St. Anthony Coptic Orthodox Church

Happy & Blessed fast of St. Mary & Happy Feast of Transfiguration
God willing the Revival (Nahda) for St. Mary will begin tonight, Monday 8/16/2021 and continue to Saturday 8/21/2021 from 7 PM – 9 PM.Divine Liturgy for the Feast of St. Mary will be Sunday 8/22/2021 8 AM – 11 AM.
Nightly Nahda:Mon – Sat 7 pm – 9 pm
Feast of Transfiguration Divine Liturgy:Thurs 8/19/2021 8 am – 11 am
Feast of St. Mary Divine Liturgy:Sun 8/22/2021 8 am – 11 amNOTE: There will be NO liturgy on Wednesday 8/18/2021.
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May the blessing of the feast of Transfiguation and the intercessions of the Theotokos St. Mary be with us all.

40th Day Memorial Liturgy for  Ms. Fayza Gabra Gobriel

Join us this Sunday, 7/18/21 at 8 am, for the 40th Day Memorial Liturgy for Ms. Fayza Gabra Gobriel.

She is the loving mother of Ms. Evette Girgis, and Dr. Venus Fanous and the mother in law of Mr. Michael Fanous.

Service will be held at:

St. Anthony Coptic Orthodox Church
267 Hartford Rd.
Medford, NJ 08055

May the Lord repose her soul and give comfort to the family.

A Blessed Apostles’ Fast!  I hope this finds you all well.
Our Sunday School services have been transitioning to all in-person instruction with a Zoom meeting option.  To that end, we are excited to announce, God willing, beginning this coming Friday, June 25th, we will be returning to all in-person instruction for our Friday services.  In addition, we will be returning to all Sunday School classes meeting at the same time, immediately following the Divine Liturgy, beginning this Sunday, June 27th.  For all the details regarding times and locations of the various services, please refer to the attached Excel spreadsheet.  In addition, signs will be placed on the doors of the classrooms and please feel free to ask any of your child’s servants.
NOTE: ALL youth and adults are still required to wear masks, maintain 3 foot social distancing where possible and use strict hand hygiene.  As always, if you or your child are feeling sick or have been exposed to someone with COVID, please see your physician and do not come to church.
We need your help as we transition back to our normal way of conducting services in the Church.  Please adhere to current guidelines and help us keep everyone safe.  Protocols and procedures will be updated as the situation demands.
Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.  Please pray for the Sunday School services and all the services in the Church.

The peace and love of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all.
God willing we will celebrate the Feast of the Ascension on Thursday 6/10/2021 from 8 – 11.
Note: There is no Liturgy on Wednesday.

Position:          Full-time and Part-time laboratory technician.

Company:        Seahawk Services

Location:         West Deptford, NJ

Requirement:  High School or college graduate, No experience required

Send resume to Job@SeahawkServices.com Please share this information with others.

In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the One God, Amen
The peace and love of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ be with you all.
Ekhristos Anesti – Alithos AnestiChrist is Risen – Truly He is Risen

We thank God for every condition, concerning every condition and every condition.

We are thankful to the Lord for all His love for us, for keeping us safe and that He is giving us the ability to pray together once more.

I am really thankful to all of you for your cooperation during this past year. You have all contributed to the success that we have reached today.

We have gone from the church being closed, quarantining, and praying at home to 7 people in the church. We have slowly advanced to where we are today with our 75 persons in the church and keeping the 6 feet social distance. Of course this has been a very trying time for all of us.

I am very happy to say that there are new guidelines from the governor that will improve our ability to worship together once more. 

At this point, the guidelines allow us to resume service at full capacity. The social distance requirement has been removed for those who have been fully vaccinated and although the new guidelines allow those individuals who have been vaccinated (beyond 2 weeks) to remove their masks indoors and outdoors, there is still a requirement to wear masks indoors when it is crowded. We will make some great changes that will allow us to resume our worship services as we had done with a couple of minor temporary changes.

Here is what we will do in order to make everyone feel safe while attending service – The following changes are effective as of Saturday 5/29/2021:

1) We will go back to full capacity and will no longer require registration – doors will remain open 

2) We will not make any calls prior to attendance and we will no longer check temperatures – we will have the hand sanitizers at the entrance and in the church and we encourage everyone to use them regularly as well as frequent washing of hands

3) In order to avoid asking who is or who is not vaccinated, we will still require everyone to wear masks during the service in the church (at least for the time being)

4) Anyone attending service inside the church needing a mask break, can enter the social hall or go outside for a break and return back to the church (masks MUST be worn properly (over the nose) upon entry into the church)

5) Re-evaluation will happen as numbers of positive cases continue to go down and number of those vaccinated goes up

If anyone still needs information regarding vaccination, please contact me as soon as possible.

NOTES:

Over the last year we have learned the habit of attending the church from the beginning. Since the doors will not be closed as before, this does not mean that we should arrive late. Let us not lose this beautiful blessing of arriving early to church.

“O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You.” (Ps 63:1)          “يَا اللهُ إِلَهِي أَنْتَ. إِلَيْكَ أُبَكِّر”

Since social distance will not be maintained, all family members must sit together. This will allow us to best accommodate everyone inside the church.

Deacons must be in church by 8:15. Vestments/Tonias will be blessed only one time. If you arrive after the blessing of the vestments, please pray among the congregation.

As before, if you have any COVID related symptoms, please refrain from attending church. If you have had any international travel or have come in contact with anyone who has traveled internationally you must still quarantine or obtain a negative PCR test 5 days after arrival in the USA.

We will continue to do our part in order to keep everyone safe. May God continue to protect His people, children and His church.

I am looking forward to seeing you all again and praying together.

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Be safe in the Lord.