Saturday October 5/18

4:30 Akathist to St. John of Shanghai

5:00 - Vespers

SUNDAY October 6/ 19

Trapeza Team 3

19th Sunday after Pentecost

Holy Apostle Thomas

St. Andrew Fool-for-Christ of Constantinople - Church Slava

Jeanie Jones’ Birthday

9:00 - Hours

10:00 - Hierarchical Divine Liturgy with Archbishop Maxim

All are welcome to join us for a Trapeza meal following Divine Liturgy

MONDAY October 7/ 20

Aiden Loucks’ Birthday

TUESDAY October 8/ 21

St. Pelagia the Penitent, of the Mount of Olives

6:00 PM - Zoom class with Fr. George (email him at [email protected] for details)

WEDNESDAY October 9/ 22

Kathie Burns’ Birthday

Joseph Pickens’ Birthday

Holy Apostle James, son of Alphaeus

THURSDAY October 10/ 23

FRIDAY October 11/ 24

Holy Apostle Philip of the Seventy, one of the seven deacons

CLEANING DAY OCTOBER 18

To prepare for our patronal feast and, Lord willing, a visit from Bishop Maxim, we will have a church cleaning day on October 18th beginning at 9AM. Any and all help is much appreciated as it’s a labor of love!

PLEDGE DRIVE

Our annual pledge drive is underway! Expect snail mail this week with details and please be prayerful about how your family can be good stewards of St. Andrew.

CLERGY CORNER

By Maximos Pafilis, Bishop of Melitene Sermon on the Gospel according to Luke 6:31–36 Which of us doesn’t seek the equal for the equal, or who doesn’t measure friendship by the standard of requital? In the labyrinth of the heart, where the shadowy paths of reasoning are intertwined, each of us carries an invisible scale, weighing the actions of our neighbours against our own beneficence. Like certain merchants of life, not loving but rather transacting, we seek the debt of return, so that the reckoning of life might show no deficiency.

Our love, often, is nothing other than a loan upon the interest of expectation, a silent agreement of souls, so that we might not be wronged in ungratefulness. Is this truly living? Or rather, is it a shadow of life, turning in a circle, where the self sees and loves its own reflection in the face of the other? For us to return love to those who love us is nothing great; it is something empty and vast, the reflection of the mirror onto the mirror, generating nothing new, but only eternally recycling the old. And the word of the Lord comes, like a two-edged sword cutting the soul, separating the human from the divine, that which is from the world from that which is heavenly. “And if ye love them that love you, what grace have ye?” (Luke 6:32). This question doesn’t seek an answer, but a deep silence, in which the soul stands naked before its own poverty. Because grace is not an exchange, nor a reward for a righteous deed, but the irrational gift, which is outside every reckoning and every necessity. The love of sinners, the reciprocal love, is the natural flow of the waters, which always fill the hollows, never moving upwards. But Christ’s commandment calls the soul to a counter-motion, to the lifting of the cross of selflessness, where the reward lies not in receiving but in giving.

“But love ye your enemies.” Do we truly understand the weight of these words? Or is it that our ears, weighed down by the noise of the passions of the world, can no longer hear this fine breeze? To love the enemy; not just to endure him, nor only to forgive him, but to love. What is this fire which doesn’t burn but illuminates, the wound which doesn’t kill but gives life? Perhaps it is not a passion of the heart, but a stance of the will, a deep and obscure choice, where man, denying his own self, becomes a vessel of the energy of God. “Lend, hoping for nothing again.” This loan is not of gold or silver, but of the soul itself, of hope, of time. You give to someone not because he is worthy, but because you have been called to give, to imitate the Father, “for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil” (Luke 6:35). For He makes His sun to rise upon the righteous and the unrighteous, and rains down His beneficence upon those who praise and those who blaspheme. And how can one imitate God? By fasting? By having no possessions? Or by unceasing prayer? But Saint Eustathius of Thessalonica also says somewhere that the Lord “Did not say: Fast, as your Father which is in heaven fasts. Nor did He say: Become without possessions, as your Father which is in heaven is without possessions. But what does He say? Become merciful, as your Father which is in heaven is merciful.”[1]

For this virtue in particular, pity, the unexamined mercy, characterises God. For in this lies the measure of deification, not in the knowledge of the mysteries, but in the communion of God’s suffering for the world. Such is the divine imitation, about which Saint John of the Ladder also confirms that “love, as to quality, is a likeness of God, in so far as it is attainable by men.”[2] This love, which seeketh not her own, becomes the place where man meets God, not as a judge, but as a Father. In the exercise of mercy, man discovers that heaven is not a distant place, but a state of the soul, which has learned to see in every face, and especially in that of the enemy, the image of Christ.

Thus become ye the sons of the Highest. This adoption is neither by birth nor by the will of the flesh, but by the heart’s free choice to love without conditions. Then the reward is great. Not requital, not honour, not glory from men. The reward is the participation in the very life of God, the power to love as He loves, to become merciful as He is merciful. The reward is peace, not that of the world, which comes from the absence of war, but “my peace I give unto you” (John 14:27), the peace of the Son hanging upon the wood, who loved his crucifiers.

In the depth of the abyss of this divine commandment, man finds the spring of his own freedom. For he is freed from the bonds of his own self, from the tyranny of requital. No longer a slave under the yoke of fear, but a son in the house of the Father, partaker of that nature which is love. And this love is not a harbour into which we sail, but an ocean into which we are always sinking, finding in its infinity the only end, which is an endless beginning.

[1] Eustathius of Thessalonica, Apanta [Complete Works], in Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca, ed. Jacques-Paul Migne, vol. 136 (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1865), 856. [2] John Climacus, Klimax Theias Anodou [The Ladder of Divine Ascent], in Patrologiae Cursus Completus: Series Graeca, ed. Jacques-Paul Migne, vol. 88 (Paris: J.-P. Migne, 1860), 1784.

TRAPEZA CHANGES, DIETARY RESTRICTIONS AND FOOD ALLERGIES

Our parish council is working towards revising our Trapeza space and routines to help accommodate our growth, and we are asking for input from the parish. Please reach out to Fr. George or one of the parish council members with your ideas and suggestions on how to better accommodate our growing church family! All suggestions and ideas are welcome!

One change we would like to make is to do a better job of accommodating dietary restrictions and food allergies. To that end, we have created a Google form (you do NOT need a Google account to complete the form) that we would ask be completed for each member of your family who has dietary restrictions or food allergies so that our Trapeza Team Leaders are aware and can work toward accomodating these needs. To complete the form, please click HERE and be sure to complete one form per individual with dietary restrictions or food allergies.

COUNCIL CORNER

Here, you’ll find important information about recent decisions, ongoing stewardship updates, upcoming projects, and ways we’re working to support the life and growth of our parish. Our goal is to keep you informed, involved, and connected as we continue to serve Christ and one another.

Parish Council members are:

• Vadim Belikov - President

• Jacob Voyce - Treasurer

• Elena Ellis - Financial Secretary

• Dn. Philip Mayer - Secretary

• Michelle Brown - Member-at-Large

Stewardship

ONLINE DONATIONS

We are happy to announce that we now have Zelle available for online donations to make giving easier!

To make an online donation using Zelle, please use our church email address - [email protected] or scan the QR code below. Zelle is also equipped to schedule recurring donations. Please reach out to Jacob Voyce or Michelle Brown if you would like help using Zelle or have questions about this new feature.

We have also updated the church web site with this information.

2025 Financial Report 

(click the link above to take a look at where we stand with our stewardship)

New to our parish and wondering how to contribute?

We’re so glad you’re here! If you feel moved to support the life of our parish, there are a couple of simple ways to do so. While we’re currently working on setting up online donations, you’ll find a small box in the Narthex labeled “Tithes and Donations” where you can leave your offering.

Another meaningful way to help is by contributing to our Trapeza Fund, which pays for a festal meals and keeps our weekly fellowship meals going strong. If you’d like to give, there’s a clearly marked coffee can labeled “Trapeza Fund” in the Trapeza. Additionally, if you would like to join one of our four Trapeza teams, please let Elena Ellis know.

Your generosity, no matter the size, helps nourish both body and soul. Thank you for being part of our community!

TRAPEZA TEAMS

Trapeza Teams and the schedule for the rest of the year has been updated and can be found on our web site by clicking HERE and then on the “Trapeza Team Info” button.

If you have questions about Trapeza Teams or would like to be added to one, please reach out to Elena Ellis at [email protected]

WANT TO HELP OTHERS FIND US? PLEASE LEAVE A REVIEW

Today’s generation will OFTEN use google maps as a way to find something near them. If you’re in Redding (or anywhere outside Anderson) you may not see a listing for St. Andrew at all when you search for “Orthodox Church”. We have heard from MANY new inquirers that they didn’t even know there were two Orthodox Churches in the area. We are trying to change that!

In an effort to be more visible and accessible to new inquirers, we are encouraging our members to leave a review on our Google business listing. This helps Google show more people our listing and helps people who see our listing feel welcome! If you would like to contribute to this effort, please click HERE and leave us a review. Thank you!

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE SICK AND SUFFERING

• Xenia Runyon

• James Walton

• Kaylyn and Kenton Burris

• Barbara Stackpole

• Pelegia Ahlstromer

• Zacharias and Elisabeth Tierney

• Diakonissa Patricia

• Christopher Elliott

• Kieranna Dunn

• Seraphima Banks

• Herman

• Peter

• Nina

• Macarius

• Euphrosyne

• Elena

• Donnan

• Thomas

• Hierschemamonk Ambrose

• Nun Olga

• Hieromonk Paisius

• Monk Nicholas

• Brother Ambrose

• Anna

• Leah

• Abbess Joanna

• Eugenia

• Basil

• Elena

• Matushka Stephania

• Dorothea

• Alex

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR CATECHUMENS

• Joe P.

• David

• Chandler

• Morgan

• Margo

• Kate

• Dylan

• Ethan

• Joe C.

• Kara

• Sloan

• Riot

• Brix

• Europa

• Kole

• Kayla

• Madison

• Brawly

• John