________________________________________________________________________
(Please see St. Stephen’s Monthly Calendar for daily services for July)
The Parish Council Meeting will be held on Wednesday July 10th tffollfolllat 7:30 PM at the Church Hall.
-Our Annual International Festival will be held on September 13th-15th. Joe Keepers and Ted Mandalakis are chairing it. They will need all your help. It is very important that we have the proper staffing for our festival. Please see Ted or Joe if there is a particular area you would like to work or have specific times you are available. Joe and Ted will also be approaching each parishioner for their availability. Thank you for your involvement with this very important church event.
-Our Annual Gift Raffle Auction will be held on Saturday October 26th in our Church Hall. Claude Zaki and Lily Su will chair this event. In the mean time we need many gifts to be raffled. Please, if you received gifts that you know you don’t need and will never use, how about donating it for this good cause? All monetary donations are greatly appreciated. This event will need a lot of gifts and a lot of preparation. Please be generous.
-2013 Parish Life Conference. The parishioners of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Emmaus, PA invite you to join them in celebrating the 62nd Eastern Dioceses Parish Life Conference. It will take place at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Lehigh Valley, PA from July 3rd to July 7th. His Eminence the Most Rev. Metropolitan PHILIP will preside over the conference and his Grace Bishop Thomas and his Grace Bishop Nicholas will also be in attendance. There will be many different activities for young and old at this conference. Please come and join us for this beautiful event. For more information, see the bulletin board in the Church Hall.
News from Our Church School:
At our Graduation exercises, held on June 9th, with Bishop Nicholas presiding, we were happy to congratulate, not only our younger students, but also our Parish graduates. We again congratulate: MIDDLE SCHOOL:LEXI CARR from JP Case Middle School…going to the Hunterdon Central Regional High School.
HIGH SCHOOL: Joey Hanna from Bridgewater High School… attending Quinnipiac University in Connecticut and Christine Tewfik from Christ the King High School COLLEGE: Mark Lotfallah from Rutgers University NB
CONGRATULATIONS to our Parish Life Conference Creative Arts Festival Winners. They are:
2013 PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL WINNERS;-
GRADE 2- 1st Place.. Matthew Zeifallah, GRADE 3- 2nd-Place. Emily El-Choueri, 3rd-Place.. Julia Salloum, GRADE 6- 2nd-Place... Stella Anne Miller, 3rd- Place.. Sophia El-Choueri, GRADE 7- 2nd-Place.. George El- Choueri, 3rd-Place… Julia Mandalakis
2013..Poetry Winners…Grade 7 : 3rd Place…George El-Choueri.
2013 Creative Arts Winners…..Grade 3….Gold…Julie Salloum,
Grade 10..Silver…Julia Sebastiano. Our thanks again to Camille Waser for her guidance with this project. Fr. Stephen will present the Medals in September to the winners.
Our Tithing request of the children produced $100, which we sent to St. Joseph’s House in Maryland for severely handicapped children. We received a wonderful thank you from them, which is posted on our bulletin board.
Summer Arts & Crafts: Janet Awadalla has kindly offered to teach a summer arts and crafts on Sundays during the summer. If you can help, or are interested in having your children participate, please email Barbara at: .
Note: We ask each school family to donate $10 (per family) to help with expenses throughout the school term. We will be ordering books soon.
News from Our Women Group:
-The woman had a bake sale on Pentecost Sunday, and we thank everyone for helping and supporting this event. -We are preparing for the festival, it seems too far away, but the festival needs a lot of preparation, so if anyone would like to volunteer their time it would be great, also Nehad and Alice will be at the dessert table and they are looking for more new dessert ideas lets help them in that corner.
IOCC (International Orthodox Christian Charities) News
-To date IOCC has helped 630,000 Syrian refugees relocate to Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq. IOCC has also distributed quilts and hygiene kits to the refugees.
Preparation for Holy Communion:
-Only Orthodox Christians who are prepared may approach the Holy Chalice.Please remember to
have respect as we are processing forward to receive Holy Communion.This is a solemn time for humility, prayer and silence. Please approach the Holy Chalice “In the fear of God and in faith and in love.”
Gift Certificates from Shop Rite, and A&P are available. Please see Alice Hossary or Claude Zaki.
MANY THANKS:
-To May Elias for baking the prosphora.
-