Bishop Peter will lead the sacrament of General Unction at St. Vladimir's on Tuesday, March 31 at 6:00 p.m. Unction is a sacrament of the Holy Church and thus although we welcome all to be present at the beautiful Divine Service, only Orthodox Christians who have recently been to confession (within the last three weeks before the Unction service) may be anointed. The ideal situation would be to confess and partake of the Mystery of Holy Communion on Sunday, March 29 and then partake of Unction on March 31. Please see me or Fr. Michael with questions and please plan to prepare yourself and to partake of this Holy Mystery as an aid to spiritual (and bodily) healing. Following the Unction service will be a light Lenten meal. All are welcome!

Tonight and tomorrow morning we celebrate the special feast of the Laudation of the Mother of God. This is also known as "Akathist Saturday". This evening's special Matins service is interspersed with the full Akathist to the Mother of God. Tomorrow's Divine Liturgy contains special hymns to the Mother of God. This is a feast at which monastics are often tonsured as the Mother of God is seen as a prototype of monasticism by the Holy Church. Please join us for this beautiful feast - the Laudation of our greatest intercessor before her Son on our behalf!

If you missed last night's Matins service, which included the full reading of the penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete AND the full life of St. Mary of Egypt you will want to hear it soon - probably right now! To do that go to our Sound of the Parish Blog at the link below. You can fine the service there. Great Lenten Hours begin tonight at 5:00 p.m. with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts at 6:30 p.m. After the Liturgy will be a Lenten meal and a meeting of our Great Lenten Book Club. Please join us as your schedule allows!

http://soundoftheparish.blogspot.com/

As part of pre-Paschal Church School activities we invite parish children 7 years and older to participate in the lessons and workshops on traditional art of pisanki egg decorations.

Every Thursday starting next week, March 26th, bring your child to the house of one of our parish elders and founders Natalia Vasilyevna Dale. The workshop will begin at 4 pm and finish at 5:30 pm.

The age restriction is due to the nature of the art requiring much patience and concentration for lengthy periods of time. Besides learning how to use wax in their painting of the eggs, children will learn the meaning behind various ornamental symbols, be able to share artistic ideas, generally socialize with each other while working, visit with Mrs. Dale and see her beautiful home, learn a little about the history of our parish, and much more! This workshop will run for a few weeks (except for the Holy Thursday on April 9th) even into the post-Pascha period, as long as there is an interest amongst the artists.

Please make sure to call Andrea Lasichak (734-433-1615) or email (alas40@aol.com) to let her know you are bringing your child, so she will have enough supplies for all participants!

Congratulations to Angelina Noll who received a very high award at the annual German Day Competition at the University of Michigan. From the Saline Area Schools weekly “News & Notes”:

On Friday, March 13, twenty eight ambitious German students from Saline Hight School (SHS) participated in the 31st annual German Day Competition at University of Michigan.

The competition 27 area high schools and middle schools who competed in eleven different competitions including: spelling bee, commercials, music, skits, foods, poetry and conversational interactions. ...Angelina Noll, senior at SHS, who only started in German last year, was awarded a 2nd place prize in the Level 3 conversational interaction category. She expertly conversed with the judges extemporaneously on various topics.

Please find our weekly audio podcast, The Path, is available at our Sound of the Parish site:

http://soundoftheparish.blogspot.com/

The Holy Church, as a loving mother, offers us many opportunities to grow spiritually. This Wednesday evening we are afforded a unique opportunity - the Standing of St. Andrew. On Wednesday of the fifth week of Great Lent each year the Holy Church appoints for us to read the entire penitential canon of St. Andrew of Crete (the same canon that was split over the first four evenings of Great Lent) and the life of St. Mary of Egypt. Only ONE LIFE is appointed to be read without fail at the Divine Services of the year: that of St. Mary. We can deduce from this that it is important for us to hear this life. We encourage and invite all to participate in this unique Matins service! Please join us beginning at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday! PLEASE NOTE: the evening Presanctified Liturgy this week is on Thursday and there will be no Friday morning Presanctified Liturgy this week.

With Bishop Peter's blessing this trip will take place. 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. Now is the time to start working on passports and visas - coordinate with Zhanna please. And plan to join us in Davydovo this summer!

On Sunday the 9-12 year old youth group meets at Fr. Gregory's in Saline from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. We will have a short discussion about Great Lent and how 9-12 years olds should approach this important time of year. This will be followed by an open question and answer period (popularly known as “Stump the Priest”). Finally we will enjoy some Great Lenten snacks and board games together. Please join us and please do let us know you are coming by contacting Fr. Gregory so that the right amount of snacks can be on hand (very important!).

Do you have old pictures, videos, or even audio recordings that have something to do with St. Vladimir's? Visits of bishops from past years, big holidays, or just about anything else? You may not think these are all that important - but they are! We do not want to lose touch with our past - it is very rich - it has made us who we are today! Please contact Fr. Gregory or Yuliya Rodzianko if you have pictures, videos, or recordings to share. We will copy what you have an return the originals to you very quickly. And the whole parish family will be richer for having the opportunity to share in our parish family's history. We thank you in advance for your willingness to share!