Holy Martyrs Domnina, Bernike, and Prosdoke of Syria

A Cheerful Giver

A Message from Father Demetri

I am truly excited that this year has gotten off to such a GREAT start! We began our Church School program and I am thankful and indebted to our teachers and directors, who have taken on this great responsibility!

 

Yes, Church School is once a week, around 30+ minutes. By attending faithfully every Sunday, and with your participation at home, in the car, at the dinner table, with discussions and talking about their lessons, youth sermon or main sermon, all of us learn more about our faith and practice it every day!

 

Please know that the beginning of our Orthodox Christian education is The Divine Liturgy! Please be present and  on time ; that way our young ones see our example and they learn, from a young age, that worship is the most important part in beginning a new week.

 

You and I together, no matter our age, or our circumstances, can improve on making ourselves better Orthodox Christians. Let us look at our children as an example…in them we find undiminished the capacity for faith, simplicity, gentleness, compassion, imagination and meekness!

 

As we continue to encourage them to be the best they can be in school, sports, music, arts, etc., let us encourage them by our example, in striving to become the best Orthodox Christian they can be!

 

We have such a rich blessing in passing on THE TRUE FAITH to the next generation. Do we want to take the time to learn it ourselves, so then we are able to live a life well pleasing to God and be examples to not only those in our household, but to all we come in contact with?

 

I want to close with these statements…

 

What will your children say about how they were taught the faith 10 years from now?

 

What will your children say about how they were brought up in the faith 10 years from now?

 

What will their fondest memories be of the church?

 

And are you making such memories possible for them in the life of the Church?

 

With love,

PC President's Letter

Dear St. Nicholas Family,

As mentioned last month, we held a Ministry Registration Fair over the course of three Sundays in September during fellowship hour to allow our parishioners to sign up and learn more about our ministries. If you would like to learn more about our ministries please contact the ministry leader. The Sanctuary and Altar Care (led by Frank Fotis) and Fellowship Hour (led by Christine Vallas) are not in the pamphlet but continue to be very active ministries!

Our fall General Assembly will take place on November 19, please mark your calendars. More information will follow via mail.

Thank you to Bill Sager and Melanie Tanionos for spear-heading Trivia Night last month and a big shout out to Brian Mackintosh for single-handedly painting and restoring the outside sign on Meriam Street!

Thank you,

Maria Decoulos 

Philoptochos

Thank you to all who were able to attend September’s meeting! We reflected on the remembrance of the 9/11 victims, Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma victims, as well as the remembrance of Efthemia Zervoglos, a dedicated member of our ladies Philoptochos.

September’s National Commitments:

HCHC (Hellenic College Holy Cross) Scholarship Fund Collection: We matched the tray collection for HCHC.

Retired Clergy and Widowed Presbyteries Benevolent Fund (RCA) -donation of RCA to $125

Updates and upcoming events!

After the meeting, it was proposed to donate $100 to St. Nicholas in memory of our Efthemia Zervoglos. We would also like to place a flower arrangement at the chanter's stand for her 40 days (October 7th) since that is where we all were so used to seeing her offer her talent to the Lord. May her sweet memory be eternal.

Rummage Sale: Nov 4th from 9am-2pm. More info on this will be coming out.

Sip & Paint Party Fundraiser: Nov 4th from 6pm-9pm. This is very exciting news as we're finalizing the last details with the instructor! We will enjoy the night with music, wine, appetizers, and other refreshments as we paint a little greek church with a scenic view. The instructor will provide all the supplies needed to complete your painting (brushes, easels, canvases, aprons, towels, and of course paint). 

We will have 35-40 seats (max) available for anyone (both women & men) to be booked on a first come, first serve basis and RSVPs are definitely needed ahead of time. The best part about this is if we fill 35 seats, for example, $800+ will be raised and set aside to help those in need. (For instance, we can donate to the local Veterans Hospital in Bedford in honor of Veteran's day the week after). You can't beat having fun, taking home a beautiful painting, and helping a good cause all in one night. If you have any suggestions for other local or national charities/foundations close to your heart that we can assist, please let me know. Keep an eye out for the flyer with all the details!

Please join us for our next Philoptochos meeting on  Sunday, October 15th  after liturgy and fellowship hour. We will be gathering at St. Irene's Hall shortly after fellowship hour around [12:15 pm- 1:30 pm]. We will be discussing upcoming events such as the Sip & Paint Party Fundraiser, the Rummage Sale, IOCC Kits, Christmas Dinner, etc. We hope you'll stay to see the projects we're working on and we would love to hear any new ideas that you may have!

God Bless, 

Eleni Saledas    

[email protected]   

803.514.8696 

Stewardship

Dear St. Nicholas Parish Family, 

Happy fall! The calendar year is coming to a close over the next several months – your stewardship chair misses summer already!

Before the year closes, please prayerfully reconsider your own involvement in the life of the church. 

There are so many who give back generously of their time, talent and treasure and I, personally, am very grateful to our parish family.

On behalf of the parish council… and from our entire parish family, please let me extend a HUGE thank you to all who continue their stewardship through electronic giving or automatic contributions. This regular giving is tremendously helpful for our Treasurer, our Finance Chair and our Maintenance Chair, to name a few who count on our stewardship contributions to help them in the work they do so well.

A summary of treasure through 9/26/17:  

2017 Stewardship goal: $177,625 

Total pledged amount: $161,932

Number of families pledging: 164

With love in Christ, 

Tony Gray  

[email protected]

Greek School

Καλη Χρονια! We hope everyone had a great summer. This year, Greek School began on September 23. The students were happy to see their classmates and teachers. They received their books and began their lessons. We are also happy to announce that there are a few new students. This year, Elle Pantekidou, a former student, will be assisting in teaching Greek as well. If anyone else would like to join, please contact Kathy Dimas at [email protected] or call 781-862-7093.

Thank you all & looking forward to a wonderful school year!

GOYA

First and foremost, congrats to Meli and George for their beautiful baby Evanthia! The GOYAns made a Happy Birthday card for her and she is very much loved by her GOYA family.

A big shout out to the Splagounias family for hosting our Welcome Back GOYA Cookout! Thank you for all your time and effort making it a great day! More on our mini project that we did.

IOCC put out a statement this month that there is a "tremendous need for hygiene kits and clean-up buckets to replenish the supply at the warehouse." Our friends at the Taxiarchae church in Watertown put together the clean-up buckets. It was a very organized production and we know that our St. Nicholas family can also step up to the plate and assist with the collection and assembly of the  other vital package- the hygiene kits!

Our awesome GOYA kids will be the ones to spearhead this project and invite our entire St. Nicholas Parish to contribute. OUR GOAL IS TO ASSEMBLE 600 HYGIENE KITS FOR IOCC.

If you or someone you know has access to any of the below items for wholesale price or could actually donate any of the supplies, PLEASE let us know.

Keep an eye out for more info. Any thoughts, suggestions, or recommendations on the best way to make this a success is very much appreciated.

Meli & Eleni

Sunday Fellowship Hour:

A gentle reminder to all Fellowship hosts: Please keep in mind that families hosting coffee hour (children's table and main table) are responsible for clean up after completion. We appreciate your help with keeping our parish clean and treating it as your own home...because it is! Thank you.

Not Recieving Church Materials?:

If you have not been receiving church material/mailing or emails, please contact the church office at 781-862-6453 or email  [email protected]  Thank you.

Monthly Bulletin Personal or Business Ad:

If you are interested in placing a personal or business ad, please contact the church office at 781-862-6453 or email  [email protected]