June & July 2013 ¨1645 Phillips Road, Tallahassee, Florida 32308 ¨ (850) 878-0747 ¨ Rev. Fr. Robert J. O’Loughlin¨ http://www.hmog.org

Christ is risen! Χριστος aνεστη! Khristos voskrese! El Messieh kahm!

Hristos a inviat! Christos t'ensah em' muhtan! Kristo amefufukka!

The Power of the Holy Spirit Within Us ~ A Message from Fr. Robert

In a few weeks, we celebrate Pentecost and we remember how the Holy Spirit came with power upon the disciples of Christ, transforming them to be filled with the presence of God. The power of the Holy Spirit within us is to be alive and active and guiding us and the goal of our faith is to acquire the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit which was given first at Pentecost and to each of us through the Sacrament of Chrismation is like the planting of a seed in the heart which then grows according to our own spiritual development. The gifts of the Spirit are found in the context of the many different ways by which we are called to work in the world. All of our work should be a “ministry”, that is it should be a means by which we express to the world around us the great love and com-passion of God. No matter what our career or occupation might be, it can be pursued in such a manner that it expresses the love of God. If there is some occupation that draws us away from God, then it should be avoided.

We are to be people God has called and created us to be, we are to put ourselves in His hands and be filled with His Holy Spirit, so we can be the witness and have the power and love to make a differ-ence in our community. Our greatest need is being filled with the Holy Spirit which can guide and help us understand all things as Jesus promised his disciples, “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) The Holy Spirit opens up our minds to comprehend our faith better. This is where when we read Scriptures, the lives of the saints or other writings about our faith, the Holy Spirit is there ready to open our eyes for understanding.

The Holy Spirit empowers us and guides us to grow in holiness by filling us with its fruit of “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control” (Gal 5:22). That’s why we pray often the prayer O Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who are everywhere and fills all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life, come and abide in us. Cleanse us of every impurity, and save our souls, O gracious One.

What a difference it can make when our plans, thoughts and actions are fueled by the Holy Spirit. Many of us may think too much and pray too little when problems arise. God extends His helping hand to us all the time, but we are to make an effort to stretch out our hand to Him. He is working amongst us and we are to see the change, and improvement in each other's lives. We are to support each other prayerfully in the renewal of our lives, and encourage each other in hope, and let the Ho-ly Spirit be our guide and helper in all things.

May you and your families have a blessed and joyous summer,

Fr. Robert

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Our next ECHO Sundays are June 2nd and July 7th

Please drop off your non-perishable food donations

into the bins located in the Hellenic Center and Pat-

mos Hall.

If an emergency or special need should

arise, please contact Fr. Rob immediately at

850-559-8184.

Dear Parishioners,

Christ is Risen!

Holy Week services and Paschal celebration were indeed beautiful this year. Church attendance was high and participation in all aspects was great. This is the most significant time in the calendar of Orthodoxy and it was so wonderful to be here. We are wishing to everyone many more God blessed years.

With a late Easter this year, the month of May passed very quickly, summertime is already upon us, and I hope everybody is enjoying it. The Parish Council and I wish all a wonderful and safe season. Remem-ber that our church will remain active with Holy Liturgy services every Sunday throughout the summer. In addition, we will have the spaghetti dinners on June 7, July 12 and August 16. As always, your participation, as either a volunteer or dinner, will be very helpful and much appreciated. If possible, you may inform Rich-ard or Mike or simply come whenever you can. Also, look-up for the Greek Food Festival baking dates.

The Grounds Beautification group has completed design for solving storm water drain and courtyard layout improvements around the Hellenic Center. Soon, construction will start. It is going to be messy for a while. Please, bear with us for a little bit. This segment of the project should be finished by middle July and it will be much nicer.

Yours in Christ

Pete Koikos

June 7th

July 12th

August 16th

2013 Graduates!

Congratulations to the following 2013 high school and college graduates. We wish you the best in all of your future edeavors.

High School Alexa Blyth — Lincoln High School

College Spencer Frankeberger—FSU (Undergraduate)

Nick Cox — FSU (Undergraduate) Martha Constant — FSU (Undergraduate)

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Easter Lilies in memory of loved ones

Donor In Memorandum

Niki Bendix - Perry Nicolopoulos

Michael & Rodamandi Burmester - Olga

Michael & K.P. Collier - Lucille, Walter, Walter P., Catherine Pelensky & George,

Eleanor & Gertrude Collier

George Condaras - Constantine and Anastasia Condaras

Barbara Costa - Alex Costa

Dorothy Downing - Ron Downing and our parents

The Drzewiecki Family - Angela & Apostolos Coumanis

Vicky & Michael Gavalas & Family - Dionisios and Elleni Dimopoulos

Boyan Hristov - Alexander Hristov, Nadezhda, Jordanka, Georgi, Sava, & Nona

Kalliopi Joanos - Steve Joanos

Stamie & Billy Joanos - Mike Joanos, Steve Joanos, & Eva Kypreos

Pete & Zografia Koikos - Our parents

The Lapointe Family - Ann, Samuel, Michael, Samuel, Michael, Sadie, Lyell,

Eileen, John & Agnes

Yvonne Lockwood - Harilaos, Elleni, Hrisoula, Chuck, Dick

The O’Loughlin Family - Mary O’Loughlin

Mike & Sally Ann Papageorge - Maria & John Powrzanas, Theo Emanouil Kourtsidaikis, Lanny,

& Clarence Welling

Keith, Nia, Maria & Magnolia Parmer - Katherine Vrachnos

Corinna Reeves - Lilo & Helmut Zeugner, & Anna & Max Scholz, grandparents

Kathleen Talantis - James Nicholas Talantis

John and Katherine Vlandis - Our parents

It’s that time again –

Your Festival Committee (Harriet Kanelidis, Richard Allen, Catherine Branch and Jeffrey Phipps) is excited to announce our 2013 Festival Baking dates and Booth Chairmen. Please know that we need all of your to help make the Festi-val the best ever. Call me, Harriet Kanelidis, @ 850-545-4300 or email hkanelidis@gmail or call Richard Allen @ 877-2501 Hellenic Center

June 7—Spaghetti Dinner

June 21, 22* (10:30 am*) & 28th, 29th - Pastitsio

July 12—Spaghetti Dinner

July 20th—Moussaka

July 26th & 27th —Dolmathes

August 16—Spaghetti Dinner

September 7th - Koulourakia

September 13th & 14th—Galatoboureko

September 19th, 20th & 21st—Baklava

September 28th—Kourambiedes

**Baking Dates are subject to change

Note: Baking begins at 9 am

AHEPA News The AHEPA will be having it's end of the year get together on Satur-day, June 15, 6:30 pm. Members' dinner "only" will be free. Spouses and friends are wel-come and are encouraged to join us that evening. Contact Jimmy Koikos or Mike Papageorge for reservations for a nice evening at Georgio's II (formerly Torreya Grill) on Apalachee Parkway. The next AHEPA meeting will be some time in August. Date to be announced. Have a blessed and great summer.

Mike Papageorge, President

Thank – you to the Ahepa for the gift certifi-

cates for the Church School teachers. It is

greatly appreciated.

Philoptochos Newsletter

For June/July 2013 email: hmogphil@comcast.net

Visit us on Facebook at Holy Mother of God Philoptochos Society of Tallahassee Florida

Christos Anesti, Alithos Anesti!

Our "End of Year Get Together" at George and Louie's was an evening of great food, won-derful people and just enjoying one another's company.

A special thank you to Chris Myers and his team for everything they did for our recent event "My Big Fat Gyro Night - An Evening at the Taverna" to make it such a fantastic success. Working together is pure enjoyment knowing that we are doing something that people really enjoy. Needless to say, a special thank you to Richard Allen for everything he does in making our endeavors run so smoothly and just for continually being there for us. We would like to say "Thank You" to all

of our members and friends of Philoptochos who helped with this event.

With all of our National, Metropolis and local charitable commitments having been met, we were also happy to award five of our GOYA members with one-half tuition to attend St. Stephen's Camp at the Diakonia Center, knowing they will

enjoy a spiritually uplifting experience as well as have a lot of fun on their summer adventure.

The Rewarding Experience of Your Life!!

The rewarding experience of your life cold be waiting for you right here in the Philoptochos. As you begin your summer vacation with your family and friends, we hope you will save some time to think of this coming church year. There are so many ways that you can help those who are less fortunate, and an easy way is becoming a member of your local chapter of Philoptochos. Together we can reach out together and make a REAL difference In our community. We are looking for-ward to another successful year working together starting in September and hope you will be joining us again or for the very first time. Even though we will be taking our normal summer break, our Philoptochos chapter will still be ready to help should the occasion arise

Don't forget to visit us on FaceBook and check out the pictures from our events! Hopefully, next year you will be seeing your picture there!!!

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GOYAns greeting moms on Mother’s Day

with a corsage

Thank you to the Ladies Philoptochos Society for your generous scholarships for all GOYAns attending

St. Stephens Camp.

We look forward to the trip to St . Marks on Sat. June 15th – boat ride , swimming, and fellowship

GOYAns prepare and serve pancakes on Lazarus Saturday

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Page 8

Myrrhbearers

Holy Friday adorning the Kouvouklion

Myrrhbearers during Lamentations on Holy Friday

Resurrection Service - Christ is Risen! Christos Anesti!

Chanting

Pascha Glendi

Easter Egg Hunt at Glendi

Agape Service - Gospel read in various languages

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The following parishioners have contributed towards stewardship in 2013 as of May 21st totaling $60,693. Our goal for this year is $150,000. If you have any questions, please contact the Parish Council Treasurer Glen Perrigan at pappaglen@gmail.com or (850) 294-2738.

Andris, Steve and Jackie Andros, Bessie Arbulu, Roberto and Marianne Atayants, Armen and Irina Balogh, Andrew A. and Cynthia P. Barkas, Chris and Patty Bowyer, Layla Branch, Harold & Catherine Burmester, Michael & Rodamanti Buzyna, George and Helen Catsimpiris, George and Vicki Chikas, Dena Collier, Michael and K.P. Collins, Catherine and Frank Costa, Barbara Cox, Emerald H. Demetrelis, Elpis Downing, Dorothy Drake, Margaret A. Drzewiecki, Olibia and Gary Erickson, Joanna & Don Eudy, Michael and Lynette Evans, Maryelen Frankeberger, Margarita and Gilbert Fetzko, Ronnie Garland, James and Sophia Gatrousis, Chris

Gavalas, Mike and Vicky Gavalas, Nic and Janet Gavalas, Victor and Mary Geeker, Van and Cindy Gill, Bob and Athena Ghirmay, Hanna Gizaw, Hana Gonatos, Michael and Cheryl Gorb, Jorge and Carol Hadoulis, Peter and Kathy Harris, Larry and Christina Hinshelwood, Meredith Hodges, Maria Ilin, Yuri and Lara Joanos, Emanuel and Laura Joanos, George Joanos, Kalliope Joanos, Michael Joanos, Nick and Tina Joanos, Stamatia Joanos, Zachary Katopodis, John Kiger, Russell King, Todd and Eleni Klonis, Nicholas and Mary Koikos, George and Karen Koikos, Jimmy and Anastasia

Koikos, Pete and Zografia Lacret, Leslie Langston, Sophia Lapointe, Corinne Leftheris, James and Julie Lockwood, Yvonne Manias, Stelios Mantzanas, Catherine Markovich, Martin and Elizabeth Mathes, George and Connie Mathes, George and Kathy Mayer, Natalia and Jairus Michas, Andrew and Frances Milatos, Emmanuel Milatos, Irene Mookas, Thomas and Deborah Nichols, Iphigenia O'Loughlin, Fr. Robert and Presv. Joy Papageorge, Mike and Sally Pappas, Nicholas A. Pappas, Paul N. and Eugenia S. Parmer, Keith and Nia Patronis, Johnnie and Mari Petrandis, Michael and Sylvia Pevnitskaya, Svetlana Poulos, Andrew & Koula Price, Burton and Roie

Reeves, Corinna Rehor, Stan and Irlanda Richardson, John Rigas, Demitri Sanaullah, Shezad and Helen Nitsios Sima, Joseph & Alexandra Penn Speed, Ian Stampelos, Charles A. Stratis, Nick Strosnider, Siham Talantis, Kathleen Tsiklistas, John and Helen Valentine, Tom and Angela Vlandis, John and Katherine C. Webb, Dorothy Deannea Wernke, Deborah and Michael

Holy Mother of God 2013 Stewardship/Membership

Fr. Christodoulos visiting our parish

Holy Mother of God

Monthly Community Outreach

Tuesday June 11th from 11-1

If you want to Make a difference and help fight hunger, join us for our monthly outreach in serving others at America’s Second Harvest warehouse facility which supports numer-ous agencies in the Big Bend area.

If you are interested in assisting in this effort for a half hour, one hour or two, or have any questions, please contact: Fr. Rob @ 850-559-8184 or Presv. Joy @850-320-1101.

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Feast of Holy Pentecost Introduction

The Feast of Holy Pentecost is celebrated each year on the fiftieth day after the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha (Easter) and ten days after the Feast of the Ascen-sion of Christ. The Feast is always celebrated on a Sunday. The Feast commemo-rates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, a feast of the Jewish tradition. It also celebrates the establishment of the Church through the preaching of the Apostles and the baptism of the thousands who on that day believed in the Gospel message of salvation through Jesus Christ. The Feast is also seen as the culmination of the revelation of the Holy Trinity.

Biblical Story

The story of Pentecost is found in the book of The Acts of the Apostles. In Chapter two we are told that the Apostles of our Lord were gathered together in one place. Suddenly, a sound came from heaven like a rushing wind, filling the entire house where they were sitting. Then, tongues of fire appeared, and one sat upon each one of Apostles. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as directed by the Spirit (Acts 2:1-4).

This miraculous event occurred on the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, celebrated by the Jews on the fiftieth day after the Passover as the culmination of the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22; Deuteronomy 16:10). The Feast of Weeks began on the third day after the Passover with the presentation of the first harvest sheaves to God, and it concluded on Pentecost with the offering of two loaves of unleavened bread, representing the first products of the harvest (Leviticus 23:17-20; Deuteronomy 16:9-10).

Since the Jewish Feast of Pentecost was a great pilgrimage feast, many people from throughout the Roman Empire were gathered in Jerusalem on this day. When the people in Jerusalem heard the sound, they came together and heard their own languages being spoken by the Apostles (Acts 2:5-6). The people were amazed, knowing that some of those speaking were Galileans, and not men who would normally speak many different languages. They wondered what this meant, and some even thought the Apostles were drunk (Acts 2:7-13).

Peter, hearing these remarks, stood up and addressed the crowd. He preached to the people regarding the Old Testament prophe-cies about the coming of the Holy Spirit. He spoke about Jesus Christ and His death and glorious Resurrection. Great conviction fell upon the people, and they asked the Apostles, "What shall we do?" Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be bap-tized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38-39).

The Bible records that on that day about three thousand were baptized. Following, the book of Acts states that the newly baptized continued daily to hear the teaching of the Apostles, as the early Christians met together for fellowship, the breaking of bread, and for prayer. Many wonderful signs and miracles were done through the Apostles, and the Lord added to the Church daily those who were being saved (Acts 2:42-47).

Prayer of the Holy Spirit

Heavenly King, Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, everywhere present and filling all things, Treasury of blessings and Giver of life: come and abide in us, cleanse us from every impurity and save our souls, O Good One.

© 2013 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

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Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church

General Assembly Meeting Agenda

Sunday, June 9, 2013 Following Divine Liturgy

1. Call to Order Pete Koikos

2. Opening Prayer Father Rob

3. Agenda Review and Adoption All

4. Priest's Comments Father Rob

5. President's Comments Pete Koikos

6. Minutes from Previous General

Assembly Meeting Jorge Gorb

7. Treasurer's Reports Glen Perrigan

a. Current Year Financial Report

b. Year 2012 Operating Results

c. Financial Results of 2012 Festival and other

Fund Raising Ministries

8. Old Business:

a. Grounds Beautification

Project Status Report Pete Koikos

b. 2013 Greek Food Festival Update

9. New Business - None at this time

10. Closing Comments

11. Closing Prayer and Adjournment

Please make every effort to attend the assembly and further your participation in the life of the church.

Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church

1645 Phillips Road

Tallahassee, Florida 32308

Return Service Requested

Holy Ascension

Celebrated

June 13

GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING—SUNDAY, JUNE 9, 2013

Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church

1645 Phillips Road Tallahassee, FL 32308

Office: 850-878-0747 Hall: 850-877-2501

Fr. Rob’s Cell: 850-559-8184

Website: www.hmog.org

Email Addresses:

Father Rob: fr.robert@comcast.net

Church Secretary: hmog@comcast.net

Secretary Hours: Mon./Wed./Fri. 9am-2pm