It is a true blessing to have the opportunity to partake of Holy Communion on one's patron saint's day. Fr. Gregory is willing to consider serving Liturgy on your name's day – yes YOURS. If you would be willing to attend the Divine Services on the eve of the feast and on the feast itself, and to partake of Holy Communion on that day please contact him. This is not a guarantee that we can do this – but we can certainly try. But please don't tell him a week before. Something like six months before would be better – three months before as a minimum. See Fr. Gregory with questions!

As the weather improves missionaries from various religions tend to appear at our homes. At St. Vladimir's we have many pamphlets and booklets on the Orthodox Faith that are free for anyone to take. These can be found at the back of the church near the main entrance doors. Please feel free to take information home with you to share with the missionaries that come to visit you. It seems only fair that if they want us to take their information that we offer them information about Orthodox Christianity. Many missionaries have found the Orthodox Church in this way. No one is mandated to do this, but if you would like to you are welcome to. Please feel free to contact Fr. Gregory with questions in this regard.

We present here a short educational offering for both children and adults. Parents are asked to review the children’s portion with their children. It is very important for us to attend the Divine Services on Sundays and whenever else we are able, but in addition it is our spiritual responsibility to educate ourselves and our families in the faith. It is our hope that this mid-week offering will be an aid in this regard. Please contact Fr. Gregory with questions or suggestions.

For Adults: the explanation of the Sunday gospel reading from Blessed Theophylact:

http://chrysostompress.org/c_4th_pentecost.html

For Children – an activity based on last Sunday's Gospel reading for various ages:

http://www.antiochian.org/sites/default ... 6-28-b.pdf

Today the Holy Church commemorates the martyric struggle of Sts. Elizabeth and Barbara, New Martyrs of Russia. Please find information on the lives of these saints below. We congratulate all with the feast - especially those celebrating their name's days today!

English:

https://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/07/18/101915-grand-duchess-elizabeth

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2015/07/18/ ... yr-barbara

Russian:

days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life357.htm

It is understood that everyone wants to support St. Vladimir's. But sometimes we don't make it to church. We reflect on this most about this time of year, when we plan vacations and we know we are going to be gone. How to make sure that we are still supporting our parish when we are unable to be in church? The best way is to fill out an ACH form and get it to our Treasurer or Starosta. You can find the ACH form here – please print and fill one out today:

http://stvladimiraami.org/flyers/stvladachform.pdf

The feast of Sts. Peter & Paul is tonight and tomorrow. Please join us for this important feast of the Holy Church - so important that it is one or four feasts with a lenten period leading up to it. Congratulations to all our Peters and Pauls celebrating their name's days! We ask also your prayers for previous Rectors of our parish and the parish in Ann Arbor that existed in the 1950s: Archpriests Peter & Paul. See you soon for the feast!

Find all information about this year's VBS at this link:

http://goo.gl/forms/odvXyypZ22xGCKcJ2

That is all! Please visit the link and register today! ALL ARE WELCOME!

The feast of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist is tomorrow. Since Fr. Gregory is at ORPR camp this week we will not have Liturgy tomorrow, but we will have a Reader's service tonight at 6:00 p.m. Please join us if you are able. And please read more about this feast at the links below. Congratulations to all with the feast!

English:

http://oca.org/saints/lives/2016/06/24/ ... aptist-joh

Russian:

http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Life/life1386.htm

Although the old driveway has been a one-way north drive for about one year, we have had great difficulty conveying this to our parishioners, since basically every Sunday we have people driving south on this driveway. Fr. Gregory states unequivocally that this is HIS fault and asks everyone's forgiveness. However, we really must stop driving south on the old driveway. This means YOU. :) With the new pavement it is very easy to drive down the new driveway and back up the old driveway appropriately. We have put two “WRONG WAY” traffic signs up as reminders. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Today marks Independence Day in the United States of America. From time to time we have disagreements with our government. As Orthodox Christians it is crucial that we be patriots of our nation – whether that be the nation of our birth or the nation to which we have immigrated. A patriot is not a senseless sheep – a patriot is someone who loves his country enough to be willing to critique it, but who at the same time prays for his country, its civil authorities, and armed forces, and supports them to the greatest extent his Christian conscience allows. This is our duty, and St. Paul called us to this in the nascent years of Christianity. At that time the civil authorities actively sought to destroy Christianity, yet St. Paul demanded of the Christians that they pray for the civil authorities. Why would he do such a thing? We pray that the Lord will give us a peaceful place in which to work out our salvation. Of course, this has not always been the case in the history of the Church, yet these prayers have never stopped – and they never will. We can agree with our government's policies – or we can disagree with them. It is best if we care enough about our country that we be willing to critique its policies and call it to a higher place if it begins to slip in this regard. But no matter what, we are called to pray for our civil authorities and armed forces. Many in this world do not have the luxury of critiquing their government. We are guaranteed this right in our Constitution and for this we should be thankful. There are many, many other things that we can be thankful for living here in the United States. Perhaps on this day – when we celebrate the birth of our country – it is best to stress those things for which we can give thanks. The Lord has placed us here in this place and this time for a reason – let us then work for Him diligently – and let us entreat Him that he protect and save the United States of America! Happy Independence Day to all!