Father Thomas Hopko

will speak at Holy Resurrection on

The Revelation to St. John

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday
February 14-16, 7 p.m.

Fr. Thomas Hopko

Father Thomas is one of the most popular Orthodox speakers in America. He is Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York and was Professor of Dogmatic Theology there for many years. He studied with such renowned Orthodox theologians as Father Alexander Schmemann, Father John Meyendorff, Nicholas Arseniev and Serge Verkhovskoy. He received his Ph.D. in Theology from Fordham University. He now lives at Ellwood City, PA, and serves at the Holy Transfiguration Monastery there.

For many Christians the last book of the Bible is either hopelessly unintelligible or the playground of sensationalist speculation. Fr. Thomas will show us its timeless message in the perspective of the Church fathers.

Concerning the Revelation, Father Hopko says

What the Christian shares with Jesus is the Kingdom and the Tribulation. …After Jesus is crucified, raised in glory and the Holy Spirit is given, the content of life in this world is the Tribulation. We are in the Tribulation, the End Time, until He comes again. And in the time of the Tribulation we are also in the Kingdom because we belong to Christ.

So we are in two worlds. Spiritually …we are in the Kingdom. But we are also still in this history, in the time of Tribulation … the time when the children of the Kingdom get nailed by the children of this world. That’s what the End Time is all about. And the children of the Kingdom have to stand fast in the Tribulation.

Father Thomas speaks frequently in the South, to which he feels drawn because of his fondness for the writer Flannery O’Connor and Mississippian Elvis Presley.

The public is invited to the talks and to Vespers, which will be served each evening at 6 p.m. in the Church. Fr. Thomas’ talks will begin at 7 p.m. in the Mount Salus Christian School Gymnasium behind the Church. For more information call 601 924-2441.

More About Fr. Thomas

Hear him speak

Short Article by Fr. Thomas on the Revelation

 

Are you looking for a church . . .

• … that teaches the whole historic Christian tradition, entire and undistorted?
• …that has the most beautiful worship in Christendom?
• …that offers realistic guidance for personal prayer and spiritual warfare?
• …that clearly calls us to obey the moral commands of Christ, but always has mercy for those who fall and struggle?

One of our members says he was looking for the Orthodox Church all his life but did not know what it was called. Today more and more Americans are finding in the original Christian Church the wholeness, sanity, and joy in the Body of Christ they had long been seeking.

Come and see! • Inquirers Class – Wednesdays

Vespers Service 6 p.m. • Classes 7 p.m.

Taught by Father Paul Yerger

• January 11 – Worship – Heaven on Earth

• January 18 – Personal Prayer – The Unseen Warfare

• January 25 – Orthodox Life

If You’re Just Curious . . .

No one will pester you to join or come to your house. Some people visit our Church for years without joining. The three Inquirers Classes will be followed by more detailed classes on Orthodox teaching and life each Wednesday. These are open to all. Those who do wish to join may be received as Catechumens (learners), and after about a year of preparation may become members.

For more information call 601 924-2441.

Directions

Theophany: The Baptism of the Lord

On January 6 Orthodox Christians celebrate the Baptism of Christ.

Services at the Church:

  • Thursday, January 5, 6 p.m. – Blessing of Water
  • Friday, January 6, 6:30 a.m. Divine Liturgy

The following Sunday, January 8,  at 4 p.m. the four Orthodox Churches in the Jackson-Vicksburg area will celebrate this together by blessing the waters of the Ross Barnett Reservoir and plunging a Cross into it. Participating Churches are Holy Trinity and St. John the Theologian Greek Orthodox Church, Jackson, St. George Orthodox Church, Vicksburg, St. Peter Orthodox Church, Madison, and Holy Resurrection.

Join us at 4 p.m. Sunday, January 8, at Old Trace Park on the Reservoir.

Our Lord’s Baptism is one of the major events of His life. It is the inauguration of His public ministry. It is an image of His entire work of salvation: He descends into the water just as He has descended from Heaven to earth to take our life as His own, and as later He will descend into death to take our death as His own, win the victory over death and raise us to life with Him. It is the pattern of our own baptism, in which we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)”

Services for the Nativity of the Lord

Saturday, Dec. 24, 6 p.m.

  • Nativity Vigil: Great Compline and Matins

Sunday, Dec. 25, 9:30 a.m.

  • Divine Liturgy of St. Basil

About the Services

About the Incarnation of the Lord

New Murals Installed

We recently installed icon murals of the Ascension of the Lord and Pentecost, each eight feet high and four and a half feet wide, on the front walls of the Temple on either side of the Altar area opening.

The icon of the Ascension depicts the Lord’s mother and His disciples standing on the ground, with Christ above, enthroned on the clouds and flanked by angels, just as we are told we shall see Him when He comes again. (Acts 1:1-12; cf. Mark 13:26).

The icon of Pentecost shows the apostles seated in a semicircle as elders, but the center seat, where the teacher would be, is empty, as the Lord is no longer visible on earth. Instead we see a blue cloud at the top from which the “rushing mighty wind” of the Holy Spirit descends, and flames above each apostle’s head. At the bottom is a man wearing a crown in a dark space; he is this world and its rulers, now sitting in darkness, waiting to be enlightened by the Spirit-bearing apostles.

The murals were painted on canvas by Fr. Andrew Tregubov of Claremont, NH, a Russian priest and iconographer. They were installed by local wall covering installer Gary Atchley. Local artist Debbie O’Neill of Raymond painted red borders and trim to integrate them with the building and other icons. The icon of the Ascension is a memorial to our member Melinda Haddad, who fell asleep in the Lord November 26, 2009.

Icons (images) in Orthodox churches are not considered “art” as the term is used today, because they are not intended to express the painter’s personal creativity. They proclaim what the Church teaches about the persons or events depicted. Each must be painted according to traditions handed down for many centuries, as the icons are one of the ways the Faith is taught. When we stand in Church to worship, we are surrounded by icons of the “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) of Christians who have gone before us, and the saving works of God in history, in which we now participate.

These icons are part of a long-range plan by which the whole interior of the Temple will be painted. Already there is a large icon on the ceiling of Christ Pantocrator (ruler of all things), and other large icons of his Mother, of the Raising of Lazarus, the Crucifixion, the Descent of Christ into Hades, the Appearance of Christ at the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1), and St. John the Baptist, as well as many portrait-size icons of the saints.

We invite you to visit the Church and see these beautiful murals.

 

Talent Smackdown

On October 16 we enjoyed our second annual Talent Smackdown, at which we learned what entertaining talents some of our members have. To see a video of it click here

Our member Robert Hegwood offered an original song about Orthodox worship and prayer. Later he made a video of it with pictures – see it here.

THAT’S THE WAY THE WHEAT BOWS
© 2011 by Robert W. Hegwood

Shuffle to the side a little
Room for another
Shuffle to the front
To greet your mother
Light a little candle
Place it in the sand
Say a little prayer
With a gesture of your hand.

Refrain:
That’s the way the wheat bows
When the wind blows
That’s the way the wheat bows
When the wind blows.
That’s the way the wheat bows
When the wind blows
That’s the way the wheat bows
When the wind blows.

Step a little closer
Hear the story told
Treasure for a clay pot
Silver and gold
Shuffle up the middle
Taste the fountain from a spoon
Go live it outside
Come back soon

(Refrain)

Sitting in candle light
Knots on a string
Counting’s not the hard part
Heart takes wing
Mercy on my father, mother,
Mercy on me
Mercy on my sister, brother,
And my enemy

(Refrain)

Fall to the ground again
Seed for the sower
Tears drop silently
Seas for the rower
Counting all the peekers
Peering from the wall
Watching through their windows
At the shufflers all

(Refrain)

Shuffle to the side a little
Room for another
Shuffle to the front
To greet your Brother
Light a little candle
Place it in the sand
Say a little prayer
With a gesture of your hand.

(Refrain)

ALS Walk for Tony Varner

More than a dozen Holy Resurrection members participated in the annual Walk to Defeat ALS on October 15 in honor of our member Tony Varner.

Member Jim Thorn ran in a marathon that day and presented his medal to Tony.

+ Archbishop Dmitri

Archbishop Dmitri, the founder of our Diocese and founding Bishop of Holy Resurrection Church, fell asleep in the Lord early Sunday morning, August 28, 2011, at the age of 87. May his memory be eternal!

 

PRAYER SERVICE TUESDAY FOR ARCHBISHOP DMITRI

Our beloved founder of the Diocese of the South continues to have some struggles with his health.  He was hospitalized for several days this past week with a kidney infection.  He is home resting now, and the doctors are trying to improve his nutrition and allow him plenty of rest in order to help his health and strength.  This Tuesday, August 23 at 6:30 pm there will be a service of Holy Unction at the cathedral in Dallas for the health of Vladyka.  We will also have a Molieben (prayer service) here on Tuesday evening, August 23, at 6:00 pm for the health of Archbishop Dmitri – all are encouraged to come and pray for Vladyka.

Falling Asleep of the Mother of God

August 15

Vespers Sunday, August 14, 6 p.m.

Divine Liturgy Monday, August 15, 6:30 a.m.

About the Feast