November Services

November 6th Vespers 6:30pm
November 7th Divine Liturgy 9am

November 20th Vespers 6:30pm
November 21st Divine Liturgy 9am

Choir Room Entrance (south side)
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
625 Elliott Ave Wenatchee, WA 98801

Fr. Daniel Byantoro to speak in Wenatchee about his conversion to Christianity from Islam

Fr. Daniel Byantoro will speak at Wenatchee First Assembly of God church in Wenatchee, WA on October 27th at 7pm in the fellowship hall.

Some background information about Fr. Daniel and the Church in Indonesia:

Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim country, with over 200 million Muslims who make up nearly 90% of the population. Yet its culture has been uniquely influenced over thousands of years by all of the world’s major religions. It is a country of vastly diverse ethnicities and religions, spread over an area almost as large as the US, with over 6,000 populated islands and 350 different languages.

Fr. Daniel Byantoro is a priest in the ancient Orthodox Christian Church, and was the first Indonesian Orthodox Christian in the current era. Under his leadership, the Indonesian Orthodox Church has grown over the last 20 years, but is still very small and insignificant relative to the overall culture. Fr. Daniel has had continuing dialog with Islam for his whole life. He has many Muslim friends, and a deep appreciation for the piety of devout Muslims, many of whom have encouraged and assisted him as he ministers to the Orthodox Christian community. He is lifelong student of the ways in which religion and culture interact.

Some of the insights that he will be sharing include:

In what ways are Christianity and Islam similar and different?
How does culture both reflect and influence religion?
How does the unique doctrine of the Trinity distinguish Christianity from Islam, and from other monotheistic religions?
How do cultural and historic differences influence the way Islam and Christianity are practiced?
How does the ancient Orthodox Christian faith speak directly to the unique cultural setting in Indonesia?

+ + +

Biography of Fr. (Archimandrite) Daniel Byantoro

Orthodox Priest; Evangelist; Missionary; Teacher

Fr. Daniel was born into a middle-class family in Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world. He was raised primarily by his maternal grandparents, who took great care to make sure that he received a complete religious education. Devout by nature, he studied the Qur’an, and accepted with great piety the teachings of Islam as they were passed on to him. As a Muslim, he opposed the teaching of Christianity, and was proud of his ability to win debates with Christians. He was nevertheless intrigued by the passages in the Qur’an that referred to Jesus, the son of Mary. One day during his evening Islamic prayers, Christ appeared to him in a miraculous and life-changing vision, similar to the experience St. Paul had on the road to Damascus. From that moment, Fr. Daniel’s life was radically and permanently altered.

Galvanized into action by this dramatic experience, Fr. Daniel sought to learn more from the only Christians he could find, despite tremendous cultural and family opposition, and in spite of grave personal danger. These devout believers arranged for his baptism taught him to love and obey Jesus Christ, and encouraged him to develop his natural gifts for teaching, preaching and evangelism. As he came to know the New Testament Scriptures, he began to develop an inner longing for a deeper spirituality which seemed to be lacking in the Protestant tradition. Eventually he went to Seoul, South Korea and entered a Protestant Seminary there. It was during this time, nearing graduation, that he came across a book standing alone on the shelf in a bookstore by Kallistos Ware that explained both the history and teachings of the Orthodox Church. Once again, his life was forever changed.

Discovering an Orthodox Church in Seoul, he began attending services and was immediately drawn to the richness of Orthodox piety and liturgy. He was instructed in the Orthodox faith by a loving Archimandrite (Soterios Trambas, who was later consecrated a Bishop and Metropolitan), and who brought him into the Orthodox Church. Full of enthusiasm, he began planning for the evangelization of Indonesia, and laying the foundations for the formation of an Indonesian Orthodox Church. However, since he was the only known Orthodox Christian in that nation of 250 million at the time of his conversion, Archimandrite Soterios did not want him to be left isolated in a hostile environment in Indonesia. Instead, he wanted him to obtain an Orthodox theological education and to learn personal spiritual discipline. Therefore, he sent him to Greece, where he studied through Apostoliki Diakonia and visited Mt. Athos. Then he was sent to the US, where he studied and graduated from Holy Cross seminary. In 1988 he was subsequently ordained to the priesthood by His Grace Bishop, (now Metropolitan) Maximos of Pittsburgh. Soon thereafter, he went back to Indonesia and vigorously began doing the work of an evangelist, church planter, teacher, and spiritual father. When his funds were depleted he returned to the US, where he labored to raise support for the Indonesian Orthodox Church.

Over the course of the last 20 years, God has richly blessed Fr. Daniel’s ministry, in Indonesia, in the US, and in numerous places around the world where he has been asked to travel and serve. Under his leadership, the Indonesian Orthodox Church has grown to its present size of over 20 clergy, approximately 30 local parishes and missions, and several thousand Orthodox Christians. Fr. Daniel carries a heavy burden as the senior priest and spiritual leader of this tiny Church. Being a Christian in Indonesia almost guarantees a permanent lower-class socio-economic status, as advancements and prestigious careers are reserved for professing Muslims. Yet this desperately poor and seemingly powerless Church has been richly blessed as more and more Indonesians want to learn more about Jesus Christ, and become part of His Body the Church.

October Servies: Baptism and Special Guest!

Friday, October 23rd 6:30pm - Baptism of Titus Andrew Colyar
Saturday, October 24th 9am - Divine Liturgy

Choir Room Entrance (south side)
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
625 Elliott Ave Wenatchee, WA 98801

Tuesday, October 27th 7pm at Wenatchee First Assembly of God church in Wenatchee - Special guest Fr. Daniel Byantoro will speak to us regarding:
"Presenting Christ in an Islamic World: Fr. Daniel Byantoro's conversion and mission in Indonesia."
More information to be posted soon!

September Services

September 18th Vespers 6:30
September 19the Liturgy 9am

Choir Room Entrance (south side)
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
625 Elliott Ave Wenatchee, WA 98801

June Service Calendar Update!

We will be having service the weekend of the 26th-27th of June.
Fr. David Sommers will be joining us!

June 26th Vespers 6:30
June 27th Divine Liturgy 9am

Choir Room Entrance (south side)
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
625 Elliott Ave Wenatchee, WA 98801

June Services

June 5th Vespers 6:30
June 6th Divine Liturgy 9am

Choir Room Entrance (south side)
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
625 Elliott Ave Wenatchee, WA 98801

55 Maxims for Christian Living

All, Christ is in our midst!

This is a more complete list of Fr Thomas Hopko’s Maxims.
It is well worth printing and reviewing as needed.

55 Maxims for Christian Living
By Fr. Thomas Hopko

1. Be always with Christ.
2. Pray as you can, not as you want.
3. Have a keepable rule of prayer that you do by discipline.
4. Say the Lord's Prayer several times a day.
5. Have a short prayer that you constantly repeat when your mind is not occupied with other things.
6. Make some prostrations when you pray.
7. Eat good foods in moderation.
8. Keep the Church's fasting rules.
9. Spend some time in silence every day.
10. Do acts of mercy in secret.
11. Go to liturgical services regularly
12. Go to confession and communion regularly.
13. Do not engage intrusive thoughts and feelings. Cut them off at the start.
14. Reveal all your thoughts and feelings regularly to a trusted person.
15. Read the scriptures regularly.
16. Read good books a little at a time.
17. Cultivate communion with the saints.
18. Be an ordinary person.
19. Be polite with everyone.
20. Maintain cleanliness and order in your home.
21. Have a healthy, wholesome hobby.
22. Exercise regularly.
23. Live a day, and a part of a day, at a time.
24. Be totally honest, first of all, with yourself.
25. Be faithful in little things.
26. Do your work, and then forget it.
27. Do the most difficult and painful things first.
28. Face reality.
29. Be grateful in all things.
30. Be cheerful.
31. Be simple, hidden, quiet and small.
32. Never bring attention to yourself.
33. Listen when people talk to you.
34. Be awake and be attentive.
35. Think and talk about things no more than necessary.
36. When we speak, speak simply, clearly, firmly and directly.
37. Flee imagination, analysis, figuring things out.
38. Flee carnal, sexual things at their first appearance.
39. Don't complain, mumble, murmur or whine.
40. Don't compare yourself with anyone.
41. Don't seek or expect praise or pity from anyone.
42. We don't judge anyone for anything.
43. Don't try to convince anyone of anything.
44. Don't defend or justify yourself.
45. Be defined and bound by God alone.
46. Accept criticism gratefully but test it critically.
47. Give advice to others only when asked or obligated to do so.
48. Do nothing for anyone that they can and should do for themselves.
49. Have a daily schedule of activities, avoiding whim and caprice.
50. Be merciful with yourself and with others.
51. Have no expectations except to be fiercely tempted to your last breath.
52. Focus exclusively on God and light, not on sin and darkness.
53. Endure the trial of yourself and your own faults and sins peacefully, serenely, because you know that God's mercy is greater than your wretchedness.
54. When we fall, get up immediately and start over.
55. Get help when you need it, without fear and without shame.

LENTEN WOCA SPONSORED RETREAT

The Washington Orthodox Clergy Association will be
sponsoring a Lenten Retreat on Saturday March 14 at Holy Apostles Greek
Orthodox Church in Shoreline. Mother Melania, from St. Barbara O.C.A. Monastery
in California will lead this retreat. Her topic will be on overcoming the passions. Fr. David
Hovik has heard Mother Melania at a recent Women's Retreat in California and says that
she is truly a remarkable speaker. Please mark your calendar. The details are
forthcoming; as soon as a flyer is distributed we'll post it on our website.

March and April Services

VESPERS: 6:30 PM
DIVINE LITURGY: 9:00 AM
Pre-Communion Prayers 8:30 AM
Choir Room Entrance (south side)
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
625 Elliott Ave Wenatchee, WA 98801

MARCH 13-14 Fr. Joseph
MARCH 20-21 Fr. Michael
APRIL 03-04 Fr. Joseph
APRIL 24-25 Fr. Michael

Metropolitan Jonah Speaks on Sancity of Life

News and Events Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah for Sanctity of Life Sunday Posted 01/11 January 18, 2009
To the Venerable Hierarchs, Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America Dearly Beloved in Christ: The Lord Jesus Christ emerged from the waters of Baptism, and heard the Word of the Father: "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." The Lord's word to each and every human being, to each and every being which bears the image and can actualize the likeness of God, is the same: You are my beloved. It is the very Word of God who, by His incarnation and assumption of our whole life and our whole condition, affirms and blesses the ultimate value of every human person--and indeed of creation as a whole. He filled it with His own being, uniting us to Himself, making us His own Body, transfiguring and deifying our lives, and raising us up to God our Father. He affirms and fulfills us, not simply as individuals seeking happiness, but rather as persons with an infinite capacity to love and be loved, and thus fulfills us through His own divine personhood in communion. Our life as human beings is not given to us to live autonomously and independently. This, however, is the great temptation: to deny our personhood, by the depersonalization of those around us, seeing them only as objects that are useful and give us pleasure, or are obstacles to be removed or overcome. This is the essence of our fallenness, our brokenness. With this comes the denial of God, and loss of spiritual consciousness. It has resulted in profound alienation and loneliness, a society plummeting into the abyss of nihilism and despair. There can be no sanctity of life when nothing is sacred, nothing is holy. Nor can there be any respect for persons in a society that accepts only autonomous individualism: there can be no love, only selfish gratification. This, of course, is delusion. We are mutually interdependent. First as Christians, but even more so, as human beings, we must repent and turn to God and one another, seeking forgiveness and reconciliation. Only this will heal the soul. Only by confronting our bitterness and resentment, and finding forgiveness for those who have hurt us, can we be free from the rage that binds us in despair. Repentance is not about beating ourselves up for our errors and feeling guilty; that is a sin in and of itself! Guilt keeps us entombed in self-pity. All sin is some form of self-centeredness, selfishness. Repentance is the transformation of our minds and hearts as we turn away from our sin, and turn to God, and to one another. Repentance means to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean to justify someone's sin against us. When we resent and hold a grudge, we objectify the person who hurt us according to their action, and erect a barrier between us and them. And, we continue to beat ourselves up with their sin. To forgive means to overcome that barrier, and see that there is a person who, just like us, is hurt and broken, and to overlook the sin and embrace him or her in love. When we live in a state of repentance and reconciliation, we live in a communion of love, and overcome all the barriers that prevented us from fulfilling our own personhood. All the sins against humanity, abortion, euthanasia, war, violence, and victimization of all kinds, are the results of depersonalization. Whether it is "the unwanted pregnancy", or worse, "the fetus" rather than "my son" or "my daughter;" whether it is "the enemy" rather than Joe or Harry (maybe Ahmed or Mohammed), the same depersonalization allows us to fulfill our own selfishness against the obstacle to my will. How many of our elderly, our parents and grandparents, live forgotten in isolation and loneliness? How many Afghan, Iraqi, Palestinian and American youths will we sacrifice to agonizing injuries and deaths for the sake of our political will? They are called "soldiers," or "enemy combatants" or "civilian casualties" or any variety of other euphemisms to deny their personhood. But ask their parents or children! Pro-war is NOT pro-life! God weeps for our callousness. We have to extend a hand to those suffering from their sins, what ever they are. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven, save the one we refuse to accept forgiveness for. Abortion not only destroys the life of the infant; it rips the soul out of the mother (and the father!). It becomes a sin for which a woman torments herself for years, sinking deeper into despair and self-condemnation and self-hatred. But there is forgiveness, if only she will ask. We must seek out and embrace the veterans who have seen such horrors, and committed them. They need to be able to repent and accept forgiveness, so that their souls, their memories, and their lives, might be healed. Most of all, we must restore the family: not just the nuclear family, but the multi-generational family which lives together, supports one another, and teaches each one what it means to be loved and to be a person. It teaches what forgiveness and reconciliation are. And it embraces and consoles the prodigals who have fallen. In this, the real sanctity of life is revealed, from pregnancy to old age. And in the multi-generational family each person finds value. This is the most important thing that we can possibly do. The Blessed Mother Teresa said that the greatest poverty of the industrialized world is loneliness. Let us reach out to those isolated, alienated, alone, and in despair, finding in them someone most worthy of love; and in turn, we will find in ourselves that same love and value, and know indeed that God speaks to us in the depths of our souls, You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased. With love in Christ,

+JONAH
Archbishop of Washington and New York

Change of Service Date

Please Note:
Service date of January 16-17th have been changed to the weekend of January 9-10th.