February 2016 Monthly Newsletter

608 SOUTH COLLEGE ROAD WILMINGTON NC 28403 (910) 392-4444 FAX (910) 392-4905

www.stnicholaswilmington.org

The Presentation of Our Lord and Savior in the Temple

February 2

February 2016

http://www.stnicholaswilmington.org/

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church February 2016

Fr. Jon Emanuelson

Parish Priest

Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 9AM – 2PM

Office Phone: 910-392-4444 Office Fax: 910-392-4905

Fr. Jon’s Mobile Number: 910-685-0080

Office Email: [email protected]

Fr. Jon’s Email: [email protected]

Church Website: www.stnicholaswilmington.org

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/StNicholasWilmington

2016 PARISH COUNCIL

CHURCH STAFF

Angelique Skandalakis, Parish Office Administrator

PARISH MINISTRY TEAM

Officers Members

Barbara Reynolds, President Evangelos Fragos Debra Rallis

Jack Poulos, Vice President Peter Manolukas Nick Saffo

Tina Bostic, Treasurer Emanuel Miliotis Maria Stasios

Peter Malahias, Assistant Treasurer

Irene Sotiriou Vogiatzis, Secretary

Emanuel Miliotis, Chairman of the Council of Ministries

Religious Education…Richard Reynolds, Ministry Chair Communications - Technology Ministries…

Adult Education…Richard Reynolds Alexandros Theodoropoulos , Ministry Group Leader

Youth Catechism…Courtney Malahias, Director Webmaster… Alexandros Theodoropoulos

Bookstore/Library…Mary Ann Wall Publications…Angelique Skandalakis, Stella McTaggart

Oratorical Festival…Courtney Malahias Technology… Alexandros Theodoropoulos

Media/Community Relations…Debra Rallis, Alexandros

Hellenic Culture…Kitsa Wiersteiner, Ministry Chair Theodoropoulos

Hellenic School…Anestis Logothetis, Acting Director

Romiosini Dance Group…Zaharoula Katsikis Parish Family Life…**Volunteer Needed**

Zoyra Dance Group…Lucas Bostic, Katerina Katsikis Parish Family Night…**Volunteer Needed**

Choral…Dr. Michael Rallis Men’s Group…Richard Reynolds

Special Activities… Kitsa Wiersteiner Women’s Group…**Volunteer Needed**

Forever Young…Stella Vallianos

Youth Diakonia…Doug Brown, Ministry Chair LOVE…Angelique Skandalakis, Kay Skandalakis

GOYA…Alexia Porzio, Doug Brown, Benjalee Pittman,

Koula Katsikis, Courtney Malahias Outreach & Evangelism…Diane McGowan, Ministry Chair

HOPE/JOY… Joyce Patsalos, Sophia Brewer, OCF…Fr. Jon, Alexandros Theodoropoulos

Jaime Saffo, Renée Karonis Psilos, Connie Ronner Hospitality…Ed Mayorga, Kathleen Mayorga

Community Service…Christina Mount

Liturgical Life… Dr. Michael Rallis, Ministry Chair Parish Care…Pat Poulos, Tina Stamatakis,

Liturgical Music… Dr. Michael Rallis Kay Skandalakis , Dr. Mary Frankos

Acolytes…Doug Brown

Neokoros/Sexton…**Volunteer Needed** Philoptochos…Tia Saffo, Chapter President

Stewardship…Debra Rallis

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.stnicholaswilmington.org/

http://www.facebook.com/StNicholasWilmington


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From the Desk of Father Jon

On Opportunities to Support our Greek Orthodox Church

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the Archetype of a good steward of God’s grace. Therefore, it makes

sense to take His example as the best way to serve God as Orthodox Christians!

There are many many passages in the New Testament where you see Jesus and His disciples attending a syna-

gogue or the Temple in Jerusalem. It may seem strange to our eyes that there is NEVER a mention of Jesus

being late for worship! From our Lord we learn to attend, participate, pray, read, heal, worship and love God

with our whole soul, mind and body. This is a central part of who we are as Orthodox Christians. Thus, let

us come into the house of God as often as possible, showing the proper respect and doing what is pleasing to

God by coming on time.

Our children, grandchildren and godchildren look to us to do what is good and right. They will take our ex-

ample and imitate us. Think about this for a moment! What kind of example do we provide? Do any of us

drop our children off at school late everyday and say, “It is enough that you show up for class, you really do

not need to pay attention or do your work.”? Of course not! So, if it is important for our children to learn a

secular education, how much more important is it for them to learn the Way, the Truth and the Life that is Je-

sus Christ in our Orthodox Church? It is the most important vocation in this life! It is not an academic study

of religion, but the very life in Christ.

Thus, every day is an opportunity to live a life in Christ. Every day is an opportunity to pray for our family

and friends. Every Sunday is an opportunity to worship and learn. Every day is an opportunity to apply the

gospel in our lives!

Jesus also came to serve. He had compassion for the sick, the lame, the blind and the infirm. He served His

disciples by teaching them the way of life that leads to salvation and in the washing of their feet after the

Mystical Supper. Thus, we too, are called to serve in many different ways. If God places in your heart a

yearning to serve Him in some way, please step forward. Chances are that we have a ministry you can help

accomplish something for God’s glory. Teaching in Sunday Church School is an opportunity to serve. Being

on the Parish Council is an opportunity to serve. Participating in one of our ministry is an opportunity to

serve! Who is so great a god as our God? He alone is the God who does wonders! Knowing how blessed we

are, how can we not serve Him?

Jesus taught us to give in every way to the good purposes of God. There are many ways to give in our Ortho-

dox Church. You can be a member of the Philoptochos. You can give your time and talent to our ministries.

You can go for Work Days at the Diakonia Retreat Center. You can help at the Good Shepherd House or at

the Greek Festival.

An Opportunity to Help

His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios has made our Diakonia Retreat Center a top priority for the whole me-

tropolis! Thus, the area Greek Orthodox Churches (Wilmington, Fayetteville, Myrtle Beach and Florence) are

uniting in an effort to help. Please join us for a special evening at St. John the Baptist in Myrtle Beach on

Sunday, March 6, 2016 at p.m. We will have a special “fun” raiser for the DRC this evening and we will

have our very “Basile” Katsikis join us! See you all there!


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From the Parish Council President

Barbara Reynolds

New Office System

Over the next several months, we will be installing and beginning to use a new information system for St. Nicholas. It will

replace our older less functional product called Bento, which we have been using for the last several years. The new sys-

tem is called Parish Data Systems (PDS) which has been in use for several years in many Protestant and Roman Catholic

Churches. Recently our Archdiocese entered into an agreement to modify the software for use by Greek Orthodox Church-

es at a greatly reduced price.

The initial module called Church Office will allow us to maintain Family and Member information including:

1) Contact information and preferences for how and when to be contacted,

2) Sacramental information such as Baptismal and Chrismation documents,

3) Ministry involvement and a talent inventory,

4) Language preferences,

5) Family relationships,

6) Personal information viewable only by the Priest, and

7) A record of correspondence

Once the basic information has been built, we will begin to use Church Office for the recording of Stewardship and other

giving. Church Office will then generate the input to our QuickBooks financial package. Later in the year, we will evalu-

ate a second module of PDS software, called PDS Ledger to replace QuickBooks.

Why expend resources to implement PDS? One of the most powerful features of PDS is its reports capability. Today the

Treasurer spends many hours of effort to provide the budgetary information that we use as a congregation to support our

many ministries. Using PDS will allow us to automatically generate the reports as well as provide information that we

don't have today so that we can more effectively run the church and keep our members informed.

There will be many features which will help our priest and parish office administrator organize and record the work that

they do to serve the parish.

The information gathered can be used to provide our own Church Directory without having to pay an outside company.

We will have the opportunity to record and document all of your financial gifts to the church so that you can claim tax

deductions on all of your giving.

We will continue our investigation and initial training using the trial system we have installed on a laptop. The production

system will be built in a few weeks. We will enter the set-up information appropriate for our church and set up procedures

for our use of PDS. We will then need you to provide us with information about your families that we can enter into the

system. No one need to be concerned about needing computer skills to be able to use the system. Those skills will be pro-

vided by the implementation team. Also any information provided by the system can be printed to make sure everyone is

kept informed.

Most importantly, sensitive information will be kept secure. For example, only those few people who today enter and view

your financial data will be able to do so using PDS. Access to the data is controlled by user ID and passwords. Each user

is only allowed to access that portion of the data base that he or she is specifically authorized to access.

Please watch for updates on the PDS system in the General Assembly Meeting on February 14, the weekly bulletin and

Monthly Newsletter.


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Treasurer’s Update Tina Bostic

Great News! Our 2015 stewardship ended on a positive note for both the month of December and for the total

year. We received $17,047.89 more than our goal for the year.

We will present the final 2016 operating budget at our General Assembly on February 14 for final approval.

At this meeting we will also share other financial information including the current account information and

stewardship progress. Please join us for important updates and information. Your participation is key to mov-

ing St. Nicholas forward.

Stewardship 2016: We have received 63 stewardship cards to date with a total commitment of $177,134.00

which is a great start. This represents about 31.5% of our stewards. We would love to have 100% participa-

tion early in the year so we can budget appropriately. I ask each of you to complete a stewardship commitment

card and mail them in or place them in the stewardship box at the candle stand in the entry of the church.

2015 Operating Income /Expenses

General Fund Income Expenses Variance

Dec $32,414.35 $30,099.00 $2,315.35

Year End $343,286.04 $336,108.98 $7,177.06

For the month of December we received more than we spent and ended the year with our operating income

greater than our expenses.

2015 Stewardship

Stewardship

received

Stewardship goal Variance

Dec $27,850.35 $20,000.00 $7,850.35

Year End $257,047.89 $240,000.00 $17,047.89

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much” Helen Keller


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Council of Ministries

Please welcome Manny Miliotis as the new

chairman of the Council of Ministries.

Please thank Maria Stasios for her leader-

ship in the Council of Ministries for the last

5+ years.

Swearing in of our 2016 Parish Council

Stewardship Debra Rallis

Thank you to our parishioners who have filled out

their 2016 Commitment cards. If you have forgotten,

please do so asap. This helps the Parish Council and

Council of Ministries with our future planning.

All 2015 Stewards who filled out the time/talent sec-

tion of their commitment cards will be contacted

shortly by the ministry heads. Please join us in mak-

ing 2016 a year of spiritual growth at our beloved St.

Nicholas community!

“Those that seek the Lord shall never be in want of

any Good Thing.”

Philoptochos Enosis Chapter #5027

Tia Saffo

Thank you to everyone who baked and/or purchased

Vasilopitas on January 11th. We raised over $5000

at the event, to be shared equally between St Basile’s

Academy and our St Nicholas’ Benevolent Fund. In

case you missed it, the coin was retrieved by the

Philoptochos this year!

All ladies are invited to participate in our Feb 7th

meeting after Divine Liturgy. Our spiritual enrich-

ment speaker will be Angela Dentiste on the Good

Samaritan.

If you have not already renewed your 2016 member-

ship, we still have ornaments available. We will try

to have someone at the table during coffee hour every

Sunday to accept your payment. And we are now

able to accept credit cards for membership payments.

Have a Happy, Healthy New Year!

Romiosini and Zoyra

Our dancers and their families had a wonderful time

in Orlando for the Hellenic Dance Festival. Our

youth represented our St Nicholas community with

grace, respect and good fellowship. They saw old

friends and made new friends. We would like to say

a special thank you to our dance directors - Zaharoula

Katsikis, Lucas Bostic and Katerina Katsikis for their

dedication to teaching dance to our youth – the kids

could not have done it without you three; a heartfelt

thank you to Nota Dukas our costume director for


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keeping our dancers looking great. Her award- win-

ning talents are truly wonderful. And a big thank you

to all our parents for supporting our directors, and

bringing their children to all the practices and helping

with all the behind the scene activities that keep the

dance program going.

We are thrilled to report that all of our groups brought

home awards for their spectacular dance performanc-

es. Zoyra took home the gold and Romiosini took

home the silver award. Romiosini also received a sec-

ond medal - the folk expression award - for their Mac-

edonian suite. This speaks towards the hard work and

dedication of all the children, dance teachers, and par-

ents towards dancing and keeping our heritage alive.

We are so very pleased that Nota Dukas received the

award for costume design for her Romiosini Macedo-

nia design in the Advanced Senior Division. Way to

go!

We hope you saw our youth perform at UNCW's In-

tercultural Festival on January 30th. They did a really

nice job!

Forever Young Stella Vallianos

Forever Young will meet on Tuesday, February 2nd,

at 11 AM in the Hellenic Center. Kay Skandalakis will

be providing a light lunch for this meeting, which will

be our Valentine’s Social. (Please do not bring a cov-

ered dish.) Let’s start the new year right by all of us

attending.

Community Service Christina Mount

We would like to thank our community for the gener-

osity and support shown with our fund raising coffee

hour. With your help, we were able to provide a won-

derful Christmas for four women at First Fruit Minis-

tries. This is a program that assists women and fami-

lies who are homeless, gain the skills needed to move

into a home of their own and maintain that home. We

were also able to provide this program with enough oil

change gift certificates to help the few program partic-

ipants who have cars to maintain those cars.

If you have any questions regarding this event, or our

Community Service Ministry feel free to ask.

Community News

WITH GRATITUDE!

Thank you to Ed Mayorga for designing, building and

donating our new bar cabinetry in our Hellenic Cen-

ter! God Bless him and his wonderful family! We are

truly blessed when our members donate their time,

talent, and treasure to help their Community.

The officers and members of Chapter Therma #10

would like to thank everyone who came out to support

our annual New Years Eve dance! We wish you all a

happy and healthy 2016!

Greek School/ AHEPA Annual St. Valentine's Dance

The Dance will take place on Saturday, February 13

starting at 7 pm in our Hellenic Center. There will be a

Live Greek Band by Paschalis to provide the music

and the dancing, a delicious buffet dinner, a cash bar,

a raffle of $2 a ticket with all sorts of goodies ( wines,

Greek delicacies, dinner certificates and more im-

portant a secret grand prize of an electronic device).

The tickets are $35 for adults for pre-sale and $40 at

the door, $15 for students and free for children 12 and

under. There will be a sitter for the younger kids so

families can come with their children and enjoy the

fun.

The whole Parish and friends are invited for an even-

ing of camaraderie, fellowship and fun. The proceeds

go to the Greek School which is tuition free for their

books and supplies and to AHEPA Cape Fear Chapter

#408 for their charitable activities. Come and support

our Hellenic School and our local AHEPA Chapter.

For more information call the Church Office or see

Nick Lazaridis or Pete Malahias.

DIAKONIA RETREAT CENTER FUNDRAISER

Please Save the Date: Sunday, March 6, 2016!

All Greek Orthodox Churches in the area are planning

to attend a beautiful fund raiser for our beloved Dia-

konia Retreat Center. The event will take place at the

parish center at St. John the Baptist in Myrtle Beach

on the evening of Sunday, March 6, 2016 and will fea-

ture our very own “Basile!” His Eminence Metropoli-


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tan Alexios will be there for an evening of fun and

fellowship. Please plan on joining us!

HOME BLESSINGS

Please call the office to schedule your home blessing

if you have not yet done so. Father Jon will be trying

to visit everyone that has not had a chance to get their

home or business blessed. Thank you.

LOCAL EVENT SPOTLIGHT

Opera Wilmington presents - AMORE! Songs of

Love, with our own Michael and Nikoleta Rallis.

Champagne + Chocolates + Live Opera. February

14th from 4-p.m. at UNCW Bechwith Recital Hall.

Tickets available from Kenan Box Office 962-3500.

WINE

We have Greek wine for sale! If you would like to

purchase a bottle, please see a Parish Council member.

DONATION REQUESTS

Olive oil for the vigil lamp is in need. If you would

like to make a donation, please bring any size bottle to

the church. Thank you.

We are accepting donations as we continue to improve

our Hellenic Center. Any donations would be greatly

appreciated. Items needed include new banquet

chairs.

Please donate all weekly coupons from newspapers &

ads to the Hellenic Center. These coupons will be used

to help our parishioners save money on products. For

more information, please see Benjalee Pittman.

We are looking for volunteers to host coffee hour. If

you are interested in hosting coffee hour please con-

tact Angelique Skandalakis. For the weeks when we

do not have a volunteer we will still have coffee and

juice.

Congratulations

For all the people celebrating their birthday, anniver-

sary, and name day in the month of February, may you

have many happy years! Many Happy Years!

On January 3 we held a 40-day blessing for Charlotte

Eloise, the daughter of Michael and Kippy Batuyios.

Sympathies and Memorials

We express our deepest sympathy to Thalia Kefalas

on the passing of her brother, Efthemios, on Saturday,

December 19th. May his memory be eternal!

March 5: First Saturday of Souls

March 6, Meat fare Sunday: Diakonia Retreat Center Fundraiser

March 12: Second Saturday of Souls

March 13, Forgiveness Sunday: Daylight Savings Time Begins & Oratorical Festival

March 14: Great Lent Begins

March 19: Third Saturday of Souls

March 20, Sunday of Orthodoxy: Procession of Icons

March 27: Greek Independence Day Celebration

SAVE THE DATES


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Communications Ministries Alexandros Theodoropoulos

On behalf of our Communications ministries, we would like to extend our best wishes to all of our

parishioners for a Healthy and Prosperous 2016!

There was an issue that was brought to the attention of our Technology ministry recently according

to which when a visitor would try to view the live streaming of our services from the pertinent page

on our website, he/she would get a login screen. Of course, the login screen shouldn't have been

there and the issue, which originated by the servers of the company hosting the streaming, should

now be resolved as everything has been working fine for the last couple of weeks.

Moreover, in case there are such issues again in the future, the following alternative link could be

used until the issue gets resolved:

https://video.nest.com/live/fnkNsT

A reference to this link has also been posted conveniently on our live streaming webpage at

www.stnicholaswilmington.org/LiveStreaming.html right below the window showing the stream in

case it is ever needed.

As always, in case you experience any issues with any of our church's technology equipment please

let our Communications ministries know at [email protected].

LIVE STREAMING NOTIFICATION

https://video.nest.com/live/fnkNsT

http://www.stnicholaswilmington.org/LiveStreaming.html


Romiosini

Silver medal AND

Folk

Expression award WINNERS!

Nota

Dukas

Costume

Design

winner!


Zoyra

Brought home the gold!

Hellenic Dance Festival, Orlando, FL 2016


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St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church Family Activity – Baking Artoklasia

Saturday, February 6, 2016

8:30am-12:30pm

Fun and Activities for adults and youth! Part of Family Outreach Sunday

(All ministries are invited to help distribute the mini loaves starting

Wednesday, February 24, 2016 at 7pm.)

Please join Presbytera Barbara & Fr. Jon!

Learn about the gospel story, baking Artoklasia

and the special recipe.


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Join us for Super Bowl Sunday

Fellowship!

Bring your family to join our St. Nicholas family for fun, food, football, and fellowship! 6:00 pm till the game’s over!

Please bring a refreshment and appetizer/snack to share.

Can’t think of anything? Try one of these:

Cheese Ball, Cheese & Crackers, Hot Dogs/Buns, Chili, Pizza, Chips, Taco Chips, Salsa, Guacamole, Meatballs,

Lil’ Smokies, Mexican Dip, Spinach or Artichoke Dip, Brownies, Cookies, Other Desserts, Fruit or Veggies,

Sodas, Water, and Other Drinks…

Not interested in football? Bring a deck of cards or your backgammon board

See you Sunday, Feb 7th in the Hellenic Center!


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For a complete and up-to-date version of our Parish Calendar, please visit us online at:

http://www.stnicholaswilmington.org/ParishCalendar.html

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608 S. College Road, Wilmington, NC 28403

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Documents

February 2016 Monthly Newsletter