Sunday, March 15th - 2nd Sunday of Lent 8:45 am Orthros 10:00 am Divine Liturgy Ushers: Nikitas Dritsos & Stephanie Kanel- lopoulos Wednesday, March 18th

6:00 pm Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7:00 pm Lenten Dinner/Choir 7:30 pm Bible Study Friday, March 20th 6:00 pm Salutations

Sunday, March 22nd

Veneration of the Holy Cross 8:45 am Orthros 10:00 am Divine Liturgy Ushers: Nicky Stamoulis & Christine Petsalis

Wednesday, March 25th

10:00 am Divine Liturgy 6:00 pm Compline Service 6:30 pm Lenten Dinner 7:00 pm Bible Study Friday, March 27th 6:00 pm Salutations 7:00 pm Presentation on IOCC

Sunday, March 29th 8:45 am Orthros 10:00 am Divine Liturgy - Oratorical Festival

ISSUE 3 March 2020

Very Rev. Fr. John W. Stefero, Proistamenos Cell # 678-637-4425 Email: jwstefero50@hotmail.com Rev. Deacon John Pantelis 3600 76th Street North · St. Petersburg, FL 33710 www.ststefanos.org 727-345-8235 ● fax: 727-345-8286 Email: office@ststefanos.org

Sunday, March 1st Forgiveness Sunday 8:45 am Orthros 10:00 am Divine Liturgy Ushers: Ron Gregory & Kali Weaver Wednesday, March 4th 6:00 pm Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7:00 pm Lenten Dinner/PC 7:30 pm Bible Study Friday, March 6th 6:00 pm Salutations Saturday, March 7th Saturday of Souls 10:00 am Divine Liturgy

Sunday, March 8th

Sunday of Orthodoxy 8:45 am Orthros 10:00 am Divine Liturgy Ushers: Joanna Petsalis & Christine Klimis Wednesday, March 11th 6:00 pm Pre-Sanctified Liturgy 7:00 pm Lenten Dinner/Philoptochos 7:30 pm Bible Study Friday, March 13th 6:00 pm Salutations

FROM THE DESK OF FR. STEFERO

Christ is in our midst! He is and ever shall be!

Your grace has shown forth, O Lord, the grace which illumines our soul.

This is the acceptable time!

This is the time of repentance!

Let us lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light,

that passing through the fast as through a great sea,

we may reach the resurrection on the third day,

of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of our souls.

(Forgiveness Sunday Vespers)

This month we once again enter the period of Great Lent as we journey to the joyous feast of Holy Pascha! When we hear the words ‘Great Lent’ different thoughts come to our minds. What must I give up? Why must I fast more strictly? Why are there more and longer church services? But as we hear in the hymn above, ‘This is the acceptable time! This is the time of repentance!’ Great Lent is a time to reassess our lives, a time to set priorities (to truly think about the essential and important things in our lives), a time to repent and reestablish a proper and right relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I would like to recommend some things to aid us in making Great Lent a positive time for us - a time when we think more about others than ourselves, a time to come closer to God and to truly de-velop a deeper relationship with Him so we can feel His presence and guiding hand in everything we do and with everyone we meet. Here are my suggestions:

READ/PRAY ONE PSALM EACH DAY - This is what I call a ‘Daily Spiritual Vitamin’ FAST FROM SIN – Think of the sin that you have most difficulty with and zero in on eliminating it

from your life as best as you can DONATE TO OUR FOOD PANTRY OR OTHER CHARITY WEEKLY – Almsgiving MEDITATE FOR 3 MINUTES EACH DAY – Keep silent and just place yourself in the presence of God GO TO CONFESSION – This is ‘Spiritual Medicine’ ATTEND AN ADDITIONAL CHURCH SERVICE WEEKLY – The Presanctified Liturgy/Salutations Ser-

vice In 1 John 1:8-9 we hear “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all un-righteousness.” I STRONGLY encourage everyone to make a confession during Great Lent. For as it has been said, “in the Mystery of Confession the spiritual afflictions of a person are treated, impuri-ties of soul are removed, and a Christian, having received forgiveness of sins, again becomes inno-cent and sanctified!” GLORY TO GOD! With love in Christ, Father John

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear St. Stefano's Parishioners and Friends, "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” Corinthians 13:13 We just finished with our 2020 Super Greek Festival. I like to thank you all who worked endlessly, to make this a successful festival. It takes many hands and many hours to prepare not only the food and pastry but also to set up for this event and work through the weekend. Thank you to our KEFI dance groups for their awesome performances throughout the weekend. Working side by side with family and friends gave us all a feeling of pride to belong to this wonder-ful community. A big “Thank you” to our festival chairman George Klimis for his awesome leadership. It is a job not too many people are willing to take. Festival work and planning starts many months prior to the fes-tival date. This year we had many high school volunteers who did a super job at their stations. We had many visitors who came to see our church or pray. They were welcomed by Father John who talked about our faith and our church and we will most likely see some of them again. Father John Stefero again offered two classes, Introduction to the Orthodox Faith, on Tuesday, Feb-ruary 25th, and one on March 5th. March will be another busy month, please check your calendar, Presanctified Liturgies begin on Wednesday March 4th, Salutations to the Theotokos Friday the 6th, and Saturday of Souls on the 7th.

Our different ministries will host the Lenten dinner after the Presanctified Liturgies, please check the calendar for that also. Our Food Pantry is open on March 21st. Ministry Leaders will meet with Massey representative for more information on the upcoming termite tenting of our buildings on March 16th. Tenting will take place on April 6-8. Office will be closed on those days and reopen on the 9th. We will need help March 16-31 to prepare for the tenting. If you can help please call the office for more information. Annunciation and Greek Independence Day is Wednesday, March 25th and the Greek Independence parade in Tarpon Spring will take place on Sunday, March 22nd. I am pleased to report the members of the Parish Council have committed to donate at least $20,000.00 in 2020 to local, national and international charities. This was approved at our last Gen-eral Assembly. Donations will be listed in the Light next month. Καλη Σαρακωστη, Have a holy and spiritual Great Lent. With Love in Christ,

Nicky

CHOIR, AGAPE, FOOD PANTRY

CHOIR NOTES:

You may have noticed on Sunday, February 22, at the end of Festival, a new arrival to the hall! A grand entrance by a baby grand. The church was given a baby grand piano by Dr. Paul and Lisa Zak. The choir will enjoy having a beautiful new instrument to work with, and the community will also benefit from its many years of use for all of the community events. The Choir, under the direction of John Arambages, has begun practicing the music of JoAnn Andros Metropoulos liturgy in preparation for the June choir conference in Knoxville, TN. Choir practices are Thursday evenings at 7 in the choir loft and Sunday mornings be-

fore service at 9:15 am on the hall stage. If you are interested, please join us! It does the

heart and soul good to participate fully in the divine liturgy in song! Also, we are searching

for an organist to be available at the same times. If you play or know someone who does,

please let John Arambages know, so that he can conduct full time, and not have to play the

organ as well.

AGAPE meeting for March will be on Tuesday, March 10th at noon. Lenten luncheon with birthday cake for February and March birthdays. Καλη Σαρακοστη!

AGAPE

FOOD PANTRY

Dear parishioners, A very big and heartfelt thank you goes to all of you for so generously supporting our food pantry! We are overwhelmed with the constant stream of thoughtful donations from all of you. The last few months our shelves have been left bare, as more of our neighbors in need have found us and are vis-iting the pantry for help. During this time of Great Lent, along with fasting, and prayer, please remember the pantry in your almsgiving in whatever way you are called to give. Monetary donations are always welcomed. Vol-unteers are also welcome and needed. Please join us on the 3rd Saturday of each month. Some nonperishable food items needed are: Canned Meats like Spam, Vienna Sausages, beef stews Cereals, not too many sugary cereals, Oatmeal Flour - Sugar - Powdered milk - Coffee, tea, creamer Instant mashed potatoes - Paper goods like toilet paper - Detergents- dish and laundry Thank you again and may you have a blessed Great Lent. In Christ’s love, Maria Alberty, co-chair Hebrews 13:16 “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

PHILOPTOCHOS

Philoptochos news:

February was a very busy month!!! We had our annual Afternoon Tea, Broadway style, on February 8, with a fashion show by Patchington. Our guest speaker was Nancy Gonzalez, who founded the charity we will be supporting---Mustard Seed Bags of Courage. Her charity provides women/men/children who leave an abusive home with a bag or purse filled with daily essentials/toiletries, since they may have left with nothing. Thank you to all of the ladies who helped deco-rate, cook, and clean up and to those who donated bags, totes, purses and toiletry items. Festival was very successful on February 21-23, with the Philoptochos staffing the bakery and selling every last crumb of baked and Hellas bought desserts!!! Thank you to all of our ladies who volunteered at the bakery and in many other areas at Festival. Many thanks to Betty Morgan and Maria Olavarria for heading up the baking. Our next meeting will be SUNDAY, MARCH 15, after church in the Educational Building. Please join us to help plan our Holy Week activities. Also, Philoptochos will be bringing a LENTEN POTLUCK MEAL to church on WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11. Please let Maria Gregory know what you would like to bring for the community to enjoy after the evening Presanctified Divine Liturgy. COME JOIN THE PHILOPTOCHOS THIS YEAR! Please come and hear about all of our differ-ent ministries; there's something for everyone. This is not just your Yaya's Philoptochos! We en-courage ALL of our church members to join with us in order to fulfill the mission of the Philopto-chos-- to help the poor, promote the charitable purposes of the Church, preserve the Orthodox faith, and promote participation in the activities of the St. Stefanos community. Gentlemen may join as well, but cannot vote. All are welcome. We are now collecting dues for the 2020 year. Dues are $35 for the year; please see Visha Anevich or Polly Serbanos

I want to be a member of the St Stefanos Philoptochos for the 2019-2020 year! Name _____________________________________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________________________________ Phone number ______________________________________________________________________ Email ______________________________________________________________________________ Dues are $35 for the year. Checks can be written to St Stefanos Philoptochos. Please see Visha Anevich.

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FINANCIAL REPORT

Income

Primary Income Jan-Feb 2020 Jan-Feb 2019

Candles 3,553.50 3,842.95

Donations 9,326.03 2,135.08

Stewardships 37,837.69 36,352.87

Trays 2,526.75 2,297.00

Total Primary Income 53,243.97 44,627.90

Other Income

Fundraisers 0.00 9,570.00

Greek Festival 140,154.90 113,770.30

Hall Rental 2,800.00 3,700.00

Hospitality 1,034.00 674.00

In-kind Donations 77.79 512.59

Ministries 1,981.00 2,998.00

Misc

Total Income 199,291.66 175,852.79

Expense

Primary Expenses

Adminstration Priest 12,870.00 10,400.00

Archdiocese 7,833.46 7,761.66

Church Staffing 14,332.02 13,767.54

Church Office 2,426.31 2,998.79

Church Service 5,491.49 1,741.73

Insur/Lic/Fees 690.20 1,761.45

Upkeep / Maintenance 21,025.11 1,505.50

Utilities 4,815.10 4,749.86

Total Primary Expenses 69,483.69 44,686.53

Other Expenses

Greek Festival 43,990.14 33,350.18

Event Expenses 7,657.75

Hall Rental 1,000.00

Hospitality

In-kind Donation offset 77.79 512.59

Donations to Charities 50.00

Ministry Groups 1,722.26 3,547.89

Misc

Total Expense 115,323.88 90,754.94

Net Income 83,967.78 85,097.85

AGAPE VESPERS AND PASCHAL LUNCHEON

Please join us on Sunday, April 19th as we celebrate the

Glorious Resurrection of Christ!

Agape Vespers - 12 Noon

Children’s Egg Hunt and Lamb Luncheon – Following Vespers

Lamb will be provided by the parish. We are asking all attending

to bring a side dish, beverage, dessert, etc. to add to the buffet.

A goodwill offering will be taken to defray expenses for lamb and

supplies.

Please contact Presvytera if you plan to attend and to

coordinate the dish you will bring. Deadline for reservations is

April 5th. It is important we have an accurate count for planning

purposes.

denises54@hotmail.com

678-464-4833

ST. STEFANOS GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

3600 76th Street North St. Petersburg, Florida 33710 www.ststefanos.org • E-mail: office@ststefanos.org