Pentecost: the Eschatological Feast
Because our annual liturgical cycle is precisely that - a cycle, we tend to lose track of where it begins and where it ends. How do we pinpoint the one or the other? September 1st is the ecclesiastical New Year, but we number each Sunday of the year according to when it falls after Pascha, then Pentecost. Where is the beginning and where the end? In terms of the vocation of the Church in the world, that beginning and that end are on the day of Holy Pentecost. Consider the following words of Fr. Alexander Schmemann of blessed memory:

In the Church's annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is "the last and great day." It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end - the achievement and fulfillment - of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the "birthday" of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness.

This double meaning and double joy is revealed to us, first of all, in the very name of the feast. Pentecost in Greek means fifty, and in the sacred biblical symbolism of numbers, the number fifty symbolizes both the fullness of time and that which is beyond time: the Kingdom of God itself. It symbolizes the fullness of time by its first component: 49, which is the fullness of seven (7 x 7): the number of time. And, it symbolizes that which is beyond time by its second component: 49 + 1, this one being the new day, the "day without evening" of God's eternal Kingdom. With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples, the time of salvation, the Divine work of redemption has been completed, the fullness revealed, all gifts bestowed: it belongs to us now to "appropriate" these gifts, to be that which we have become in Christ: participants and citizens of His Kingdom.

Are we actively seeking to appropriate these gifts? Is the parish of St. Michael's truly serving to make manifest the presence of the Holy Spirit here in Pueblo? This is our vocation. Let us strive together to fulfill it.

Services This Month
+ June 12: Day of the Holy Spirit; Apostles Bartholomew & Barnabas. The Feast of Holy Pentecost bumps the commemoration of these two apostles from June 11, their usually-appointed day.
+ June 24: Nativity of St. John the Baptist.
+ June 29: Apostles Peter & Paul.

Website
Some interesting links have recently been added to our parish website: www.orthodoxpueblo.org. It is now possible to download last year's diocesan assembly report. The report features profiles submitted by each parish in our diocese, containing charitable outreach, significant events and statistical information on the life of each community. Another link is to a research project on the demographics of the Orthodox community in the US (Hartford Institute for Religion Research). Our website is an ongoing project, so be sure to check in from time to time. Also remember that you can sign up to receive the newsletter online, saving your church money on printing and postage. Just click on "Newsletter" and follow the instructions.

ROCOR: A Schism Healed
During the 2nd week of May, a council of the clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) came together to consider the course of their jurisdiction, created by bishops who fled Soviet persecution in order to preserve the Russian Orthodox Church in exile. The delegates gathered in council decided, after much prayer and consideration, to actively seek the reunification of the Russian Church Abroad with the Russian Church in Russia. The coming months will witness the restoration of communion between ROCOR and the world's autocephalous churches, as well as ROCOR's developing into a extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. Whenever schism is healed, the angels rejoice and the demons groan in frustration. Let us pray that God give strength to the bishops of ROCOR to follow the course to union. For more information on the proceedings of the ROCOR council, visit: www.sobor2006.com/ivall-diasporaco.php

Serbia & Montenegro
May witnessed the final sundering of Yugoslavia as Montenegrins voted in referendum to secede from Serbia, adding another sad chapter to the self-defeating, nationalistic tendencies of Orthodox nations. Montenegrins are an overwhelmingly Orthodox people, and are only as different from Serbs as Appalachians are from the rest of Americans. In recent years a schismatic sect calling itself the Montenegrin Orthodox Church has come into being. Like the so-called Macedonian Orthodox Church, it is not recognized by other Orthodox Churches. Let us pray that the Montenegrins not follow political secession by bringing further division upon the Church.

Parishioner Profile: Davi & Eleni Wingate

The story of how Davi & Eleni Wingate got to where they are today is so convoluted it must be the work of God. Davi was born in Colorado Springs in1951 to parents of a non-practicing, Welsh Methodist background. His first conscious encounter with Jesus Christ came at a 7th grade, Vacation Bible School. As he grew up, he was always a seeker of God, even in other faiths, particularly Eastern ones. Davi's first exposure to Orthodox Christianity took place on a trip to the Holy Land, where he attended Pascha at the Holy Sepulchre and continued on to the monastery of St. Katherine on Mount Sinai. The seed of faith, though planted, did not take firm root until he visited St. Andrew's Church in Delta in 2001.

Though Eleni was born to a nominally Greek Orthodox family in Melrose Park, IL in 1971, her path to Jesus Christ had its own share of twists and turns. Because the services at her childhood church were in a language she didn't understand, and because the faith was seldom mentioned at home, Eleni drifted away from the Church during her college years.

At the University of Illinois, Eleni became involved with an evangelical Protestant fellowship. Her time with these friends and their faith seemed to raise more questions than it answered. She began to doubt some of their claims. When the fellowship decided to start calling itself a church, she knew it wasn't one. The term "church" meant something more to her. Furthermore, when the group wanted her to join them for their upper-room, Last Supper meal, she knew this was too much like Holy Communion and she couldn't go. Her exposure to Orthodoxy growing up, however minimal, had had an effect. By the late 1990s, she realized she had started "sounding Orthodox" and around this time she came back to the Church. Her B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Library and Information Sciences landed her a good job in Albuquerque, where she attended and OCA parish and encountered Orthodoxy in English.

By this time, Davi was a parishioner of St. Andrew's in Delta and an employee of the US Forest Service. He eventually met Eleni after she moved to Colorado and began to take an interest in her. She didn't think anything of him at the time. One morning while Davi was at Ss. Constantine & Helen, where Eleni was now a parishioner, he decided to ask Fr. Anthony's blessing to pursue her. She had no idea what was going on at first, and when she figured it out she was both intrigued and a little uneasy. Davi was a real gentleman, but after all he was significantly older than her. Davi admits that after they began courting, he was "afraid her brother and pa would come after me with pitchforks." Thankfully, their age difference didn't bother the family, since it is common in Greek culture for older men to marry younger women.

After two months of courtship, the two were engaged and soon married. At first they lived in Davi's Unabomber-style cabin in Gunnison, but within the last two months they moved to Colorado City. Davi is now the forest ranger responsible for the Spanish Peaks and Eleni is "looking for gainful employment," as she puts it. Coming from a young parish like St. Andrew's, Davi "loved to walk in and see the history of Orthodoxy" at St. Michael's. The couple is "very grateful we've found a home" here. They hope to see this parish grow. People from the area "know St. Michael's from the cabbage roll dinner," Eleni observes," I would like people in Pueblo to know St. Michael's for its Orthodoxy."

Memory Eternal!
Eugene Monchak, one of St. Michael's old timers, passed away peacefully in his sleep May 27. Gene is survived by wife Frances and daughters Kathy and Annette.

Remember To Bring Donations Olive Oil For The Church Lamps

Menaion
Several volumes of the Menaion, the service book containing hymnography for each month of the liturgical year, are available for sponsorship. The cost to sponsor a volume is $50 and proceeds will go toward the choir fund. Please speak with Matushka or John Kuzmiak.

A Good Deed
After a run in with a sprinkler head, Father recently had to take the church's lawnmower to a repair shop for a new blade. When he went to pick it up after it was done, the owner of the Engine Center wouldn't charge anything. "You folks give so much of yourselves," he said of the clergy, "This is my chance to give something to you." When you need any small engine repairs (mower, edger, tiller, weed whacker, etc.) or blade sharpening, consider taking your business to the Engine Center (301 S. Santa Fe). This good deed deserves rewarding.

Recommended Reading
We understand what will happen to us immediately after we die about as well as a babe in the womb understands what awaits it on the other end of the birth canal. Our questions about death are boundless, and our understanding of what the Church teaches is often inconsistent in our own minds. Speculation abounds about particular aspects of death and the afterlife, not all of equal value. The Soul, The Body and Death, by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo is probably the single most comprehensive, consistent and reliable work on the subject. Sections of it are required reading in seminary courses on dogmatic theology. It has been among our topics of conversation at the Fellowship Breakfasts. The bookstore has several copies at $15.

Copper Or Gold?
The story is told that one day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim upon the ruler, no right even to lift a solicitous hand. Yet the Emperor threw him several gold coins. A courtier was astonished at his generosity and commented. "Sir, copper coins would adequately meet a beggar's need. Why give him gold?" Alexander responded in royal fashion, "Copper coins would suit the beggar's need, but gold coins suit Alexander's giving." This is an example of how God gives to us. "He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all things with Him?" (Rom. 8:32). Such a God deserves not my "coppers" but my gold!
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