Unofficial Car Sales at STV – New Church Fund Raising

A lot of fund raising and planning for a building project is about adopting a new paradigm. Right now our paradigm is: “I come to STV and everything is there for me – the building, the choir, the meals, the clergy, etc.”. All lights are on, the heat and AC works, etc. Obviously we all know that doesn’t happen magically – success only comes before work in the dictionary, and if we want to have a successful parish family we need to work for that success. And we do work for it. And we are thankful for those that make those efforts, pray for the workers, and all zeal for the glory of God and the good of His people.

But to get our brains around the fact that we have undertaken a new building project is perhaps a bit more challenging for us. That is not all bad of course. Struggle is good for our salvation on the whole, with some exceptions. But the work and success thing is true here too: if we want to adopt the new paradigm that we are focusing, laboring, praying, striving towards the completion of our new project we need to work! And we need to pray that the Lord will help us to adopt that paradigm.

I’m happy to report here that we have already made some headway in this regard. Fr. Colin reports that the little boys were trying to sell their toy cars on Sunday to support the new church project! “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings has Thou perfected praise.” (Communion Hymn Lazarus Saturday – Matthew 21:16)

The boys are on it. Sometimes the adults lead. And sometimes the youth. Thank God that our children are providing us a zealous example! Now, let us emulate them in our zeal for the glory of God’s House!

LEARN MORE/SUPPORT

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

Parish Council Resolution Regarding Fundraising for New Church

PARISH COUNCIL RESOLUTION REGARDING FUNDRAISING FOR NEW CHURCH

НА РУССКОМ НИЖЕ

At our parish council meeting Sunday, March 23, 2025 the council debated and discussed various approaches to the building of our new parish church. As all are aware, we have been making every effort to raise funds for the new project. This is happening both inside the parish, and broadly outside the parish as well. So far the there has been humble success. And we are thankful for that, ask your continued prayers, and that you consider how you might help support this project with your time, treasure, and talent.

Our practice in the past has been to gather enough funds to start a project and then in fact just begin, asking the Lord’s blessing and trusting that He will send the funds needed to finish the project if this is pleasing to Him. Thank God, so far we have done all the civil engineering work, parking lots, cemetery, and school based on this approach, as well as (a bit further back in our history) our kitchen expansion and our altar expansion. The Lord has blessed us richly as a parish family, and for this we should be thankful!

However, the new church and social hall is on another level of complexity and cost. We have never done anything that is going to cost us millions of dollars before. And so, based on very solid advice from parishioners who understand these things, we considered whether we needed to approach this project differently. Perhaps it was better to raise all the funds and THEN begin the project rather than just get started and hope the Lord would bless us as He has in the past?

After a lengthy discussion and debate, the parish council made its decision, which is below. In the end, we decided to trust more in the Lord. Which is the scarier path from an earthly point of view, to be sure. But we simply could not ignore the past record of our accomplishments, which were not due to our wisdom or effort, but simply to trusting in God and hoping that our labors would be blessed by Him – as they always have been. Past success is not a guarantee of future success, however, and in effect we are challenging our parish family to do as we always have – trust radically in the Lord and work as hard as we can, cooperating with Him for His glory.

RESOLUTION: “The Parish Council would prefer to raise $4 million (the present estimated cost of the project), hire a contractor, and build the new church all at once, but we understand that this may not be  possible. Therefore, we have decided that if by May 29th, the feast of Ascension, we do not have the needed funds, we will start building our new church project in phases and raise money concurrently, as we have in all past building projects. We feel it is better to begin the construction this year than to wait until we have all of the funds amassed.”

To be clear, if the Lord blesses us to gather the funds we will of course see that blessing as His instruction to us: hire a big local contractor and do all the work immediately. But if this is not His blessing, we will humbly accept this, roll up our sleeves, and get to work. As in all past parish building projects: WE NEED YOUR HELP! 

MOST IMPORTANTLY: we need your prayers! Not so much that we “get what we want”, but that we get what we need for our salvation. Please pray often, especially in times of doubt, that the Lord will send our parish family what is best for our salvation. If this is our common approach we are confident that indeed the Lord will bless us as HE sees fit, and we know that He cares more for our salvation even that we do.

Those who can volunteer time and talent are asked to reach out to our new Starosta, Brendan Hayden, at starosta@stvladimiraami.org.

Those who can volunteer treasure are asked to reach out to our Treasurer, Mikhail Fisenkov, at treasurer@stvladimiraami.org.

DONATIONS TO THE NEW BUILDING FUND MAY BE MADE HERE/MORE INFORMATION

Those who have have questions are asked to reach out to me at ogrisha@stvladimiraami.org.

This is our biggest project ever! I am confident that, following our past practice of radically relying on the Lord to bless our endeavors, He will in fact bless us here also: whether that blessing is to build a new church and hall, or to humbly accept that this is not His will. We pray many times per day “Thy will be done…” - let us have this as our approach to our new building project! In this way we can have great hope that we will be laboring to do God’s will. And as your priest, I could never hope for anything more than that, since zealously doing God’s will clearly places on the path to His Kingdom, which I wish for all of you. May this project be not for our glory, but for the Glory of God!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

РЕЗОЛЮЦИЯ ЦЕРКОВНОГО СОВЕТА ОТНОСИТЕЛЬНО СБОРА СРЕДСТВ ДЛЯ СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВА НОВОЙ ЦЕРКВИ

Во время собрания церковного совета в воскресенье, 23-го марта 2025 г., обсуждался вопрос о различных путях подхода к строительству нашей новой церкви. Как всем вам известно, мы прилагаем усилия для сбора средств для нового проекта. Это происходит как внутри прихода, так и широко за его пределами. До сих пор, успех был незначительным. Но мы благодарны и этому. Просим ваших молитв и возможности подумать как вы можете помочь в поддержке проекта вашим временем, сбережениями и талантами.

Наш предыдущий метод был таким - собрать необходимые средства для начала воплощения какого-либо проекта и затем просто начать, прося Божиего благословения и уповая на Него в том, что Он пошлет нам средства для завершения проекта, если это Ему угодно. Слава Богу, к настоящему моменту, мы завершили все инженерные работы, парковки, кладбище и школу, основываясь на этом подходе, также как и (немного вглубь нашей истории) пристройку к кухни и расширение алтаря. Господь щедро благословил нас как церковную семью и за это мы должны быть очень благодарны!

Однако, строительство новой церкви и общественного здания, это уже другой уровень сложности и затрат. Мы никогда ничего не делали такого, что стоило бы нам миллионы долларов. И потому, основываясь на совете со стороны прихожан, на собрании церковного совета мы рассматривали вопрос: должны ли мы подойти по другому к этому проекту. Возможно было бы лучше собрать все надлежащие средства и ЗАТЕМ начать строительство вместо того, чтобы просто начать с надеждой на Господа, что Он благословит нас как Он и делал до этого.

После длительного обсуждения и прений, церковный совет принял решение, которое предлагается ниже. В конце концов, мы решили больше уповать на Господа. Со всех земных точек зрения, это, несомненно, пугающий путь. Но мы просто не могли игнорировать результаты всех наших предыдущих достижений, которые были не результатом нашей мудрости и стараний, но простого упования на Бога и надежды, что наши труды будут Им благословленны - как они всегда и были. Прошлый успех - это не гарантия успеха будущего, однако, мы бы хотели побудить нашу приходскую семью сделать то, что мы всегда делали - совершенно уповать на Господа и трудиться изо всех сил, взаимодействуя с Ним во славу Божию. 

РЕЗОЛЮЦИЯ: «Церковный совет предпочел бы собрать 4 миллиона долларов (цена строительства на настоящее время), нанять строительную компанию и сразу же построить церковь, но мы понимает что это может быть невозможно. Поэтому, мы приняли решение, что если до 29-го мая 2025г., праздника Вознесения, у нас не будет необходимых средств, мы начнем строительство пошагово и параллельно с этим, будем собирать средства для дальнейшего продолжения работ, как мы и делали в прошлом. Мы думаем, что лучше начать строительство в этом году, чем ждать пока у нас будут все необходимые средства».

Для ясности - если Господь благословит нас собрать средства, мы, конечно, видя, что это Его благословение, сразу же наймем местную строительную компанию и сделаем всю работу таким образом. Но если этот путь не будет Его благословением, то мы засучим рукава и будем работать. Как и во всех прошлых проектах: НАМ НУЖНА ВАША ПОМОЩЬ!

САМОЕ ВАЖНОЕ: нам нужны ваши молитвы! Не то что « нам надо то, что мы хотим», но то, что у нас будет то, что необходимо для нашего спасения. Пожалуйста, молитесь часто, особенно во время сомнений о том, что Господь пошлет нашей приходской семье самое лучшее для нашего спасения. Если это будет нашим общим подходом, мы уверенны, что, несомненно, Господь благословит нас, как Ему угодно, и мы знаем, что Он заботиться о нашем спасении больше, чем мы сами. 

Тех, кто может пожертвовать временем и талантами, мы просим обращаться к нашему старосте, Брендану Хейдену (Brendan Hayden) по электронной почте starosta@stvladimiraami.org

Тех, кто может пожертвовать сбережениями, мы просим обращаться к нашему казначею, Михаилу Фисенкову по электронной почте treasurer@stvladimiraami.org

ПОЖЕРТВОВАНИЯ НА СТРОИТЕЛЬСТВО НОВОГО ЗДАНИЯ МОГУТ БЫТЬ ОКАЗАНЫ ЗДЕСЬ, ЗДЕСЬ ЖЕ МОЖНО НАЙТИ И ДОПОЛНИТЕЛЬНУЮ ИНФОРМАЦИЮ

Тех, у кого есть вопросы, мы просим обращаться ко мне по электронной почте ogrisha@stvladimiraami.org

Никогда еще у нас не было такого большого проекта! Я уверен, что следуя нашему предыдущему опыту полностью уповать на благословение Господа нашим начинаниям, Он, действительно, благословит нас также и здесь: либо благословением на строительство новой церкви и общественного здания, либо, если на то нет Его воли, тем, что мы смиренно примем это. Много раз в день мы молимся «Да будет воля Твоя…» - давайте это будет нашим подходом к новому строительному проекту! Таким образом, у нас будет большая надежда, что мы будем трудиться по воли Божией. И как ваш священник, я не могу иметь большей надежды, чем эта, т.к. ревностное выполнение  воли Божией, несомненно, поставит нас на путь, ведущий в Его Царство, чего я желаю всем вам. Пусть этот проект будет ни для нашей славы, но для славы Божией!

С просьбой о ваших молитвах,

о. Григорий.

Annual Meeting 2024 Materials

Friends,

The 2024 parish meeting is set for Sunday, February 10/23, 2025 during annual bili dinner, immediately following the Divine Liturgy that day. To participate and vote in the meeting you must be a member of the parish - more information is here.

The agenda for the meeting is very full, and we value your time. In this regard, we will not give presentations on the reports below at the annual meeting, but rather, we offer them here so that you can read them in advance. Each report will be assigned 5 minutes for questions and answers. Reports will be posted here not later than 9:00 p.m. on Friday, February 14, 2025. If you would like to ask your question in advance, please DO SO USING THIS FORM. Answers to questions asked in advance will be posted AT THIS LINK.

Annual Meeting Letter & Agenda - UPDATED

Rector's Report

Starosta's Report

Treasurer's Report

Sisterhood Report

Brotherhood Report

Youth Group Report

Church School Report

Ann Arbor Orthodox Classical Academy Report

Membership Report*

Building Team Report

Social Outreach Parish Report

Property Purchase: MAP ~ FINANCIALS

We are ALWAYS open to the suggestions of our parish family! We know that there are great ideas in our community about how we can improve ourselves. But MOST OF THOSE IDEAS STAY IN PEOPLE'S HEADS, and that doesn't help anyone! So - share your ideas! Use the form found here to make a suggestion. We take these very seriously, and we thank you in advance for sharing your great ideas with us!

STV Suggestion Form

*No posting here – will be available for review by members of the parish at the annual meeting.  

Water Blessing is Evangelism

Friends,

Congratulations on the feast of the Lord’s Baptism!

In fact, this feast is MUCH MORE than the Lord’s Baptism – it is in fact the feast of “God Appears”, that is, Theophany, Epiphany, Богоявление. All those words mean the same thing: God Appears. And this is because it is not just Jesus Christ being baptized in the Jordan by St. John the Baptist, but rather, the Holy Spirit also descends in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father is heard. That is, our God, the Holy Trinity, appears to mankind. We do not worship some far away and unknown deity – we worship the True God – the Holy Trinity – One God in Three Hypostases (Persons). The God who is Love, in the words of St. John the Theologian.

Nice. Interesting. Perhaps even inspiring. But what does that mean to us? That is, are we talking about abstract information here, or is there a call to action?

Of course there is a call to action! :) Jesus Christ said “I came not to be served, but to serve.” And if we bear His name, as Christians (which we do in case you are not sure about that), then we must serve too! Sometimes that means we feed the hungry, or clothe the naked, or visit those in prison, etc. That is, we act on a person directly in our service. Sometimes that means we act in community. And the feast of the Theophany gives us a GREAT opportunity to act as a parish family every year!

How so? As we sanctify the waters of our parish and our Michigan! The full schedule of those water blessings can be found here, and we encourage everyone to participate:

SCHEDULE OF GREAT BLESSING OF WATER

BUT – that “we encourage everyone to participate” means, to most people, that SOMEONE ELSE will be doing this participating. Not me. That is for someone else. 

And I get it – everyone is busy. But let’s return to the concept above for a moment: if I am a Christian, if I bear the name of Christ, then I need to serve.

And we have an important opportunity for you to serve our neighbors coming up this Sunday. EVERYONE (not someone else – you) should participate. I repeat: everyone.

At 2:00 p.m. we will bless the waters at Mill Creek in Dexter. We need you there. The idea of the Mill Creek water blessing is to provide a HUGE turnout of our parishioners and make a very positive impact on the people of Dexter. We'll have crosses, banners, singing, etc. If we do this right we will gain new parishioners and friends. If we have 3.5 people there it will be an embarrassment. So I think we need to focus on this since this is the sort of thing we will answer the Lord for. 

We’ll gather at 1:55 p.m. (American time – please do not be late) for a procession from the parking lot to the place of the blessing. The village authorities are aware of this and support our efforts.

Dress warmly. The forecast is not terribly cold, but as we stand and pray and sing for 30 minutes or so you’ll want to be dressed appropriately. A little suffering for the sake of Christ is fine – even good – but we are not doing this to torture ourselves. Rather, we are doing this to bring Christ to the people – the people that do not yet know Him. To show our neighbors that God has appeared to mankind, and to invite them to know Him by joining our parish family.

May the Lord richly reward our efforts in this regard!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

MAP - PARKING FOR MILL CREEK WATER BLESSING:

Daily Scripture - II Corinthians 7:10 and God's Gift

Friends,

This week we got a little bonus in our daily scripture readings. This verse ended Thursday’s Epistle reading and began Friday’s:

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. (II Corinthians 7:10)

Whenever this happens, that is, that we have a little “repeat” like this in the scripture readings, I think (this is MY opinion – not a dogma of the Church) that it is good for us to take a closer look at what is there. It isn’t a mistake that the verse is repeated – so it probably means that something important is written that we should be attentive to.

This particular verse is rather clear – lots of exegesis is not needed. That being said, it is never bad to see what the fathers have to say about scripture!

Paul was regretful before he saw the fruit of repentance, but afterward he rejoiced. This is the nature of godly sorrow. Worldly sorrow, in contrast to this, is regret for the loss of money, reputation, and friends. That kind of sorrow merely leads to greater harm, because the regret is often a prelude to a thirst for revenge. Only sorrow for sin is really profitable. (St. John Chrysostom)

He who is sad according to God is sad in repentance for his sins; sorrow because of one’s own iniquity produces justice. (St. Augustine)

This is truly the time of fruitful sorrow, so that we may lament the state of our mortality, the abundance of temptations, the stealthy attacks of sinners, the clash of desires, the conflicts of passions ever rebelling against good thoughts. On this account let us grieve; let us be sad because of this state of affairs. (St. Augustine)

...you cannot persuade the Judge during the time of the tribunal. It is possible for you to plead with the Judge before the time of judgment. (St. John Chrysostom)

The fathers quoted above make it clear that St. Paul is talking about repentance as a kind of godly sorrow. This is quite important for us as Orthodox Christians. There are many differences between Orthodox Christianity and the various iterations of Western Christianity. Some of those are quite deep, others are less so. But this difference, our focus on repentance (many of the fathers repeat again and again that this life is given to us as a time for repentance), is perhaps the deepest and greatest difference. Frankly speaking, the concept of repentance has been lost in the west. None of our leaders (or others in the elite classes such as celebrities, oligarchs, etc.) ever seem to be a model in this regard. Rather, they seem to focus on one of our great human sinful super-powers: self-justification. Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, have repentance front and center in our lives and strive to fight against self-justification. Perhaps this is because the first instructions the Lord gave to the disciples after His Resurrection was this:

Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spirit: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. (John 20:21-23)

He we see the Lord establishing a new law – a new spiritual way. No longer must we bring animal sacrifices as a way to make up for our sins. Rather, God FORGIVES our sins if we repent. This is radical, incredible, novel! This is not found in ANY other religion in the world. Only Christianity offers us this path of forgiveness. The sins are gone! But we have some work to do on our part...

As with all our spiritual life, we work TOGETHER with God towards our salvation. We do not wait for God to do the work, and we don’t try to do all the work without His blessing. This synergy of our effort and God’s Grace crowning that effort is how our spiritual lives work. At least how they work best. If we don’t have this approach we aren’t going to make much progress at all quite frankly. Salvation is not knowledge. Salvation is not effort. Salvation is theosis – transfiguration – transformation: our sincere struggle + God’s Grace. There are many ways in which this happens in our lives – we are striving to walk with God all day every day – in every waking moment. As St. Paul says: pray without ceasing. But that is not an attainable reality when we begin the race. Most of our work and progress comes from trial, error, repentance, and learning from our mistakes. And this happens for most of us mostly through the sacrament of Confession. Which is really named Repentance. And thus we circle back to the verse from II Corinthians noted above.

Confession and forgiveness are GREAT gifts of God to us! Let us take advantage of these gifts more often! Reference to St. John Chrysostom above: let us persuade the Judge (that is, God) before the time of the tribunal (that is, the Last Judgment). The Church teaches us two important things in this regard:

ONE – we answer for our sins either in this life via Confession or in the next life at the Last Judgment in front of all the saints and the angels. The sins we confess here are GONE – we do not need to answer for these there and then.

TWO – one can only repent and be forgiven in this life. There is no repentance after death. We can be SORRY for what we have done and not repented of, but we cannot be forgiven there. 

So let us take advantage of God’s mercy and confess our sins here and now. None of us are promised tomorrow. We will probably see it, but some will not. Let us decide today that we will more often be at Confession, that we will more often partake of the Holy Mysteries, and that thereby we will more efficiently facilitate our transfiguration into the sons and daughters of God by His Grace. This is our privilege and gift – a gift the Lord Himself has given us. Let us not waste this gift, but rather use it wisely and often, engaging in the fight against vice with God’s help, and striving to replacing that vice with virtue!

Confessions are heard before, during, and after all Evening Services. Before Liturgy on Sunday morning by appointment, and at other times too.

FR. GREGORY APPOINTMENTS ~ FR. COLIN APPOINTMENTS

We have lots more resources in this regard on our web site – please have a look at your convenience:

CONFESSION AND COMMUNION AT STV

Let us continue to discuss! Share your thoughts in the comment section, ASK A QUESTION ON CURIOUS VLAD (which will finally return from its decadently long summer break in October), or attend one of our forthcoming Spiritual Discussions (more on those to come soon) at the church on some Sundays after our meal. 

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

Venerable Pimen the Great and Social Media

Venerable Pimen the Great

Friends,

Today the Holy Church commemorates Venerable Pimen the Great, one of the holy eminent fathers of the Egyptian desert. When I was listening to his life on Fr. Josiah’s web site, PATRISTIC NECTAR, someone sent me a note about how some search engine is blocking returns of Hillsdale’s free on-line classes. But maybe because I was listening to St. Pimen’s life, I had a little different thought about this latest drop in the ocean of evil that is fighting everything good and true and beautiful in our world today. 

All that exceeds measure comes from the demons. (Venerable Pimen the Great)

The examples are replete – every day brings many. There are so many, in fact, that it is rather easy to fall into despair if we let each one take away a bit of our joy in Christ. And perhaps this is just another consequence of allowing our lives to be run by algorithms rather than the Gospel. Whether we have chosen one side or another by our browsing habits, we are attacked and urged to continue to move more and more to the extremes. These extremes drive us further and further away from other humans and make it harder and harder to form relationships with those who do not occupy our own personal extreme position. Thus, social media shows itself again and again as the most destructive and efficient tool of those who wish to do away with all that is good and true and beautiful, of course beginning with Christianity. It is not good for us to have a persecution complex. It is also not good for us to be foolish in the face of overwhelming evidence. And in the Gospel we find the stance of the Church in this regard:

If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. (John 15:18)

St. Pimen suggest we be “destroyed” drip by drip not by the evil of the world, which uses every opportunity to try to truly annihilate us via algorithms, and which we welcome so zealously into our lives as those who irrationally love to consume poison, but rather he instructs us:

The nature of water is soft, and that of stone is hard. But a goat skin hung above a stone, letting the water fall drop by drop, will bore through the stone. So it is with the word of God. It is gentle, but our hearts are hard. Yet, the man who hears it often will open his heart to the fear of God. (Venerable Pimen the Great)

Our parish is on social media. Because that is where the world is, and we must meet the world where it is in order to bring it to a higher plane. We must meet the suffering where they are suffering so that we can bring them to health. But we should not, as St. Vladimirians, mistake this presence on social media as an affirmation of the good of social media BY ANY MEANS. Quite to the contrary in fact. But the Church has always sought out the lost sheep wherever they are, and will continue to do that until the end of the world. If you are still on social media, try to wean yourself off as quickly as you can. Imagine how many good spiritual books you could read for your salvation, the prayers you could say, the Divine Services you could attend, how often you could read the Gospel and strive to conform you life to that “algorithm” of Christ, rather than the algorithm of destruction that is found on social media, if you could only free yourself from this snare of the Evil One. 

If I was the Emperor of the World things would change. :) Not necessarily for the better probably, which is why the Lord does not give such control and power to sinners like me. But the first edict I would publish would be the removal of all social media from the world. This is principally how vices are delivered to us now. This is principally what pulls us off The Way of following Christ. But of course, if there was not social media evil would find another way to fight, because the Author of Lies is quite wise in worldly terms. So my fantasy emperorship might not be all that helpful after all. Therefore, let us embrace the reality: we will never be victorious over evil by falling into despondency due to the fact that evil opposes good in our world. That is simply the baseline reality that we need to come to terms with. And that despondency is a tool of the Devil. Rather, let us fight evil by overwhelming it with good! And that starts with ceasing from the endless distraction that is social media:

The principle of all the vices is distractedness. (Venerable Pimen the Great)

Put the phone down. Pick up the Gospel. Leave off distraction. Flee the other vices that flow from it. Embrace all that is good and true and beautiful (that is, virtue), beginning with a life centered on Christ, His Gospel, and His Church. Thus we will destroy evil by overcoming it with good, as have our fathers and mothers in the faith who came before us and pointed the way for us to the Heavenly Kingdom. The path is clear as day, but not when you are consumed by the evil that is social media.

Let us continue to discuss! Share your thoughts in the comment section, ASK A QUESTION ON CURIOUS VLAD (which will finally return from its decadently long summer break in October), or attend one of our forthcoming Spiritual Discussions (more on those to come soon) at the church on some Sundays after our meal. 

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

Forgiveness Vespers - How to and Why to too

Friends,

Elsewhere here we have discussed WHY it is important that we participate in the Rite of Forgiveness, but it may also be helpful to discuss HOW the Rite of Forgiveness takes place. Folks have asked, so we will tell…

The Rite of Forgiveness takes place twice during Great Lent. The first is at the first liturgical service of Great Lent: Forgiveness Vespers. This takes place at STV on Sunday, immediately after the kissing of the cross at the Divine Liturgy. We do this just before we have our last non-lenten meal so that the maximum number of people can participate, since we understand your time is valuable. And if we are honest, we need to ask forgiveness of all our parish family members to begin Great Lent appropriately and we want the maximum number of folks to attend. The second time the Rite of Forgiveness takes place is after the Presanctified Liturgy on Holy Wednesday (not strictly speaking part of Great Lent, but that is another note for another day). In the present note we will concentrate on Forgiveness Vespers and how we participate in this unique and beautiful service.

As with all the Sunday Vespers services of Great Lent this one too begins as Great Vespers, but after the Great Prokimenon at the entrance, changes to daily lenten Vespers. This change is marked visually by the change of vestment color by the clergy. At Forgiveness Vespers the change is from gold to black. Black is the standard weekday vestment color for Great Lent. The icon stand covers are changed too, and the choir replies to the priest’s petitions with the Great Lenten melody. Prostrations are done at certain times of the Vespers service now, and the faithful should prostrate when the priest does. 

The end of the Forgiveness Vespers is the same ending that is done at Great Compline during the first week of Great Lent – different than all other Vespers services. The priest kneels facing the people. The people make a great prostration to the ground and remain there until the priest finishes the long dismissal at which he invokes the major saints and the patron saint of the parish. The priest then stands, as do the people. The priest blesses the people, asks forgiveness with a prostration, and the people reply. This is the script of that part of the service:

Following the dismissal/prayer the priest stands.

Priest: Bless holy masters (this refers to bishops present), holy fathers and mothers (this refers to clergy and monastics present), brothers and sisters, and forgive me a sinner, all wherein I have sinned this day in deed, word, and thought, and in all my senses.

Priest makes a great prostration towards the people without the sign of the cross.

People: May God forgive and have mercy on thee, holy father.

People make a great prostration without the sign of the cross.

Priest: Through His grace may God forgive and have mercy on us all.

Priest blesses the people and turns towards the altar to begin the ektenia.

Priest: Let us pray for our Great Lord and Father… and the rest of the ektenia.

After the exclamation there is usually a short sermon describing the order of forgiveness and its historical origin. Undoubtedly the sermon at the Liturgy immediately before this service would have been about WHY it is important to forgive. The sermon here is more technical as a rule: HOW we execute the order of forgiveness and from where the practice comes.

St. Paul wrote “let all things be done decently and in order” (I Corinthians 14:40) This applies first and foremost to the Divine Services, but really to all our lives as Orthodox Christians. As for the application to the service at hand, we forgive each other in order. That is, the priests come in their order to the main celebrant, then the deacons, subdeacons, etc. Each makes a prostration to the ground, on one’s knees and touching one’s head to the ground (without making the sign of the cross) and says “forgive me a sinner”. The main celebrant replies “God forgives – forgive me a sinner”. The one who first asks replies “God forgives”. Then they kiss each other on the cheeks three times. If the person from whom you are asking forgiveness is a priest or a bishop you would then kiss his right hand. And thus we all ask forgiveness of each one in the church at the rite of forgiveness and we enter into Great Lent having fulfilled, as best we could, the words from the Gospel read earlier at the Divine Liturgy: 

For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15)

Great Lent is a special time of year at which we focus especially on repentance, seeking the Lord’s forgiveness. The fathers of the Church say that repentance is only found in this life – not in the next – so we should especially concentrate on repentance here. Moreover, it seems likely that few of us will attain the Heavenly Kingdom due to our incredibly righteous lives. Rather, much more likely is that we attain the Heavenly Kingdom through sincere repentance. 

Finally, what to do if someone refuses to forgive us? Surely that means we should refuse to forgive them too? “An eye for an eye…” so to speak? That is definitely Old Testament thinking – not at all in alignment with the Law of Love that is the Gospel our Lord brought to us and taught us. If your brother refuses to forgive you he is running to perdition. If you refuse to forgive him you are racing with him to see who can get there first. Stop struggling for the Kingdom of Hell and start struggling for the Kingdom or Heaven! How? By forgiving your brother, even if he will not forgive you. And for praying for him, that he will stop his sprint towards the Devil and embrace forgiveness also before it is too late. Again – repentance is for THIS LIFE ONLY – not the next. Our only chance is to forgive here. The wise man forgives all, understanding that the forgiveness he gives is not so much a gift to the one he forgives as it is a gift to himself: an easy step towards the Heavenly Kingdom. May our participation in Forgiveness Vespers be a radical beginning to a life filled with forgiveness and repentance that leads us all to the abode of the saints with our Lord in Heaven!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory