St. Vartan
Armenian Apostolic
Vol. 1 No. 16
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Fifth Sunday of Eastertide
Apparition of the Holy Cross
Today is the
Fifth Sunday of Eastertide. Eastertide (also known as Quinquagesima), begins on
Easter Sunday and continues until Pentecost in the Christian liturgical
calendar, spanning a total of 50 days, roughly seven weeks. During
these special days, our church remembers and honours
the Resurrection, and on the last 10 days, the Ascension of our Lord. The fiftieth day is devoted to the coming of
the Holy Spirit. This is Eastertide, a
period dedicated solely to the mystery of the encounters between the
resurrected Jesus and his apostles and followers.
Today, we also
celebrate the Feast of the Apparition of the Holy Cross (Yerevman
Khatch). The Apparition of the Holy Cross occurred in
351 A.D., during the time of Patriarch Cyril of Jerusalem. On the morning of Pentecost, at
Patriarch Cyril
wrote about this apparition in a letter to the emperor in
The cross, this
ancient instrument of death, is a powerful religious symbol for Armenians,
reminding us of the hope and new life God offers us through the resurrection of
Jesus.
Welcome to St. Vartan
Armenian Church
Welcome to our Soorp Badarak this afternoon. Thank you for taking the time to pray and
worship with us. We believe that you
will feel God’s Spirit and his renewing love among us, as we come together as a
community to give him glory.
Divine Liturgy @
Requiem
services (hokehankist) can be requested for the next
church service by calling Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan. A
requiem may be requested following the death of a loved one, 40 days after
their death (karasoonk),the yearly anniversary, name
day, birthday or Father’s/Mother’s Day
April-May 2008
Schedule:
Soorp
Badarak
Soorp
Badarak
Soorp
Badarak
Daily Scripture
1 John 1:1-10
Matthew
13:53-58
Jesus answered,
“My teaching is not my own. It comes
from him who sent me. If anyone chooses
to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or
whether I speak on my own. He who speaks
on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of
the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” John 7: 16-18
Accept, O Lord,
our thanks and praise for all that you’ve done for us. We thank you for the blessing of family and
friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side. Above all, we give you thanks for the great
mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose name we
pray. Amen.
Meet our pastor
Very Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan
905-916-1886 905-617-7888
stvartan@hotmail.com
Awesome
“Awesome” used
to be a strong word, but it doesn’t mean anything special any more. One person
says, “I had an awesome hamburger for lunch.” Another says, “I wore my awesome
sneakers to school.”
But “awesome”
is still a special word when we use it to describe God. It means “full of awe.”
It’s the feeling we get when we see something or someone bigger, brighter,
greater, deeper, higher, stronger, or finer than anything or anyone we’ve ever
seen before. The Bible says that God is “the great, mighty and awesome God”
(Nehemiah
Who Made
God? Larry Libby, 2002.
BRING SOMEONE WHO NEEDS A RIDE TO
CHURCH
Are You On Our Mailing List?
The Parish
Council needs your help to keep its mailing list up-to-date. Sign up to receive church news by email. Clipboards are at the church entrance doors.
A Little Prayer To
Start Your Day
Father, make me a blessing to someone today, through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Sometimes we are so caught up in who's right and
who's wrong, that we forget what's right and wrong.
Heavenly
Father, true God, who didst send Thy beloved Son to seek after the wandering
sheep, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight; receive me as the
prodigal son and clothe me again with the former garment which I have put off
through sin; have mercy upon Thy creatures and upon me a great sinner.
St. Nerses Shnorhali
Protect Yourself with God’s Word
“Well Father,
you probably won’t like hearing this. You know the
four things you told me to do when I left that day?”
“Pray. Read
your Bible. Be baptized. Go to church.”
“Well, I’m
going to church. But I’ve got to tell
you that it’s full of hypocrites.”
Father Tim
laughed. If there was ever a popular refrain in modern Christendom,
that might be it.
“My friend, if
you keep your eyes on Christians, you will be disappointed every day of your
life.
Your hope is to
keep your eyes on Christ.”
“Yes, well…”
“I will
disappoint you, Pete, they will disappoint you, but he will never disappoint
you.”
“I was about to
say to heck with it.”
“Don’t quit!
Are you reading your Bible?”
“Ah, well…I
was.”
“And then you
quit.”
“You got it.”
“Then, you can
expect to be weak on one of your flanks, and that’s precisely where the Enemy
will come after you with a vengeance.”
“I hear you.”
At Home in Mitford, Jan Karon, p. 355.
Pray for openness to hear what God might be calling
you to learn ... that all people’s spirits may blossom, and just and tender
relationships may come to life.
Ending Racial
Harassment: Creating Healthy Congregations, The United
If God Made Everything, Then Who
Made God?
The answer is
that no one made God. God, you see, wasn’t made. Everything else had a
beginning, including you, but it was different for God. He didn’t begin. He
always has been. And always will be. Now you probably have even more questions
swirling around in your head.
Imagine
this. Early one morning, you open your
eyes and you can smell pancakes and bacon sizzling in the kitchen. The first
thing you notice is your mom sitting on your bed and looking down at you with
love in her eyes.
“How long have
you been sitting here?” you ask. “How did you know when I was going to wake
up?”
You could go on
asking her questions and more questions. Or you could just forget the
questions, give her a big hug, and tumble out of bed to get a steaming plate of
pancakes and maple syrup.
You could go on
asking questions and more questions about God too. But finally you have to say,
“It’s all right if I don’t understand everything about him.” God just wants us
to believe him, love him, obey him, and enjoy him, even if we don’t have all the
answers. He wants us to open our eyes every morning with thanks and gladness
that a big powerful God loves us very much.
God will be
with us every morning, every night, and always.
Who Made
God? by Larry
Libby, 2002.
Volunteers Needed for Carassauga 2008
If you would
like to be a volunteer at St. Vartan’s Armenia
Pavilion for Carassauga 2008, please contact
Christine Ermarkaryan at (905) 825-5299 or
cermarkaryan@cogeco.ca or Katie Shahinian
at (905) 785-7626 or cshahinian@sympatico.ca.
Volunteers are always needed for this annual multicultural festival in
the City of
A Song of Faith
says,
To embody God’s
love in the world,
the work of
the church requires the ministry and discipleship
of all
believers…
In and with
God,
we can
direct our lives toward right relationship
with each
other and with God.
Story of 109 Armenian Orphans Who
Came to
Being Staged in
On
The Boys’
arrival marked the first time
In May, the
Georgetown Little Theatre Youth Company will premiere an original theatrical
production adapted for the stage by Sam Hancock about the lives of these
Armenian orphans, based upon two stories written by Marsha Forchuk
Skrypuch—Aram’s Choice and
Call Me Aram.
A special Gala
Night performance is being held on May 14, reserved primarily for the Armenian
community, with a wine and cheese reception starting at 6:30 p.m. and the performance
at 8 p.m. Tickets for the Gala are $25.00 each and all performances will be
held at the John Elliott Theatre, 9 Church Street (at Main St.),
Georgetown. For more information and to
reserve tickets please call 1-905-877-3700 and quote the number 1923.
Beware…
Anger is a condition in which the tongue works faster than the mind.
You can’t change the past but you can ruin the present by worrying over
the future.
Remember to Turn Off Your Cell Phone
Please turn off
your cell phone when you are at church, out of courtesy for your fellow
faithful and respect for the holiness of the Soorp
Badarak.
St. Vartan
Summer Day Camp
For children 4 and up
Registration has begun
Pay by
Due to popular demand, Camp will run for
TWO WEEKS
Monday, July 14 to
and
Monday, July 21 to
Join us for one, or both weeks - and double the fun !
$125 for 1 week or $200 for 2 weeks/per child
(if paid in full by
$135 for 1 week or $225 for 2 weeks/per child
(if paid after
Includes a
Please make cheques payable to St. Vartan Armenian Church
Credit Cards are also accepted.
For more information, please contact
Christine Ermarkaryan at (905) 825-5299
Q.
The Holy Bible exhorts us not to believe in fate. Each human being is
born having free will. For instance, God said to Jacob: “I am God Almighty; be
fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come
from you, and kings will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and
Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after
you.” (Gn 35:11-12). In that case how does it happen
that the human being is the master of his fate?
Yes, God made a
promise to Abraham. However, that doesn’t mean that God had already determined
his fate. Abraham had free will and he might refuse and thus no nation or
community of nations would be his descendants. God promised but it didn’t mean
that his promise should be realized by force. The promise made to Abraham was
realized only thanks to Abraham’s free will. So, the notion of fate is
completely incompatible with Christianity.
Answer to the
question - prepared by Stole-bearer Garik Asrian.
Do what you can, for who you can and with what you have and where you are.
A hug is a great gift. One size fits all. It can be given for any occasion and it’s
easy to exchange.
Wise Words
·
God always give his best to those
who leave the choice with him.
·
Laughter is God’s sunshine. Take time to laugh, for it is the music of
the soul.
·
If you want to feel rich, just
count all the things you have that money can’t buy.
·
If anyone speaks badly of you,
live so that none will believe it.
93rd Commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide
Join us at
Celebrant Very
Rev. Fr. Hayrik Hovhannisyan
will begin the evening with a requiem service in memory of the 1.5 million
Armenian men, women and children who were massacred at the turn of the last
century by the
Following the
requiem service, there will be a presentation on the topic Genocide in Today’s
World by Dr. Alan Whitehorn, an Armenian-Canadian
author and professor of political science at the Royal Military College (RMC)
of
Dr. Whitehorn is the grandson of an orphan (his maternal
grandmother) of the Armenian genocide.
He has written many articles, chapters and even poetry on the Armenian
genocide, including the book The Armenian Genocide: Resisting the Inertia of Indifference which
he coauthored with fellow RMC professor Lorne Shirinian. Ancestral Voices is a collection of his poems
that deals with multi-ethnic identity in the Armenian Diaspora and describes a
voyage to his ancestral homeland of
The Memorial
Service and Lecture take place at St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church,
Great service comes from the heart.
Check it out!
www.stvartan.ca
www.armenianchurch.ca
Next Service
We hope to see
you at our next Soorp Badarak at
Commemoration of the Armenian
Genocide
On Friday,
April 25, join us for the special evening requiem service remembering the 1.5
million men, women and children who died in the 1915 Genocide. Service begins
at