Thank you to all who attended the extraordinary parish meeting yesterday and participated in the discussions and the voting! It was good to have a parish discussion about phase I of our building project and how best to proceed.

The results of the meeting are:

1. Jack (Alexey) Mitchell was elected to the Parish Council

2. The parish voted unanimously to authorize a loan to cover the extra expense associated with phase I that essentially is associated with the extended acceleration/deceleration lane mandated by the Washtenaw County Road Commission

We ask the prayers of our parish family for Jack in his service on the Parish Council and for the success of phase I of our building project!

Please join us for the “Second Pascha” of our parish – our patronal feast of St. Vladimir – tonight at 5:00 p.m. for Vigil and tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. for the Meeting of Metropolitan Jonah and the Hierachal Divine Liturgy. Following the Divine Liturgy on Tuesday there will be a festival meal and likewise – all are invited! Invite friends and loved ones, drive the elderly and infirm, get here however you can! All are welcome at St. Vladimir's!

"This is the cause of all evils: the ignorance of the Scriptures. We go into battle without arms, and how ought we to come off safe?" -St. John Chrysostom, Homily IX on Colossians.

In order to help increase the general knowledge of scripture in our parish family we present here for your edification the scripture readings for the coming week. At least one Gospel Reading and one Epistle reading are assigned for each day of the year (although during Great Lent the readings are from the Old Testament). Hearing or reading only those readings appointed for Sunday merely scratches the surface of the great spiritual wealth that the scriptures provide us. Some of the readings are easily understandable – others are less so. As Orthodox Christians we do not make private interpretation of scripture, but rather consult the fathers of the Church for their explanations to aid us in our understanding. Those wishing to have access to such explanations are asked to contact Fr. Gregory or inquire in the kiosk for further reading in this regard. Bibles may also be acquired in the kiosk.

Monday: I Corinthians 11:21-12:6 & Matthew 18:1-11
Tuesday: I Corinthians 12:12-26 & Matthew 18:18-22,19:1-2,13-15
Wednesday:I Corinthians 13:4-14:5 & Matthew 20:1-16
Thursday: I Corinthians 14:6-19 & Matthew 20:17-28
Friday: I Corinthians 14:26-40 & Matthew 21:12-14,17-20
Saturday: Romans 14:6-9 & Matthew 15:32-39

Please find below several very nice articles on how to read the scripture from an Orthodox point of view.

By St. Justin (Popovich):

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/bible_how.aspx

By Bishop Kalistos (Ware):

http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/phronema/ware_howto.aspx

This short article explains to us not just HOW to read the scriptures, but also what our goal should be in reading the scriptures. A short read and well worth it:

http://www.chrysostompress.org/reading_scripture.html

As noted in the article above we need God's help and blessing to read and understand the scriptures correctly. What better way to entreat God's help in this regard than through prayer? Please find the prayer before reading the scriptures here:

http://www.chrysostompress.org/prayer_b ... pture.html

Our weekly bulletin, "Sunday Reading", has been posted at the following link:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/SundayRea ... eading.pdf

Please keep our parishioners, friends, and those who have asked us in our unworthiness to pray for them in your prayers this coming week. Our parish prayer list can be found here:

http://www.stvladimiraami.org/SundayRea ... erlist.pdf

PLEASE NOTE! We have removed those from the list that we believe no longer should be present there. If you requested that someone be included in this list please review it carefully to make sure we have not removed someone erroneously. If we have, please contact Fr. Gregory to have your loved one again added to the list.

We will have an extraordinary parish meeting on Sunday, July 26, 2015. At this meeting we will discuss our new building project, progress, and financing options. Now that we have receive bids on the project it has become clear that in order to complete the entire project we will need to take out a small loan, but that can only be accomplished with a vote of the parish assembly. Please plan to join us for this meeting, to hear about our progress, and to discuss our financing options.

We need participants from St. Vladimir's for the Labor Day Cross Procession – the Walk of Life. Registration will be open soon! Please plan to join us for this really unique opportunity to reach out to those around us and bring our faith to them!

We need volunteers from St. Vladimir's to help with the Labor Day Cross Procession! We need medical staff, folks to help cook the food, folks to drive the chase vehicles, and much more! Please contact Subdeacon Methodius Chwastek to volunteer! See Methodius this Sunday!

The feast of St. Vladimir is the second Pascha of our parish. Just as on Pascha itself, we understand that everyone will want to partake of Holy Communion for the feast. This is good. And this is the right thing for us to do if at all possible. But we expect many visitors for the feast. The lines for confession are likely to be quite long at Vigil on Monday. Therefore, anyone who confesses beginning at the evening services for St. Olga may partake of Holy Communion this Saturday, Sunday, or on St. Vladimir's Day. The message is this: CONFESS EARLY FOR ST. VLADIMIR'S DAY! Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions in this regard.

This fall is shaping up to be quite busy at St. Vladimir's. For that reason we are going to move The Way to after Nativity. This will give us a bit more time to get this all together, advertise broadly, and make this a wonderful offering that is positive for our parish and for those who will join us from without. But we still NEED YOUR HELP. “The Way” is an introduction to Orthodox Christianity for those interested, and a great opportunity for those of us who are already Orthodox to learn more about our faith. People will be needed to help prepare meals, lead discussion groups at the Monday sessions, and help with logistics. First and foremost we need a leader – someone to oversee the whole thing and organize the volunteers. This will be a great opportunity for our parish to introduce many new people to our Orthodox Faith – if we do it right. And with God's help and our hard work we WILL do it right! Please contact Fr. Gregory if you can help and especially if you are willing to be the leader. Please join us as we run The Way! Learn more about the web site below:

http://www.iocs.cam.ac.uk/courses/courses_way.html

It is time now to volunteer for this September's Festival! The Festival will be here before you know it, and as our biggest missionary effort of the year we need all hands on deck to help make it a huge success! At the Festival we have many guests who learn about our parish and Orthodox Christianity for the first time. We are all missionaries in our community – sign up now to work at the festival! Is it hard work? You bet it is! Is it fun? You bet it is!!! Don't miss it! Sign up today!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1LiLL9esKU3ZpsV8NZZXRPdIui7gu93Q-Kr1z5y6dGHg/viewform?c=0&w=1&usp=mail_form_link