Transfiguration of Christ
The Transfiguration of Christ is a major Feast Day in our Church. The Gospel Story is told in Matthew 17. The event was meant to encourage the Lord's disciples before He faced the Cross in Jerusalem. We need God's encouragement today in our troubled times. The Transfiguration Feast Day reminds us that Christ Jesus is the King of Glory who ever shines through all the darkness of our passing world, revealing to us the Kingdom of God. His Kingdom will be a place of union with all the holy ones, as Moses and Elijah were with Christ and the disciples on the Holy Mountain. When we are united with Christ, we can confidently face any crosses in our current times with the hope and peace God gives us.
We will have a Divine Liturgy of Wednesday night (Aug. 5) as we begin the celebration of this Feast on August 6.
Dormition Season
The Dormition Fasting Season begins August 1 and ends with the Feast of Dormition on August 15 (there will be a 9a Divine Liturgy on that Saturday for the Feast). We commemorate the falling asleep of our Lord's mother, the most holy Theotokos, on this Feast Day. Our holy Faith teaches us that Christ took her and she now shares in the first fruits of His Resurrection, and she intercedes for us to her Son. In normal times we would have special prayer services of intercession in this Season at Church. This year, our faithful are encouraged to have special prayers in their homes, along with traditional fasting. Parishioners may make an appointment with one of the priests for confession in this season, or ask questions about spiritual matters.
Divine Services
At St. Luke's, the 9a Sunday Divine Liturgy continues to be live streamed on YouTube. A very limited number of parishioners who have registered for Divine Services will be present on a rotating basis, following health and safety requirements from our Archdiocese that is informed by experts. These requirements include strict "social distancing" in our temple, and face masks unless exempt for special reasons. The cleaning requirements have led us to have only the weekly Sunday Divine Liturgy without Saturday Vespers during this time. We just added a Wednesday Divine Liturgy 6p for another small group of registered parishioners.
Our Church office remains closed, and most work and church meetings happen remotely, but our priests may meet privately with people at Church or talk by phone on spiritual or pastoral matters.
Contact us if you have questions about our Church and our Holy Faith. After meeting with one of the priests, it is possible for newcomers to attend one of our Divine Services as serious inquirers. We keep a few openings available for this purpose.
We pray for the day we can welcome back all parishioners and the general public who would like to attend a full liturgical schedule of Divine Services and all parish activities that we previously did. We know that we face a "new normal" in the days ahead. We continue to use Zoom for Bible Studies, and may add some small group in-person meetings following health guidelines. An Inquirer Class to learn about Orthodox Christianity will be arranged in some form this September.
You will find on YouTube some of our past services, such as our recent Holy Week and Pascha when only five were blessed to be present in the temple. We are thankful the virus crisis situation is improving from those very restrictive days. Please continue to be patient and prayerful.
Our YouTube channel is called "stlukestream." Just click on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHBtBg43HgfOd4N02UZOR4w?view_as=subscriber
A Prayer in the face of the Virus Crisis
Prayer from the OCA
Website is under reconstruction
email us at: office@stlukeorthodox.org
Phone us at: 303-665-4013
Our Church address is: 722 Austin Avenue, Erie, CO 80516
We are a parish of the Antiochian Archdiocese, under His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH and His Grace Bishop BASIL
http://www.antiochian.org/home
Fr. David Mustian is pastor.
Thank you!