Weekly Update 02/01/2021 – Fr. Cyril Gorgy
Beloved Holy Resurrection Church family,
I am praying that you are well and safe.
Year end Statements: Year end statements were emailed on Monday, January 25th at approximately 8:30am. Please check your email to ensure you received it. A year end statement letter was also mailed to those without an email address on file.
Sunday Divine Liturgy: REGISTRATION to attend Sunday Divine Liturgy is required. Please use this link to submit a request. You will receive an email confirmation with the date and time. You can also virtually join us every Sunday starting at 8am on the HRC’s YouTube channel. Please CHECK your confirmation email and attend church only on the specified TIME and DATE. Due to limited capacity, seating in the church will be pre-assigned to those who received confirmation. When you arrive, a church servant will guide you to your assigned location.
Wednesday Divine Liturgy: God willing, the Wednesday Divine Liturgy will resume starting this Wednesday, February 3rd. No registration will be required for the 7-9am Wednesday Divine Liturgies. All participants are expected to read and STRICTLY abide by the General Guidelines.
HRC Fellowship Meeting: Meeting will be held virtually this Thursday, February 4th from 7-7:45pm. Fr. James will be speaking to us about “Real Time With God”. Please sign up using this link to receive notifications about the meeting. See flyer
Texts from HRC: We will be using this phone number (833) 439-9250 to occasionally send important texts. Please save it in your contacts.
Last Sunday’s Sermon: Last Sunday’s Gospel reminded us of Jesus granting sight to the man born blind. People often correlated sickness as a result of sin. That is true in some cases such as the paralytic man (paralyzed for 38 years) and the adulteress woman caught in the act, where Christ said to them “sin no more”. But in this case neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him. The question that ofter arises is “Why me, God?”. The expectation of receiving an answer from other humans may be a great mistake. The answer to our ‘whys’ are usually personal and sacred for each one of us. The answer can be discerned only within ourselves. Our own answer is GOD’s GIFT TO US. God allows a trial in order to give us a unique opportunity to enter a deeper relationship with Him. The joy and the depth of this opportunity are far greater than the intensity and pain of the trial. We find that Jesus finds the man born blind later outside the temple. In that encounter, Jesus allows a personal opportunity for the man born blind to connect with Him. At the end of this opportunity the man born blind declares his faith in Jesus by saying ‘“Lord, I believe!’ And he worshiped Him,” John 9:38. To the man born blind, the joy and the depth of this opportunity was far greater than the intensity and pain of the trial. You may be experiencing pain and suffering and are tempted to criticize God for it. You do not know what this providence of God, that you may criticize, might do miraculously tomorrow in your life.
May our Risen Lord support and protect you and your family by the power of His Holy
May our Risen Lord support and protect you and your family by the power of His Holy Resurrection.
Fr. Cyril
“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” 2 Corinthians 9:7
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General Guidelines
Please sign up ONLY if you are a regular Holy Resurrection Church parishioner. Based on your expressed need to partake of the Eucharist, please review and abide by the following guidelines prior to attending church on your assigned day:
- Please STAY HOME IF YOU ARE SICK, or if you have a history or are experiencing symptoms of respiratory illness, including FEVER or COUGH.
- If you have traveled in that last TWO WEEKS, please do not sign up to attend a Divine Liturgy until, TWO WEEKS have passed since you returned and you do not have any COVID19 symptoms, or you have been tested negative twice.
- If you were in direct contact with anyone that tested positive for COVID-19, please do not sign up or come to the church services, whether with symptoms or not, until you are tested negative.
- If you test positive please do not sign up or come to the church services until you are tested negative, for two consecutive tests, regardless of the time it takes to be tested negative twice.
- You will receive an email from the church with the day and time of the Divine Liturgy that you are scheduled to attend.
- No Walk-ins will be allowed for any reason.
- You should attend the Divine Liturgy at the church you regularly attend.
- Every church will take all the precautions necessary to ensure your safety, but your attendance is entirely your choice, and the church does not accept any liability.
When you come to church:
- Arrive on time. The church gate will ONLY be open at the beginning of the service and will remain closed for the duration. No one will be permitted to open the church door other than the church servant assigned by the clergy.
- Your body temperature may be taken prior to entering the church.
- You are required to wear a mask that completely covers your mouth and nose at all times during the service.
- You should sanitize your hands when entering the church.
Inside the Church:
- You must keep a minimum distance of 6 feet at all times between you and others that are not in your household. The Church will have pre-assigned seating to ensure proper social distancing.
- Each family (same household) should seated together.
- Please do not touch anything or anyone inside the church including icons, relics, clergy, and deacons, etc.
- For Ologea (Al Barka), the priest will wash his hands, cut it and distribute it. You will take it with your hand without touching the priest.
Partaking of the Eucharist:
- Please bring your own head covering, corporeal (for communion) and water to use for partaking of the Eucharist.
- Each family should come forward together to receive the Eucharist. As every family is approaching please maintain 6’ away from other families.
- During communion, you will remove your mask, open your mouth wide and slightly tilt head back so the priest can place the Holy Body.
- When taking the Holy Blood, open your mouth wide and slightly tilt head back and the priest will pour the Blood from the spoon into your mouth.