We had a good Welcome Day this year, greeting new and returning students and making contact with Orthodox students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Below are two action shots:
Fr. Stephen in animated conversation.
Our brave booth-sitters. Alas, no photo of the lovely poster Fr. Stephen composed for the event. However, if you come to OCF meetings we usually have it outside the door of our room marking our occupancy.
Our regular meeting will be this Thursday as usual in the I-House, with food, discussion, and prayer. This week we will be continuing our discussion of prayer and communion with God from last week. If you missed last week and would like to be up to speed with things, you can read over two articles by Fr. Stephen that will form the nucleus of this week’s discussion: The Communion of Prayer and Salvation, Prayer, and Communion With God.
We need to also keep in mind service projects and areas in which we can aid the wider community- we have a wide number of possibilities in this area; needs have only increased with the continuing recession, and Knoxville is no exception to the rest of the world.
We will resume OCF activities next Thursday, August 27th, at our usual location in the bottom floor of the I-House (map), at 6:30. We will have the very nice sign that Fr. Stephen recently crafted out front of the room, so it should not be difficult to find- but if you need further directions or have questions feel free to call or e-mail myself or Fr. Stephen (see the contact info page). We will eat and pray- probably Evening Prayer or possibly Compline- and have discussion, led by Fr. Stephen. We also need to talk about what sort of format we would like the rest of the year’s meetings to take, particularly what sorts of things we would like to discuss during our meetings, as well as possible plans for wider events during the school year. Last year’s Priest, Rabbi, and Imam panel was quite succesfull, and it would be wonderful if we might hold something along those lines.
Greetings to everyone- I hope your holiday break went well, and that your new semester is off to a good start.
First, Thursday, January 15, Fr. Justin will be hosting an open house at his place, starting at 6:30, to kick off the spring semester. Everyone is encouraged to bring food and beverages, as well as, of course, themselves. Here is a map to his house; if anyone wants to carpool let me know and we can arrange something. We will resume regular Thursday evening meetings the week after the open house.
Second, Fr. Justin asked me to pass this message along to everyone:
The Christian music festival Ichthus is held just miles away from Nicholasville near Asbury College and Seminary in Wilmore, KY each June.
June is a long ways off but I thought perhaps our local OCF at UT might like to team up with the OCF students at Fr. Justin Patterson’s parish to pull together a booth and chapel for this event. Fr. Justin and I spoke today about his great idea and both of us think this would be something easy to pull off if people could volunteer their time.
I have worked on projects with the Death to the World Zine folks from CA to do the same thing at Cornerstone in IL in the past and it was a huge success.
I think St. Anne could perhaps provide bookstore materials, perhaps a large tent (if KY does not have one), designs for a series of cool flyers to pass out to advertise the chapel services and table/ Orthodoxy, I would provide Fullness of the Faith.com materials (perhaps a consignment table with t-shirts, Orthodox buttons and other gear), our time/ enthusiasm.
Perhaps we could also have an “open mic” time as well where I, Jonathan Bush and others play a few tunes during breaks in the music there- I want to see Fr. Justin P. play his accordion!
If this is to happen we need a student to take this on and organize it with another student from KY. Any takers?
J+
*
“God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. Hence, if we feel in our hearts the cold which comes from the devil – for the devil is cold – let us call on the Lord. He will come to warm our hearts with perfect love, not only for Him but also for our neighbor, and the cold of him who hates the good will
flee before the heat of His countenance.”
St. Seraphim of Sarov
I have invited You, Lord, to a wedding feast of song,
but the wine- the utterance of praise- at our feast has failed.
You are the guest who filled the jars with good wine,
fill my mouth with Your praise.
The wine that was in the jars was akin and related to
this eloquent Wine that gives birth to praise,
seeing that wine too gave birth to praise
from those who drank it and beheld the wonder.
You who are so just, if at a wedding feast not Your own
You filled six jars with good wine,
do You at this wedding feast fill, not the jars,
but the ten thousand ears with its sweetness.
Jesus, You were invited to a wedding feast of others,
here is Your own pure and fair wedding feast: gladden
Your rejuvenated people,
for Your guests too, O Lord, need
Your songs: let Your harp utter.
The soul is Your bride, the body Your bridal chamber,
Your guests are the senses and the thoughts/
And if a single body is a wedding feast for You,
how great is Your banquet for the whole Church!
St. Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on Faith 14:1-5
