It is an ancient practice of the Holy Church to perform the Great Blessing of the Waters twice yearly: on the Eve of Theophany and on the feast of Theophany itself. Last year we were blessed with nice cold weather, and that allowed us to go to the spring south of our parish which our neighbors very kindly allowed us to access via their land. The weather this year, unfortunately, is not slated to cooperate quite so much. It will simply be too warm on Theophany (the prediction at this point is for 40 degrees) and the way to the spring will be much too swampy and muddy to practically get there. This is unfortunate, but we must humble ourselves and understand that sometimes we have to adjust based on factors beyond our control. And so we will adjust! There will be a procession to “the Jordan” on Monday, January 19 following the Divine Liturgy. This year, however, “the Jordan” is going to have to be on our own property. But, we do have a blessing this year in that January 19 is a civil holiday (Martin Luther King Day) and thus most of our children and many of our adults have a free day – we look forward to seeing you all at the feast! Please dress appropriately for an outside water blessing, since even 40 degrees is hardly warm. Congratulations to all with the upcoming feast!

What a great Christmas Pageant we had on Sunday! Thank you to all who worked so hard to make this wonderful annual tradition possible at St. Vladimir's this year! Of course, we must first thank Father Frost for joining us, as well as his grand daughter the Snow Maiden. But too all the rest who worked so hard to make this event so great for our kids (and honestly, for the parents and grandparents too!) we say: THANK YOU!!! Pictures of the Yolka have already been posted on Face Book and more will be coming on our parish photo album and You Tube Channel.

The minor feast of the Circumcision of the Lord and the annual commemoration of St. Basil the Great falls each year on January 1/14. At St. Vladimir's we will mark the feasts with Vigil this evening at 6:00 p.m. and the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great (slightly different from the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom that we celebrate most Sundays) at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. Below please find more information on these feasts. Please join us as your personal schedule allows! Many years to all our Basils and Vasilys!

English - Circumcision of the Lord:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/01/01/ ... sus-christ

Russian - Circumcision of the Lord:

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life134.htm

English - St. Basil the Great:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/01/01/ ... cappadocia

Russian - St. Basil the Great:

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life135.htm

Tuesday 6:00 p.m.: MATINS (this was previously scheduled as Vespers)

Tuesday Following Matins (about 8:00 p.m.): Memorial Service for Reader Basil Wolff

Wednesday 8:00 a.m.: Divine Liturgy for St. Basil the Great

Friday 5:00 p.m.: Royal Hours for Theophany

Friday 7:00 p.m. AT ST. VLADIMIR'S: Adult Discussion Group Meeting

Adult Group Topic: “Looking Forward to Great Lent – The Annual Season of Spiritual Renewal for Orthodox Christians”

Our St. Vladimir parish family expresses its deepest condolences to our Parish Council member Igor Obertas (and to his whole family) with the repose of his father, Anatolii, on January 11, 2015. We ask the prayers of our parish family for the newly reposed and for his family. May his memory be eternal and may the merciful Lord grant comfort to the greiving!

We need help serving breakfast to families at the family homeless shelter, Alpha House, on Sunday February 8. If you can help please contact Addie Lanterman in church or via email at infor@stvladimiraami.org. This is a wonderful opportunity to live our faith in a very real way – by serving others (just as Jesus Christ came to minister according to this own words). Please join us!

Those who have had a chance to look at this year's annual calendar have no doubt noticed that Great Lent is coming soon! That is not a bad thing by any means, and it is good for us in a way to see those Lenten days coming and to prepare for them. A few things to note:

- the schedule for the first week will include three days of the full cycle of services beginning at 8:00 a.m.: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

- we will hold our Great Lenten Lecture Series again this year. We are working out details with our keynote speaker and once we have done that we will release the full schedule of lectures. As always there will be a lecture each of the Sundays of Great Lent.

- Vespers will be held on Sundays after the Great Lenten Lecture on March 1, 15, and 29. This is a very beautiful service that transitions us liturgically from the weekend back to the Great Lenten weekday paradigm, including the chanting of the Great Prokimenon. This will be the first year that we serve this service and we invite all to participate!

- we intend to serve Presanctified Liturgies on most Wednesday evenings and Friday mornings of the fast – more details to come soon

Please visit this link to sign up:

http://goo.gl/forms/XPCWdrfccl

Or send a note to info@stvladimiraami.org and ask to be added to the parish email list. You can always ask to be removed as well, but this is the best way to keep up to date with the latest information about our parish. We also have an email list for our Sisterhood, for our Brotherhood, for our Choir, and for our Readers. Drop us a note to get on the email lists you are interested in!

St. Vladimir’s Church School begins January 10. Classes will be held every Saturday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. through May 30 with the exception of April 11. We have condensed the classes to the greatest extent possible for the convenience of our busy families – we value your time. Please do us the favor of valuing the time of the teachers and other volunteers who make our Church School possible by being on time.

All children are urged to participate in the Vigil following Church School and in the Sunday (and other feast day) Divine Liturgies to the greatest extent possible by ringing bells, serving in the altar, singing, helping in the kiosk, and most importantly by being present in the church and praying with their parish family, AND ESPECIALLY by partaking of the Holy Mysteries. The Liturgy is not a spectacle or event that we watch, but a prayerful “work of the people” that we participate in through our prayerful involvement. Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions in this regard.

To learn more about our Church School please contact the Church School Director, Lilia Vershynin: 734-276-7548 or info@stvladimiraami.org

This is happening! Young people are starting to step forward to go to Daydovo Summer Camp – the only summer camp for special needs children in Russia run by the Church – this coming summer. Zhanna Skalitzky will be heading up this effort but more help is very much needed – please help if you can! Parents – please talk to Fr. Gregory or Zhanna about this ASAP. This is an outstanding opportunity for our young people to live their faith in a very active way. Their participation will help the campers, the campers' families, and frankly speaking, will also help themselves to grow in Christ. Age group is late teens and older. More coming very soon!