THE ANNUNCIATION GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH

THE FIRST GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH IN CONNECTICUT

The Good
News
FR. EVAN EVANGELIDIS, PASTOR
1230 NEWFIELD AVE, STAMFORD, CT 06905 + TELEPHONE: 203-322-2093 + FAX: 203-968-6632
EMAIL: SECRETARY@ANNUNCIATIONOFSTAMFORD.ORG + WEB PAGE :ANNUNCIATIONOFSTAMFORD.ORG

OCTOBER 2014

WORSHIP SERVICES
IN OCTOBER
Oct. 5th
2nd Sunday of
Luke
9:00 am
Orthros &
10:00 am
Divine Liturgy
Oct.12th
Sunday of the
Holy Fathers
9:00 am
Orthros &
10:00 am
Divine Liturgy
Oct. 19th
3rd Sunday of
Luke
9:00am Orthros
10:00am
Divine Liturgy
Oct. 23rd
St. Iakovos
(James), Apostle
9:00am Orthros
9:30am Divine Liturgy
Oct. 26th
6th Sunday of
Luke
9:00 am
Orthros &
10:00 am
Divine Liturgy
Oct. 28th
Holy Protection of
the Virgin
9:00 am
Orthros &
9:30 am
Divine Liturgy

Fr. Evans Corner

Our monthly Good News newsletter
is back in circulation. Its purpose is to
increase
communication
and
cooperation between the church, our
organizations and you, our members.
Hopefully this will give everyone an
opportunity to get more involved in the
spiritual and cultural life of our church.
I encourage you to take part in the
sacramental and life of the Church so
that you may "become partakers of the
divine nature" and save your souls (2
Peter 1:4). As you read this, it is my
sincere hope and prayer that the Holy
Spirit moves you to become more actively
involved in the life of our church
community so that you join us in its
sacred mission of passing our Orthodox
Christian faith and Hellenic Culture to
the next generation of Greek Orthodox
Christians in Stamford and beyond. God
bless you!
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Philoptochos
Our Philoptochos Society is ready for
another productive year! We met for our
September meeting and have a calendar

full of exciting commitments and events.

Join us in raising Breast Cancer
Awareness on Sunday, October 12th by
wearing something pink to church.
Information about prevention and
resources will be available during coffee
hour. A raffle will also be held to benefit
the Bennett Cancer Center in Stamford.
We are hosting a Pampered Chef party
after our next meeting on Monday,
October 13th at 7:00 pm. All proceeds will
benefit the St. Nicholas National Shrine.
Please join us and support this important
project by purchasing this companys
wonderful kitchen accessories. Orders
can also be made online.
Well also go by bus to attend the
ground breaking ceremony for St.
Nicholas National Shrine on Saturday,
October 18th. The program begins at
12pm so the bus will leave by 9:30am
from our church. If you are interested in
attending this historic event, please
contact Christiana Ramoglou or Athena
Valoulidis for reservations. Our annual
Tag Sale will take place on Saturday,
November 15th. Please consider donating
your gently used items. All proceeds
benefit the many local and global
charitable commitments that our Chapter
makes every year. For more details,
contact Tina Scarpelli at ss013@aol.com.
------------------------------------------------Greek School Committee
We thank our outgoing
Interim Greek School Director,
Mr. George Argyratos. George
will be devoting more time to his
opera career. We also thank Ms.
Katerina Dillulio for her year of
teaching and sad to see her go.
We wish both of them well, much
success and thank them for their
years
of
service
to
our
community. We welcome back
Ms. Penelope Venetsanos as our
Greek School Director and her
wonderful teaching team; Ioanna
Kreatsoulas,
Despina
Kreatsoulas,
and
Agapi
Theodorithou. We wish them a
fruitful and productive year.
As part of the school
committees desire to make our
class rooms more interactive, it
approved a proposal by the PTA
to purchase two televisions and

two laptops as teaching and

learning tools. The 2014-15
School
Committee
includes:
Vicky
Christakos,
President;
Stacey Karipides, Vice President;
Vivi Radis, Secretary. Other
members
include
Christina
Ramoglou, Georgia Poulos and
Kirsten Ziotas, and the parish
council representative is Nik
Matthews. We congratulate our
new School Committee and wish
much success during the year.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

PTA
Our PTA is off to a wonderful
start. It sponsored a fabulous
Greek
School
Open
House
reception on Friday, October 3rd
that was attended by many
Greek School paents. PTA is also
bringing back our traditional
childrens Halloween Party on
Friday, October 24th right after
Greek School, so please save the
date! At its general meeting on
Sept. 26th our PTA elected a
board
for
2014-15:
Helen
Vlahakis & Nia Thomas, CoPresidents;
Gina
Christakos,
Secretary;
Irene
Tournas,
Treasurer; & Vicky Sakellson,
Asst. Treasurer. Congratulations
to our new PTA Board and much
success!
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Greek School
Our Greek School is off to a great start.
The school year began with Fr. Evan
performing an Agiasmo Service for a healthy
and successful school year.
We also welcome our dance teacher,
Despina Kreatsoulas to our language team.
She is teaching our 3rd grade this year. The
teacher/class schedule is as follows: Ioanna
Kreatsoulas 2nd and 7th grades, Despina
Kreatsoulas dance & 3rd grade, Agapi
Theodoridou Pre-K/Kindergarten, 4th and 6th
grades and Penelope Venetsanos 1st and 8th
grades. Our curriculum allows students to
learn not only Greek language and culture but
also traditional dances and songs as well. Our
children are busy getting ready for the OXI
Day celebration and pageant that will take
place on Sunday, October 26th after church.
Our Open House on Friday, October 3rd
was a great success. We wish to thank our
PTA for sponsoring this event. A special
thanks goes out to Famous Pizza of Norwalk

for donating the delicious pizza. We thank our

parents for choosing our Greek School. We
still have room for more students. Please
contact
Penelope
Venetsanos
at
kladielias@yahoo.com for registration info.
------------------------------------------------Sunday School
Our Sunday School has over
30 children registered! Fr. Evan
teaches our children about the
significance of the Divine Liturgy
and Gospel in their daily lives.
Sunday
school
plants
the
timeless truths of our Orthodox
Christian Faith in our kids hearts
and gives them the tools to make
good moral choices. According to
behavioral studies, children that
attend Sunday School fare better
behaviorally, emotionally and
cognitively than those who dont
attend regularly. Any parent
interested in registering their
child for Sunday School, please
contact Penelope Venetsanos or
Vicky
Sakellson
at
ve4@columbia.edu.
------------------------------------------------GOYA
Our new GOYA Director is Mr.
George Zoumboulis who has a
wonderful year of fun and
fellowship planned. Our first
GOYA meeting is on Sunday,
October 19th right after church.
All GOYA aged teens 12yrs to
18yrs old are welcome to attend.
GOYA is a great opportunity for
your teen to share in fun,
fellowship & community service
with other Greek Orthodox teens.
For further info please contact
George
Zoumboulis
at
gsyk0002@yahoo.com.
-----------------------------------------------HOPE
Our church is starting a
separate
HOPE
childrens
ministry program that we are
excited about. HOPE is for
children from Pre-K/K to the 2nd
grade and teaches them about
their Orthodox Christian faith
through games, arts & crafts,
book
readings,
role
play,
multimedia and discussions with
Fr. Evan. Please register your
youngsters for HOPE because it
gives them an opportunity to
learn about their faith and to
socially
interact
with
other
Orthodox children their age.
HOPE/JOY
will
be
meeting
together for the last time on
Friday, October 17th Beginning in
November, HOPE will meet
separately and have its first
meeting on Friday, November
14th at 6pm. Our new HOPE
director is Ms. Yianna BakesDimitroglou. Please contact her
for
further
info
at
yiannab@aol.com.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------JOY
Due to the great number of
children in our community, HOPE
& JOY will meet on different days
beginning in November. HOPE is
for children from PreK/K to the 2nd
grade while JOY is for kids from
the 3rd through 6th grades. Each
ministry teaches them about
their Orthodox Christian faith
outside of church services in a
social environment.
Kids play
games together, are creative
with arts and crafts, discuss and
share ideas with Father Evan,
learn prayers and hymns and
share a meal together.
JOY kicked off another year!
We will discuss the Seven
Heavenly Virtues this year. Our
first gathering took place on
Friday, September 26th from 6
pm-8:00 pm. We discussed the
meaning and importance of each
virtue:
diligence, humility,
generosity, abstinence, kindness,
patience and chastity. We will
learn about them through role
playing,
discussion
groups,
games, etc. We had a great
turnout for our first meeting and
thank Johns Pizza for donating
an awesome dinner.
This year we are asking
families to host a gathering. The
lessons are already prepared and
will be given to you in advance.
The host family will also provide
supplies for crafts, food and
dessert. Please consider getting
your family involved in a night of
fun for everyone. Please contact
Stacey
Karipides
at
skaripides@optonline.net
for
more info. Our next HOPE/JOY
meeting will be on Friday,
October 17th, 6pm-8pm. See our
church website for greater info
on upcoming meetings.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

YAL
We thank YAL for their generous donation
towards the purchase of banquet tables.
There will be a district wide YAL conference at
St. Barbaras Church, October 10th-12th. The
theme of the conference is Discipline &
Distraction. Gain a better understanding of
how to maintain a spiritual focus in your
everyday life while sharing in fun and
fellowship with other Greek Orthodox Young
Adults from the NY/CT metro area. Theres
still time to register so please go to
http://yalcon14.eventbrite.com for further info.
Walk in registration is still welcome.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Mommy & Me
Our church is staring a "Mommy
& Me" Music and movement
program that we are very excited
about. We will be hiring Music
professionals and the class will be
educational and fun as well as a
great opportunity to socialize our
little ones! We plan to have a

weekly music class that meets one

morning during the week and one
that meets on one Saturday
morning each month for all the
working mommies to attend as
well. We will bundle the classes into
"semesters" and will have a
schedule of class dates printed
soon. We are also putting a
Facebook group page up soon for
more information! Our Mommy &
Me
program
is
open
to
mothers/caregivers, yiayia/ papou
and to the general public. It will
bring together three generations
for fun and fellowship. This program
is geared for babies 3 months up to
3 years old, so help us spread the
word. For further information,
please contact Kiki Tournas at 910233-2168
or
kikikabouris@gmail.com.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Stewardship Committee
Our annual Stewardship drive is
progessing nicely this year. We
have over 137 committed Stewards
and approximately $66,000 in
collected pledges. This puts us
close to the 75% mark of our
budgeted and forecasted annual
stewardship goal of $90,000. We
have about 180 Stewards in our
community so if you havent made
your stewardship pledge for 2014,
please do so now. If youve already
pledged, we sincerely thank you
and ask you to please consider
increasing your pledge over last
year to offset the increased costs of
fuel,
utilities
and
vendors.
Stewardship statements are going
out soon so keep an eye out for
them. The Church needs your
time, talent AND treasure to
survive. If you dont support
our Church to promote our
Orthodox Christian faith & our
Hellenic Culture, WHO will?
--------------------------------------------------------------

Marriage Seminar
Our church hosted the Direct Archdiocesan
Marriage Seminar on Saturday, Sept 20th. It was
attended by 15 couples from all over the NY/CT
metropolitan area. The seminars purpose is to help
young couples prepare for marriage by allowing
them to explore their relationship and to better
understand marriage as a Sacrament. Seminars
are for engaged couples and newlyweds and are a
necessary part of wedding preparations for couples
that want their marriage blessed in the Greek
Orthodox Church. We thank Dunkin Donuts of
Stamford for donating a delicious breakfast and
Rebecca Boutsikoudis, Maria Marangos & Olga
Benekos for the lovely autumn decorations and
event set up. A Special thanks goes out to Rons
Deli for donating a delicioius Lunch that all enjoyed.
Clergy Meeting
Our church hosted the monthly
clergy meeting of all Greek
Orthodox clergy from CT &
Westchester. 15 priests attended to
discuss
and
plan
upcoming
religious, cultural and sporting
events in our district. We thank
Donut Delight for donating a

wonderful
breakfast
Stacey
Karipides for the lovely autumn
decorations and setting up for the
event. A special thanks goes out to
Tripps Restuaruant for hosting us
and donating a delicious lunch.
------------------------------------------------------Maintenance Committee
Our maintenance committee has been very
busy. It updated the lights in the altar area, replaced
all the lights in our fellowship hall and installed a
new audio system. It painted the downstairs hall
area and conducted a beautification project to our
fellowship hall enterence area. It also completed
staining the oak paneling and renovated the stage
area behind the curtain to allow for more seating at
church functions. Additionally, it repaired our
fellowship halls front doors and brought them up to
code. It also cleaned, stripped and polished all the
floors in our church & facility.
In the near future, maintenance will continue to
beautify our church grounds and with your kind
support replace the double sided doors that
connect the church narthex to the hallway, repair
and repoint flagstones on church patio & steps,
renovate our upstairs bathrooms and provide
bookcases for our classrooms. The Maintenance
committee wishes to thank our communications
guru, Paul Poulos, for supervising Cablevisions
update of our churchs communications
infrastructure. Maintenance especially thanks an
anonymous donor for generously replacing all the
broken tiles on our church roof and making sure
our dome windows are still watertight. Our
maintenance committee is Vasilios Sotiropoulos,
Larry Karipides and Stanely Sakellson. We thank
them for all their hard work and dedication. Anyone
wishing to donate towards these aforementioned
projects, please contact Fr. Evan or any member of
our maintenance committee.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------General Assembly
Our Parish General Assemblywill
take place on Sunday, November
16th right after church services.
Food and child care will be available
for your children so parents can
attend the assembly. All steward
members are invited to attend the
assembly and get involved in the
life of their church.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sports Program
Our Co-ed Midget (7-10 years old) and
Junior Division (11-13 years old) basketball
teams need players. Practice is usually held
on Wednesdays from 6pm to 8pm. If your
child likes playing basketball, please call
Coach Louie Recanatini at (203) 524-4473
for further information. No experience is
necessary. Just a desire to have fun!