Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Glory be to Jesus Christ!  Glory forever!

We have been live streaming and uploading youtube versions of daily services (scroll down on this page) celebrated by Fr. Steven and Matushka Cindy at their home for some days now.  Holy Transfiguration parish has celebrated daily services for many years, and this is in keeping with that practice. It has been quite heartening to receive photos of faithful placing i-pads in their icon corners to pray together with us;  we have also heard feedback from as far as Alaska and Florida that many are joining us for these services during such challenging times.

It has taken some time to simply learn how to technologically process these daily services.  As the days ahead of us appear to keep us yet in this mode for some time, we are circling back to update access to these services, so that as many as would like to are able to join us.

To see the service schedule, please click here to view weekly bulletins.  This is shared with all our faithful each week, with the schedule of services celebrated at our home so all can join us.  Links found there include access to our facebook page that you can also reference here.  Each day on the live stream and recorded version of services, Fr. Steven verbally shares the service schedule for the coming days also.  If you "like" our facebook page, you will actually receive notifications when we "go live" with services.

Please join us in prayer as we complete the Great Lenten journey, celebrate Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, and then enter into Holy Week toward Great and Holy Pascha!

With prayers and love in Christ,

Fr. Steven

We will be celebrating services for the 7th Sunday of Pascha, including:  Saturday Vespers at 5:00pm, and Obednitsa at 9:00am on Sunday.  You can find service texts here, and again the order of the Obednitsa for the Ascension Feast here.  We will also be celebrating a Molieben for the end of the church school year.  Please join us in prayer!

Services for the Feast of Ascension will include Vespers on Wednesday evening, 5:30pm EDT, and Obednitsa on Thursday morning, 9:00am.  You can find texts for these services here. We will also use an order for the Obednitsa, blessed by our Metropolitan Tikhon, that you can find here.

Please join us in celebrating the Feast of Ascension!

Christ is Risen!

We will not have Vespers on Monday, Memorial Day. On Tuesday we will celebrate the Leavetaking of Pascha, with Vespers (5:30pm EDT) as on the day of Pascha itself.  You can find texts here for Vespers.  Please join us!

We will celebrate Vespers on Saturday at 5:00pm EDT, and Obednitsa on Sunday morning at 9:00am.  You can find texts for these services here.  Please join us in prayer.

Today we celebrated a Memorial Service for the Mitred Archpriest Nicholas Timpko, along with newly departed clergy and faithful, at 5:00pm.  If you would like to share a link to this video with others, here it is:   https://youtu.be/g_5oaihHuSw  .

We are preparing to celebrate Saturday Vespers (5pm EDT on May 16th), and Sunday Obednitsa (9am).  You can find texts for both services here.  Please join us in prayer!

Today we celebrate Daily Vespers on the second day of the Midfeast.  May 14th is also the 55th anniversary of the repose of the ever-memorable Metropolitan Leonty, so he was remembered among the departed.

Metropolitan Leonty was the Metropolitan of the Metropolia from 1950-1965 when he reposed in the Lord.  He led an incredible life, ministering at the seminary in Minneapolis in 1905-1906, led the first Sobor of the Metropolia in 1907, in Mayfield PA that St. Tikhon also attended before returning to Russia.  He was a member of the delegation of the Metropolia at the Russian Sobor in 1917 where St. Tikhon was elevated as Patriarch, occurring as the Bolshevik Revolution was unfolding.  We are blessed by his life-long dedication that included authoring the iniital statutes that guided the Orthodox Church in America in receiving autocephaly from the Russian Orthodox Church.  Memory eternal! 

On Tuesday, May 12th, we will celebrate Vespers commemorating the Midfeast of Pentecost, at 5:30pm.  You can find texts for today's service here.

Please join us in prayer!

Please be reminded that we will not be live streaming services tomorrow (Wednesday), as Matushka Cindy and I will be participating in funeral services for Archpriest Paul Lazor in Stroudsburg, PA. 

Christ is Risen!

We have already reached the fourth week of Pascha!  You can find texts for Vespers and Obednitsa here.  Please join us at 5pm on Saturday for Vespers, and 9am for Obednitsa on Sunday morning. HTOC members also please plan to join us for virtual coffee hour at 10:00am!

This afternoon we will celebrate the Feast of St. John the Theologian.  You can find the texts for the service here. 

This is also the anniversary day of St. Alexis Church Consecration in 2004.  Many blessed years to them!

We are celebrating today the Patronal Feast Day of St. Alexis, with Vespers at 5:30pm.  You can find the texts for tonight, here.

St. Alexis was canonized in 1994, and the Clinton Mission Station was named after St. Alexis in the spring of 1995, having the opportunity from that May forward to celebrate every patronal feast day for St. Alexis, this being the 25th!  The photo of the icon on the iconostas was taken on the patronal feast day in 2009, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his repose!

Let us take a moment to celebrate again with our sister parish on this 25th anniversary patronal feast day!  The church was consecrated in 2004 in a wonderful celebration that lasted three days!  We celebrated St. Alexis Feast on May 7, the consecration on May 8, and then Metropolitan Theodosius remained to celebrate Sunday Liturgy the next day! 

May God grant Fr. Steven and St. Alexis Parish many blessed years on this 25th patronal feast day celebration!

This is already the 3rd Sunday of Pascha, commemorating again the role of the Myrrhbearing Women.  Please join us for Obednitsa, beginning at 9:00am.  Faithful of our parish are invited also to a Virtual Coffee Hour, beginning at 10:00am.   This is a photo of our icons at church.

Saturday afternoon at 5:00pm we will be celebrating Vespers for the 3rd Sunday of Pascha, the Myrrhbearing Women.  This weekend returns to many of the hymns sung on the paschal feast!  You can find the texts here for both Saturday Vespers and Sunday Obednitsa. 

This Wednesday afternoon we will celebrate daily vespers, commemorating the Holy Apostle James, the brother of St. John the Theologian.  You can find the text here.  Please join us in prayer!

Here are texts for Vespers for Monday evening Vespers, to be celebrated at 5:30pm.

Christ is Risen!

We will be celebrating home Vespers at 5pm Saturday afternoon, and Obednitsa at 9:00am Sunday morning for St. Thomas Sunday.  You can find the texts for these services here, and the order for Obednitsa after Bright Week here.  Please join us in prayer!

The Obednitsa Service includes photos taken in Kerala, India, reflecting the ministry and witness of the Apostle Thomas!

Indeed He is Risen!

Fr. Steven

Today we celebrate Paschal Vespers of Bright Saturday, the last of the Paschal Vespers of this week, today reflecting Tone 8 Resurrectional Stikhera.  You can find the texts here for Vespers that also commemorates the Holy Apostles and Evangelist, Mark. 

This evening we celebrate Paschal Vespers of Bright Friday commemorating the Most Holy Theotokos of the Life-Giving Fountain.  The texts can be found here.  We also will say farewell to our OCF students, recognizing those who are graduating.

Please note that the Aposticha verses for the Theotokos, of the Life-Giving Fountain were set today to the "Let God arise" setting used in our churches during Bright Week.

Additionally, the version of "Pomp and Circumstance" used in celebrating George's graduation from Yale, is from a website that states their recordings can be freely used. 

With prayers and love in Christ,

Fr. Steven

This evening we will celebrate Paschal Vespers of Bright Thursday at 5:30pm, together with the remembrance of the Greatmartyr George.  You can find the texts here for our Vespers. 

We will plan to celebrate Vespers of Bright Wednesday at 5:30pm Tuesday.  You can find texts here.  Today all the extra portions such as the Paschal beginning, and the Paschal Verses are included, from the OCA website, for your use. 

This Bright Monday evening we will celebrate Paschal Vespers of Bright Tuesday, at 5:30pm.   You can obtain the texts for the service here.  Schedule for later this week includes:  Paschal Vespers Tuesday and Wednesday, 5:30pm, Thursday, 5:00pm where we will include our OCF members who will be entering finals week, and Friday again at 5:30pm.  Please join us in prayer!

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!

We will celebrate Paschal Hours and Obednitsa beginning at 9:00am on Monday morning. You can access the outline we will use here.

We hope you are able to join us in keeping the Feast!  This evening we will celebrate Vespers of Bright Monday at 5:30pm.

Christ is Risen!

Here is a brief, one minute tour of our church prepared for the Paschal Feast, including the ringing of the church bells!  This is offered to encourage us as we await our opportunity to return to church to worship together!

Indeed He is Risen!

With prayers and love in the Risen Lord,

Fr. Steven

Christ is Risen!  Indeed He is Risen!  We greet you with joy and love in the Lord on Great and Holy Pascha!

At the beginning of our you-tube version of today's service is a panoramic tour of our church, prepared for Pascha.  May we anticipate gathering together during the Paschal east once again!

Tomorrow we will celebrate Paschal Hours and Obednitsa, beginning at 9:00am.  Please join us and pray together with us!

In the Risen Lord,

Fr. Steven

Royal Hours of Holy Friday, celebrated at 9:00am.  This service focuses on Jesus on the Cross, after we heard the 12 Gospels the previous evening reflecting Jesus' steps from the Passover meal where he institutes the Eucharist, to the garden where he is betrayed, and through His being brought before Pilate, the Sandhedrin, and finally crucified.

This is the last service to be live-streamed from our home, as we will join all praying with those celebrating the Vespers of Holy Friday, Matins of Holy Saturday, the Vesperal Liturgy of Holy Saturday, and finally Nocturne, Procession, and Paschal Matins and Liturgy.

Please join us again for Paschal Vespers at noon on Sunday, April 19, 2020.  In the meanwhile, please take time to listen to our choir singing the responses to these beautiful services last year in church.

With prayers for a blessed Pascha,

Fr. Steven

On Thursday, April 16, 2020 we will celebrate the Matins of Holy Friday with the reading of 12 Gospels.  As we are at home, we have sought to arrange the fullest extent of this celebration possible with the two of us. Please download the outline for this service here.

For each of the portion of the service page numbers have been included:  the first page number is for the DRE book with purple cover some of you may have, and the second page number is from the SVS Holy Week II book (see photo).   This way if you have either resource, you can follow along easily. 

As this recording is in two portions, the links are both included here for ease of reference:

On this Holy Wednesday we will celebrate Matins of Holy Thursday, at 6:00pm.  You can download texts to follow, here.

Also, please watch for the order of service to be posted for Matins of Holy Friday with the reading of 12 Gospels.  As we are at home, we have sought to arrange the fullest extent of this celebration possible with the two of us.  For each of the portions of the service I have included page numbers:  the first page number is for the DRE book with purple cover some of you may have, and the second with page numbers from the SVS Holy Week II.   This way if you have either resource, you can follow along easily. 

In Christ,

Fr. Steven

Responses sung by Holy Transfiguration Church Choir.

This Holy Tuesday evening we will be celebrating home Bridegroom Matins for Holy Wednesday at 6:00pm.  You can find the texts here to follow during the serivce. 

We will be celebrating Bridegroom Matins for Holy Tuesdsay, April 13, 2020, at 6:00pm.  You can find texts here from our OCA website.

Sung by Holy Transfiguration Choir.

Following the festal services of Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, we enter into services of Holy Week.  Bridegroom Matins is a service celebrated from Sunday through Wednesday evenings.  We will celebrate them each day at 6:00pm.  Use your Bridegroom Matins book with the purple cover, from the OCA's Department of Religious Education, if you have one to follow along.  The propers for Bridegroom Matins for Holy Monday can be located here.  Please join us for these beautiful serivces! 

This was a link sent of an audio recording of Bridgegroom Matins with our deanery gathered at Holy Transfiguration Church.

We will be celebrating Vespers of Palm Sunday at 5pm.  Please find texts to follow along here for both Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  We blessed some willows from a bush at our home that was given us by a friend.  Our palms and willows will be blessed when we can gather together as community.  Please join us for Obednitsa Palm Sunday morning, at 9:00am.

Beginning today, as we celebrate services, we will also be posting audio recordings of services from previous years so you can appreciate Holy Transfiguration Church choir.  This is a recording of the vigil from last year at church.  May these recordings be comforting for us while we are unable to gather as community.

On Friday at 5:30pm we will celebrate Matins commemorating the Raising of Lazarus.  Please find and have your little green Feast of Palms book from the OCA's Department of Religious Education, published in 1981, beginning on page 16.  If we are able to assemble an order of service, look for it here.   In the meanwhile, an effort has been made to render the propers for this service, following the canon, that you can access here in the "you" version.  If you would like to follow along in singing the irmoi for the canon, we are grateful for the work of Archpriest Lawrence Margitich through Anaphora Press.

Come and join us in prayer.  Not only does this service reflect the end of the 40 days of Great Lent, April 10 is also the 50th anniversary of the formal reception of the Tomos of Autocephaly!  This will truly be a day of celebration!

Please also note that beginning tomorrow, we will be adding previous recordings of portions of the services of Holy Week celebrated each day.  This way you can join us for the service, and hear our beautiful parish choir singing the responses in the church from past years! 

We welcome all who are able to join us!

On Thursday we will celebrate Vespers at 5pm, with OCF members.

Friday we will celebrate home Matins for Lazarus Saturday, at 5:30pm.

May God bless and keep you!

Fr. Steven

Tonight we celebrate the Feast of the Repose of St. Tikhon, Confessor Patriarch of Moscow, and Enlightener of North America.  You can find texts for home vespers here.  St. Tikhon, as a young bishop (early 30's), set the American Mission on a strong foundation before returning to Russia.  There he was elected the first Patriarch of Russia since Peter the Great abolished the patriarchate in 1721.  He was elected as the Bolshevik Revolution was unfolding, and sought for the remainder of his life to guide the embattled church as that revolution continued to change the cultural landscape.  O Lord Jesus Christ, through the prayers of St. Tikhon and the saints who have shown forth in this land, grant us Your wisdom and Grace to continue to build on the foundation of Orthodoxy here in North America, particularly as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of our autocephaly.

This afternoon we will be commemorating the Repose of St. Tikhon, Confessor Patriarch of Moscow.  This is a special celebration since on April 10, we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the granting of Autocephaly to our Orthodox Church in America. You can find the texts here.  This is a youtube video version of the live-stream of the serivce.

We remembered the repose of St. Innocent last Monday, as we marked the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Tomos documents.  Today we likewise commemorate the repose of St. Tikhon -- who offered so much in the way of bringing the vision of the Orthodox Faith here in America to life -- as we approach the date of April 10th.  Many others certainly significantly participated in the building up of the church in our land, but these two saints' life, witness, and repose, are somehow caught up with this anniversary in a manner calling upon us to specially celebrate them through the lens of these later historical developments.

Through the prayers of St. Tikhon and St. Innocent, together with the cloud of witnesses showing forth here in North America, may the Lord God bless the Orthodox Church on this 50th anniversary!

On this Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, we commemorate St. Mary of Egypt.  You can find service texts here, for both Vespers this evening, and the Obenitsa in the morning.  We welcome all who were able to join us in live-stream, or are viewing the service here through youtube!

Also, for those who would like, our Seminarian Cornelius has recorded the Life of St. Mary of Egypt, as a youtube recording.  Please continue to remember him in your prayers, as it remains unclear how their semester will also end. 

Also thought you might like to see the flowers by church that have grown in intensity as we approach Holy Pascha!

With prayers and love in Christ,

Fr. Steven

On Thursday, April 2nd, we will be celebrating the Canon of St. Andrew, as is called for during the 5th week of Great Lent, at 5:00pm.  You can access the service text we will be using, here.  Please look for the sections marked on each page to follow the celebration, but the whole text is given here if you desire to read at home.  The Order of Service for tonight can be found here.

This Wednesday, April 1, 2020, we will celebrate Daily Vespers.  The reader will note that this Vespers has more stikhera than the normal 7-10, as we prepare for the Great Canon that is often celebrated on Thursday.  You can access the texts here, that are developed from our OCA website, and additional material from the Octoechos (the book containing daily stihera for each day of the week, through the eight tones).

As this service would normally include the celebration of Presanctified Liturgy, texts for the rest of Vespers were completed through those available on the OCA website, and others from the Lenten Triodion Supplementary Texts, by Mother Mary and Metropolitan Kalistos of Diokleia, STS Press, 2007.  You can access them here.

This evening we will celebrate the repose of St. Innocent, Enlightener of the Aleuts and Apostle to North America.  You can find texts for tonight's Vespers here, from our OCA website.  I continue to have difficulty with the gopro camera, so am using the facebook live version uploaded to you-tube.

We will be celebrating home Vespers this evening at 5pm, and Obednitsa at 9am on Sunday morning.  You can access propers for these services here.   The service texts are from the OCA website.  You can also download the Obednitsa order here.  It seems that my gopro camera is not inclined to work on Sundays, so the Obednitsa is the facebook version of the service as it was last Sunday.  Our apologies for the unforeseen technical difficulties.

May God bless you!

Fr. Steven

As news was shared today that the monks on Mount Athos are celebrating an all-night vigil beginning at 9pm (3pm) our time, we are going to add prayers for the intercession of the Theotokos in solidarity with their vigil at the end of Vespers.  You can find texts here from the OCA, and prayers in intercession to the Theotokos here.  Please join us at 5:30pm.

Fr. Steven

This evening we welcomed back our Yale OCF students who are returning to virtual classromms from spring break.  The image on the face of the video is the entrance to the Lovett Room of Battell Chapel, where OCF Vespers are usually celebrated.  Last year during Great Lent the daffodils began to blossom, creating a flowery carpet near the Lovett Room entrance.

Next Vespers Friday at 5:30pm.

With love in Christ,

Fr. Steven

Texts for our Vespers for the Annunciation Feast are avaiable here.  These texts were taken from our OCA website, with some additional texts from the Festal Menaion by Mother Mary, and from the Triodion.  Thanks be to God for all things! 

We are planning to celebrate Vespers for the Feast of Annunciation beginning at 5:30pm.  You can join us through facebook live, through you-tube video, and/or through zoom (audio).  You can also access the stikhera and troparion for this evening here.  Texts are from our OCA website.

With prayers and love in Christ,

Fr. Steven

For the Obenitsa (Reader's Service) to be celebrated on Sunday at 9:00am, you can find the outline of the service here, and the propers (a word to denote the specific texts for a service) here.  Please consider joining us, either live via Facebook on Holy Transfiguration Church's page, or here via a video of the service to be uploaded through you-tube as soon as proceesing is complete. 

Please note, we had some technical difficulties with our second camera this morning.  Today's you-tube recording is actually the facebook-recorded video.  We apologize for the difficulties, and are gratedful for those joining us!  As it took some time to accomplish this, please be patient as it loads.  Posting will occur as soon as completed.

May the Lord God continue to bless you during these days of uncertainty.

With love in Christ,

Fr. Steven

With Vespers this evening (at 5pm live on HTOC Facebook page, and the you-tube video version will be posted as soon as processed) we begin the week of the Veneration of the Most Precious Cross.  You can find texts to follow here.  The texts are from the OCA website.  If you would like to follow the special melody for Lord I Call Stikhera, you can find them here, also from the OCA webiste. 

Additionally, as we are not in church, the procession with the Cross is seemingly out of place.  We have, for this evening's service, and those for the coming days, simply decorated our cross with flowers blossoming in our yard at the present time.  This is a photo taken of the Cross.  You may similarly like to do this in your prayer corner for the coming week as we will be unable to come together to venerate the Most Precious Cross in the center of the church.

Fr. Steven

While visiting the church today, the daffodils were arrayed in splendor.  Here is a photo of them!

The texts for tonight's Vespers are included here, and the service recording will be available as soon as it is downloaded later this evening.  Texts are from OCA website with some minor alterations.

May God bless you!

Fr. Steven

You can link to texts for tonight's Vespers, recorded below, here.  Texts and readings from the OCA website.