Summer months often seem rather uneventful. Our children are out of school and families focus on traveling for vacations. We here at St. Athanasius receive many vacationing visitors in our midst. However, Church life continues even in times of rest.
During July in addition to our regular services, the church commemorates the feast days of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco (7/2), St. Vladimir the Enlightener of the Slavs (7/15), St. Seraphim of Sarov (7-19), Ss. Boris and Gleb (7/24), and St. Jacob Enlightener of Aleuts (7/26).
The Diocesan Assembly in Atlanta, GA will take place July 20th through July 23rd. We will have almost a dozen members of our parish participating, both as seated members of the assembly and as observers. His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, has invited Hieromonk Irenaeus (Steenburg) to offer a keynote address to the Assembly entitled “The Fathers’ Voice to Modern Man- Probing the Relevance of the Fathers for the 21st Century.”
During the last week of July, our middle school parishioners will be attending Camp St. John near Indianapolis. This is a week-long program under the direction of the OCA Diocese of the Midwest gives our youth a chance to have a “classic” camp experience, in the context of Orthodox Christian worship and fellowship.