Category: parish life

Skype conferencing

Skype conferencing

As our Church is closed, Father Jeremiah is planning on offering our parishioners a spiritual reflection through Skype Conferencing.

It will be this Sunday, March 22 at 7pm.

Please be sure you have Skype installed on your computer, phone, ipad or other e-device.

We will send you a link through your email shortly before, so that you can join the conference.

And as Mathuska Emma was not able to give her talk on The Lenten Journey to Joy, she will do so on Wednesday, March 25, also at 7pm.

We are planning on recording our conferencing to be able to share them with people outside our parish.
We are limiting the live skype conferencing to our parishioners for the simple technical fact that free skype conferencing only allows 50 connections

Liturgical Services Livestreaming options

Dear Parishioners,

With Father Jeremiah’s blessing, here are some resources to help you pray at home:

As Divine Liturgy is cancelled at Saint Innocent, you can follow the Divine Liturgy through audio or video streaming.
Here are some directives suggested by Father Gregory Joyce (Archbishop Peter’s secretary) for his own parish:
The Divine Services should not be background noise. One should PARTICIPATE in the services.
How? Something along these lines is appropriate:

A. Gather the family at the icon corner
B. Turn down the lights
C. Light the oil lamp
D. Turn on the live stream
E. Pray with us: cross yourself at the appropriate time, maintain silence, do prostrations with us for the prayer of St. Ephraim, sing the hymns with us that we sing together, etc.

Live stream video:

– See this list here: http://liveliturgy.com/orthodox/north-america/

– Holy Cross Monastery, the English speaking ROCOR monastery in West Virginia (Eastern Time), has decided to stop receiving visitors during the virus crisis.
So instead they have started offering livestreaming video for all their services, including Sunday Divine Liturgy.

Excellent video and sound.

You can access their livestream on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/holycrosswv/videos/?ref=page_internal

 

If you don’t have facebook, you can go to Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ-sqeQbmgzrL0t8uFJm4Ew
It will show LIVE when the stream is on.

 

NB: some live videos seem to be only on Facebook, some on both Facebook and Youtube. You can watch some of them in replay, not all of them.
And here you can find their Lenten Schedule (Eastern Time):

– In Russian, there’s our Cathedral livestream (through Youtube), at 9am: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXjnRlXp6IAc788g0bmxN5w?app=desktop

– In English:
Saint Vladimir ROCOR parish in Ann Harbor, MI(this is on Facebook): Live Stream Video
Divine Liturgy begins at 9am Central Time

– All services at Saint John’s ROCOR Cathedral in Mayfield, PA
Vespers – Saturdays at 3:00 PM CT
Matins – Sundays at 7:00 AM CT
Divine Liturgy – Sundays at 8:30 AM CT
https://livestream.com/stjohnsmayfield
: click on the icon where it says “LIVE”. They don’t save them, so after it says “ENDED”

Live Stream Audio

at Saint Vladimir ROCOR parish (it will work only at the time itself.
Divine Liturgy begins at 9am Central Time

COVID-19 March 14 update

 

3/14/2020 latest update:

In light of our Archbishop’s mandatory directives, and the specific needs of our parish,
NO Divine Liturgy this Sunday 3/15.
Stay tuned for the following Sundays

We have put together some livestreaming options for you

So ignore the following for now – I’m leaving it here, in case we reopen, but still have to take extra-precautions

***

COVID-19 March 14, 1st update

Dear Faithful of St. Innocent’s Parish,
Fr. John and I have been reviewing guidelines from other Orthodox jurisdictions and parishes in an attempt to put forth what we feel to be pastorally sensitive and reasonable considerations for our parish in functioning in the midst of the current novel corona virus (COVID-19) health crisis.
The following considerations are in conjunction with abiding by the recommendations of disease authorities and include not coming to Church if you are feeling ill and/or have a fever.
1.   Saturday evening Vespers, Wednesday Pre-sanctified liturgies, and contemplative prayer evenings are cancelled until further notice.
2.   The Divine Liturgy would be the last service to be cancelled.
3.   Coffee hour is cancelled until further notice.
4.   Due to the shortages of hand sanitizer please carry any small bottles you may have with you for your use.
5.   Greet one another with a bow.  Refrain from hugging and kissing as is our custom.
6.   When asking for a blessing from a priest we will bless you with the sign of the cross but ask that you refrain from kissing the priest’s hand.
7.   Reverence icons with a bow rather than a kiss.
8.   Individual plastic or paper cups will be used for zapifka.
9.   At the end of the Divine Liturgy the priest will bless you with the cross as you come by.  The cross will not be reverenced with a kiss.
10.  Regarding receiving Holy Communion:
       A.  Babies and children who are receiving should receive Holy Communion first.
       B.  When receiving Holy Communion PLEASE tilt your head way back and open your mouth wide so that the priest is able to turn the communion spoon inside your mouth to drop the Precious Body and Blood onto your tongue.  This cannot be done if your head is bent down or if your mouth is not open wide.  Do not close your mouth on the spoon.
From everything that I have researched there have been no known highly suspicious cases of the transmission of disease from a common Holy Communion Cup.
Thanks to everyone for helping us implement these measures which we hope will be very short term.  In the meantime let us fulfill our responsibility as citizens and look forward to returning to our usual parish life just as soon as it seems prudent.
With Love in Christ our God,
Fr. Jeremiah