CHRIST IS RISEN! CHISTOS VOSKRESE! CHRISTOS ANESTI! 

 St. Mary”s Faithful, Family and Friends,

      The Beauty of Pashca is revealed ! The Lord is Risen! It is true, He is alive, and so shall we be, if we also travel the Way of the Cross and die to ourselves, and this world.  Death is a subject that must be spoken of and talked about, if we are to understand that without death there can be no resurrection! So, in order to experience the Resurrection we must allow our will to die so that God’s will can reign.

      This means the death of our Egoic nature, selfishness, pride, and, through the filling of the Holy Spirit. It means acquiring "the peace that passes all understanding".  This peace enters our hearts, and through active true humility, we love God with all of our heart, all our attention, with all of our soul and strength, we then show this peace and love to those whom God has placed in our lives.

    This love is the overcoming of death, and the defeat of the power of death to do any harm to the faithful and prepared child of God. This love is Christ standing at the destroyed gates of hell pulling from the tombs those in death and bringing them into life again.

    Jesus said,  “I am the way the Truth and the Life no man comes to the Father except through Me”(Jn. 14:6). We must follow Him who is The Way and He who is The Life we must sell our attachment to this world and ‘be dead to it” and its ways and live as Christ. Death is overcome!  Christ is risen!

Fr. Daniel

His Grace will be celebrating the Divine Liturgy on February 10th, 2013 here at St. Mary's

His Grace Bishop MARK was consecrated to the Holy Episcopacy on December 5, 2004. His consecrating bishops included His Beatitude IGNATIUS IV at the Patriarchal Cathedral in Damascus, Syria as well as numerous Metropolitans of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. He was enthroned at St. George Cathedral in Toledo, Ohio on August 25, 2005 and served as Bishop of the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of America.

Bishop MARK served as priest of St. John the Evangelist Church in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania from 1997 to 2000. In January of 2001, he was assigned to St. George in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Bishop MARK was born on June 22, 1958 in New Albany, Indiana. He was baptized in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Roman Catholic Church in 1958 and confirmed when he was nine. He attended elementary school at our Lady of Perpetual Help and graduated from New Albany High School in 1976. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1985. In 1987, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree in Biblical Literature from Oral Roberts University and accepted the position of Adjunct Professor of Old Testament at Oral Roberts University.

Having been introduced to the Orthodox Church by the V. Rev. George Eber, pastor of St. Antony in Tulsa, Oklahoma and his professors of Church History, Dr Jerry Sandidge and his Old Testament professor, Dr Howard Ervin at Oral Roberts University, Bishop MARK was received into the Church through Holy Chrismation on Great and Holy Wednesday 1989. He attended St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary, receiving his Master of Divinity degree at St. Vladimir’s in 1991.

From 1993 – 1997, His Grace worked in mental Health as a Mental Health worker at Mercy Psychiatric on a dual diagnosis unit and from 1997 – 2000, as a crisis worker in the emergency room at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Aliquippa, PA.

Bishop MARK was ordained a deacon on August 17, 1997. On September 7, 1997, he was ordained to the Holy Priesthood.  Bishop MARK was received into the Orthodox Church in America on January 1, 2011, and given the title of Bishop of Baltimore.  He presently serves as the Synodal Liason to the various commissions and departments of the OCA.

Holy Annunciation parish Choir from Berwick, PA will give a concert on December 9th, 2012 at 3pm. Please join us here at St. Mary's as we sing for the Glory of God to honor the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos and to celebrate the Advent season. Please bring one small toy for the relief of Children effected by Hurricane Sandy. There will be refreshments to follow in the parish hall.  Christmas baskets will be raffled off for the relief effort.