The weekend of November 20, 2020 was a busy one for the parish community of St. John the Baptist Church in Edwardsville, PA.  The weekend began with celebrating the Feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos with Vespers and Divine Liturgy. Father Silouan reminded those present that the life of purity and virtue that the Theotokos led while living in the Temple is a call for us to aspire to as well.  How are we working towards becoming more like Christ in our own life? 

Following Divine Liturgy the Sunday School and many of the parishioners prepared a Thanksgiving Dinner for the Veterans center down the street.  This has become part of the Sunday School’s mission, which is now an annual tradition (this marks the fifth year that the parish has provided this charity service.) Thanks to the generosity of parishioners and the labors of the Sunday School crew, Thanksgiving packages were prepared.  These packages included a Thanksgiving Dinner meal “box” with all the trimmings and two large bags of groceries.  These packages were prepared for each veteran; but  due to the pandemic, the meal had to be dropped-off and couldn’t not be held as a community. In year’s past, this was a held as a community meal and was always a joyous event.

Additionally, the afternoon saw the Buildings and Grounds committee accompanied by several youngsters begin their fall cleanup of the grounds.