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Fr Tom’s Message

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Greetings in our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

January began as an extremely busy month for us. One of the exciting events in our parish is that we were blessed to have our new Metropolitan Savas make his first pastoral visit to our St John parish for Epiphany or Theophany on Friday, January 6.

He came for the Orthros, Liturgy and the Blessing of the Waters. Although his visit was on a Friday morning, about 100 faithful were able to attend in the Liturgy.

The Divine Liturgy was a joyful and festive celebration as Frs. John Karabatsos, Polykarp Steve and Michael Diavatis co-celebrated with Father Tom and Archdeacon Ryan.

During the Liturgy, three altar servers – Kyriakos Theophanous, and Daniel and David Kreatsoulas, were tonsured as “Readers” in the church. His Eminence explained that being tonsured a reader is the first step towards priesthood. A “Reader” is a lower rank of the clergy.

His Eminence explained that although not all “Readers” go on to become priests, this commitment that these young men have made should be taken seriously and hopefully will help them walk on a path closer to Christ with great love and respect for His Church.

After the Blessing of the Waters, His Eminence spoke of the joy that he had to be our new Metropolitan and expressed his love for Christ and the people of his Metropolis.

A breakfast prepared by Greg and Gus Giannios, and Philoptochos, followed the Liturgy. During his visit, His Eminence briefly met many of our parishioners and spoke of many of the hopes he has for our Metropolis. As one of our parishioners expressed, His Eminence is “a breath of fresh air.”

After His Eminence left, we proceeded to Mill Creek Park for the blessing of the Waters in Youngstown, and returned to our church that evening for feast day vespers.

We were honored as Fr Jim Doukas from St. Demetrios in Rocky River celebrated the vespers with us and delivered the homily that evening.

St. John’s feast day Liturgy was celebrated Saturday, Jan. 7. Both the reception after the vespers and the lunch after the Liturgy were sponsored by our Philoptochos. After the vespers Friday evening we were also treated to George Zografides’ delicious Loukoumathes.

We installed the 2012-14 parish council Jan. 8. Four parishioners who served on parish council for many years decided not to seek re-election. They will be sorely missed on council. We want to thank George Denney, Dan Wallace, George Zografides and Greg Giannios for their valuable input over the past years. They are great assets and we know they will continue to serve the church in many ways.

Greg served as president for the last five years. He put his heart and soul into his service to the church and it shows. He did a wonderful job. On behalf of the entire council and parish of St. John, we want to thank Greg for all that he did. Filling his shoes will be no easy task. May God bless you, and all of our past council members.

As we continue in the 2012 year, it is our prayer that God will continue to bless our parish with His love and care.

With love in Christ,

+Fr Tom