St. Matthew Orthodox Christian Church
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
Torrance, CA

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Learning Opportunities

1st Sunday of the Month Parish Teaching

  • Following the Divine Liturgy on the first Sunday of each month Fr. John gives a teaching to the community during the Agape Meal. All are welcome.

Weekly Bible Studies

  • A study of the scriptures in light of the anceint commentators takes us to a deeper relationship with Christ and understanding of the Christian faith. Currently Bible Studies are on Friday mornings from 7am yill 

Introduction to Orthodox Christianity and Catechism

  • Instruction about Orthodox Christianity and the Catechism process takes place on an individual/family bases with Fr. John. After meeting, a schedule will be establised for meeting regularly.
  • Please feel free to contact Fr. John if you have particular questions or to discuss the process of becoming an Orthodox Christian.

Great Lent Wednesday Night Teaching

  • During the Lenten season a teaching will be offered on Wednesday night during the Agape Meal which takes place immediately following the Presanctified Liturgy.
Activities & Minitries

Hot Meals for the Homeless
Hot Meals For The Homeless is an opportunity to help others in need.
Held on the 2nd Saturday of every month, members of various churches come together to provide lunches and a hot meal for those in need. As the economy slows, more people will be in need of a meal, just to get them through the week.
Come prepare sandwiches, or serve food, or make a dish for those less fortunate than ourselves. The meal is from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm, so come help, even if just for an hour.
The meal is served Saturday morning at Walteria United Methodist Church in south Torrance.
3646 Newton Street, Torrance
For more information, e-mail JoAnn or Jim Ramirez at songoku2@verizon.net

Agape Meal Teams rotate in the offering of the Agape meal following the Divine Liturgy on Sundays. Contact the Church office if you would like to be added to a meal team. 

The Ladies of St. Matthew is a fun and vibrant group that conducts many activities throughout the year. Bake sales, church meals, party planning and support are just some of what they do. Contact the church office for the time and location of their next meeting!

The Sunday School Ministry takes on the important task of teaching our youth, from new borns to High Schoolers, the ancient Christian faith and how to live into the calling of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sunday School gathers on Sundays immediately following Holy Communion until 12 noon.

Our Men's Fellowship Group meets on the second to last Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm. Following a potluck dinner the group gathers to read about and discuss subjects of importance to Christian men. Contact the church office for more details and locations.

Our Women's Fellowship Group meets on the last Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm. Following a potluck dinner the group gathers to read about and discuss subjects of importance to Christian women. Contact the church office for more details and locations.

Our Senior's Fellowship (50+) meets monthly at a local resturant for fellowship and teaching. Check the Church google calendar for upcoming gathers.

Arabic Orthodox Education is an opportunity to learn the beauty and depth of the Orthodox Christian faith in the Arabic language. The group meets once a month at a different home and enjoys dinner, fellowship, teaching, and discussion.

 

House Blessings
 
With the Feast of Theophany, Christ's baptism in the Jordan, we celebrate the coming of Christ into this world to sanctify ALL of creation. As such, it is customary and essential, to arrange for the priest to bless your home / apt / business / dorm room, etc with holy water. Contact Fr. John directly to make arrangements. Here is some information to help you prepare:

Before the Priest arrives, prepare by cleaning your home/business and opening and lighting all the rooms. Have the following items ready for the house blessing: 

  • Icon of Christ
  • Candle
  • Small bowl half full of water to which the Priest will add the "Jordan" Holy Water.
  • Incense burner
  • Incense
  • Charcoal
  • A sprig of basil leaves (available at the grocery store.) or other fragrant greenery that the priest can use to bless your home.
  • A list of the Living and Departed in the family you wish the priest to pray for in the blessing

Many of these items can be purchased in the church bookstore. If you don't know how to use the incense at home, this is a great time for the priest to help you learn! (If having these items (Censer, basil, etc.) is not possible, the priest will have these in his blessing bag).

Place the items on a small table in your icon corner.

Upon the arrival of the Priest, he is to be greeted by all of the family members, each of whom asks the Priest’s blessing and kisses his right hand. The priest will begin the short prayer service, bless with the incense,and say the Theophany blessing prayer. Then, using the basil sprig dipped in water as a sprinkler, he will go to each room, lead by a family member holding a candle, and sprinkle holy water on all 4 sides, blessing the home with the grace of the Holy Spirit which also protects you from evil spirits. After blessing the home, all gather back at the table for the final prayers, dismissal, and blessing of each person in the family. 

Save some of the holy water in a bottle in your ikonostasi (home altar) and pour the remainder on plants. Although ideal, all family members do not need to be present for the house blessing. House Blessings are a yearly tradition. It is customary, although not required, for the head of the household to discreetly present the Priest with an envelope containing an honorarium and a list of the Living and Departed for whom the family requests his prayers during the New Year.

The goal is to bless every dwelling of the faithful by March 1st. (While you are free to invite the priest (and his family if you like) for a meal after the blessing, by NO means is this necessary. We can just simply come and bless, have a cup of tea (or not), spend a little time, and leave at your convenience.

If several families live in close proximity to each other, it is helpful to coordinate with each other to have the priest come and bless multiple homes at one time then, if you would like (but not necessary), all gather together for a potluck meal afterwards. 

Call, Text or Email Fr. John

Today's Commemorations
Thaddeus (Jude) the Apostle & Brother of Our Lord, Holy Martyr Zosima, Our Righteous Father Zenonus, Paisius the Great of Egypt
Today's Scripture Readings
ST. JUDE'S FIRST UNIVERSAL LETTER 1:1-25
JUDE, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you. Beloved, being very eager to write to you of our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For admission has been secretly gained by some who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly persons who pervert the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny the only Master and our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I desire to remind you, though you were once for all fully informed, that the Lord saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels that did not keep their own position but left their proper dwelling have been kept by him in eternal chains in the nether gloom until the judgment of the great day; just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise acted immorally and indulged in unnatural lust, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. Yet in like manner these men in their dreamings defile the flesh, reject authority, and revile the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, disputed about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.' But these men revile whatever they do not understand, and by those things that they know by instinct as irrational animals, they are destroyed. Woe to the ungodly, for they walk in the way of Cain, and abandon themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error, and perish in Korah's rebellion. These are blemishes on your love feasts, as they boldly carouse together, looking after themselves; waterless clouds, carried along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars for whom the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved for ever. It was of these also that Enoch in the seventh generation from Adam prophesied, saying, 'Behold, the Lord came with his holy myriads, to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness which they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.' These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own passions, loud-mouthed boasters, flattering people to gain advantage. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; they said to you, 'in the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.' It is these who set up divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And convince some, who doubt; save some, by snatching them out of the fire; on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen.
JOHN 14:21-24
The Lord said to his disciples, "He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, "Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?" Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me."
Today's Thought

If you worship Christ in your heart, you can save your kinsfold as well as yourself; if your heart worships father and mother, son and daughter, you will certainly lose both yourself and them. St. Nicholai of Zica

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