Diocesan Life A “Slice of Life” from Holy Trinity Church in Yonkers, NY Summer/Fall 2014
Why should pizza be the only thing deliciously served by the slice in Yonkers? Here is a “slice of life” from Holy Trinity Church, consecrated in 1906 by Saints Tikhon of Moscow, Raphael of Brooklyn, and Alexander Hotovitzky…and still, with God’s help, striving to keep the Faith and grow the Kingdom! Keeping Our Kids Connected to Christ “HTO YOUth” and a New Teen Room: Thanks to considerable contributions of time, treasure, and sweat from our laypeople, we have renovated one of our Church School classrooms into a spacious and colorful Teen Room! Not only do our high school
and several times a year, they grace our stage with memorable skits and songs! The “Unexpected Joy” Girls’ Choir: This choir is a means to connect our young ladies to their parish family within the experience of the Liturgy, and to consecrate their immense talents to God. This group of girls can be found singing both on their own, having prepared special hymns for Sunday and Pre-Sanctified Liturgies, and as part of the adult choir. They have shared a summer retreat together and were featured in the parish’s presentation of the Broadway musical, “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”. Parish “In-Reach” Saints Martha and Mary Women’s Fellowship, a group comprised mainly of wives and mothers whose aim is to make the second half of life more spiritual and prayerful, meets one Friday each month for great fellowship, snacks, and discussions of books, faith, and life.
students meet there for Sunday classes, but they can play air hockey, watch movies, read, plan our “HTO YOUth” group’s service projects and social outings, and just relax. We have made inroads toward establishing an OCF chapter at nearby Manhattan College, with one Orthodox student from an upstate New York parish having already made Holy Trinity his spiritual “home away from home” as a result.
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An Energetic Church School: Our faithful students and our team of teachers keep things lively with an ever-growing blend of lessons, projects, and ministries. Our founders blessed us with a spacious Christian Education Building, which our kids continue to decorate with colorful artwork focused on the Church Year and Lenten themes…
Marriage Retreat: Last summer, when Fr. Constantine Nasr visited the Diocese to lead our Parish Council Conferences, we recruited him to present a parish Marriage Retreat, “Mastering the Art of Marriage.” Ten married and engaged couples came to learn from Fr. Constantine’s wisdom and experience, with the engaged and newly married couples gaining the skills needed to navigate both the joys and challenges of marriage, as well as giving more mature marriages a “shot in the arm”. Homebound Parishioner Visitations have become a joy-filled effort spanning across generations. Church School children and teachers bake cookies and breads for our homebound family members. The children have joined in on many visitations, especially during the Christmas season, where our loved ones confined to nursing homes and their own homes were greeted by the smiles and singing voices of Christmas carolers both young in years and young at heart! A lay-led visitation ministry team has stepped up to the plate in a big way, giving rides to parishioners who cannot get to church by themselves and greatly supplementing Father’s visitations with their own. If someone cannot come to Church…the Church comes to them!
