Dear Guests & Volunteers,

Updates have been made to the programme times for the January 27th Gala. The schedule for the evening is as follows.

Church Doors Open
4.00 p.m.

Vespers in the Church
4.30 p.m.

Cocktails, Appetizers, Bar Service & Open Silent Auction
5.00 p.m.

Seating for Dinner
6.30 p.m.

Blessing & Dinner Service
6.45 p.m.

Main Course Speaker: Archimandrite Irenei
7.30 p.m.

Dessert, Coffee & Tea
8.30 p.m.

Closing of Silent Auction
8.45 p.m.

A warm 'welcome back' to all our students and families! We hope that everyone has had a peaceful, refreshing and blessed break from classes over the past two weeks, culminating in a joyous celebration of the Feast of the Theophany last week.

... And if Drama be the food of fun, please come ... to our play! On Thursday, 22 December, the St. John's Players (otherwise known as St. John's students in the 6th through 11th grades) will perform William Shakespeare's lively lark of lighthearted comedy, Twelfth Night. You won't want to miss these young thespians acting their hearts out to bring you an evening of delightful entertainment. Please arrive at 7:00 PM at the Little Theater of St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy. Everyone of any age is invited, especially if you come with a snack to share with the audience after the performance. There is no charge for entrance, though any donations to support St. John's Theater program will be gratefully accepted at the door.

St. John's Academy High School students are preparing to help with the annual Gingerbread Fayre -- a major community event at Holy Virgin Cathedral. Organized this year for a final time by Matushka Larissa Belikow, the Gingerbread Fayre brings together children from both our schools, as well as the Cathedral parish as a whole and many guests / friends, in order to decorate gingerbread houses with special packages of supplies and place settings prepared for each child, as well as take part in a number of other activities organized for the occasion. Numerous booths are present with crafts and supplies for the Nativity season, produced by members of our Orthodox community, and small games and crafts made ready for the children -- as well as refreshments for all ages.

Many will be pleased to learn that the Academy has leapt into the modern era by at last establishing its presence on Facebook. Our new Facebook Page is designed to interact with our web site, allowing us an easy means of providing photo galleries and additional social media related to the life and exciting activities of the school. The Facebook environment also allows these to be shared easily across the internet.

Students and staff at St. John's Academy kept our time-honoured tradition of holding a Thanksgiving lunch on the final Tuesday before the holiday break.

On the evening of Monday, 21st November 2011, Hieromonk James of the Old Cathedral of the Holy Virgin, ‘Joy of All Who Sorrow’ on Fulton Street, visited St. John’s Academy in order to speak to our parents at the third of this year’s Parents Evenings. Taking as his topic Thanksgiving, the Giving of Thanks and the Nativity Fast, Fr James spoke to a gathering of some 30 school parents on a host of interconnected themes relevant to the life of every Orthodox Christian at this important and holy time of year.

Beginning with a brief overview of the history of the American holiday of Thanksgiving, which we prepare to celebrate later this week, Fr James spoke of the great ordeals experienced by the pilgrims who arrived in the New World so many centuries ago (such as the fact that more than 50% died of sickness or other causes within their first year in the territory), and yet the great devotion to divine Providence that nonetheless inspired them. This was a general devotion to God that allowed the first proclamation of Thanksgiving to be conjoined, by President George Washington, to the hope that the American people might '…express the thankfulness of their hearts and their gratitude to their divine Benefactor’, and ‘acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we have experienced.’ Though the holiday existed for many generations at the ongoing will of the presidents, only many decades later was it declared by Congress as a permanent holiday: ‘A day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.’ Father James drew attention to the way in which a belief in God formed an integral part of American culture, even up until the middle of the past century—and that the famous separation of Church and State exists in order to prevent a single state church from becoming oppressive in the nation, not the active expression of religious belief even within the culture or state itself. He noted that the forefathers of this land would react with abhorrence to the hostile trends toward religious freedom and practice experienced in our culture today, which resemble the very oppression from which the pilgrims fled to come to this land and life. 

The winners of the event, students in the Great and Illustrious House of Jerusalem, were awarded prizes consisting of lovely items from the Holy Virgin Cathedral bookstore, as well as house--points toward their contest tally, not to mention a promised ice cream social with the Dean of Students. The second place winner, the Great and Courageous House of Constantinople also received similar prizes from the Cathedral bookstore and house-points, as did the Great and Auspicious House of Alexandria. 

Thinkathon 2011 was a joyous and edifying event. Hopefully, those who were not able to make it this year will not miss next year's Thinkathon 2012  when it comes around again in November.

Final Scores

House of Jerusalen ~ 46 points
House of Alexandria ~ 36 points
House of Constantinople ~ 32 point