Recommended Coffee Hour Duties
1. Potluck Food Please sign up to bring enough food to help serve approximately 100 people. Main Dish #1 Main Dish #2 Side Dish #1 Side Dish #2 Side Dish #3 or Dessert Need recipe ideas? Try the 2003 US Armed Forces Cookbook. Or try the Moosewood Restaurant Cooks for a Crowd cookbook. Appendix 4 has a list of vegan recipes. 2. Coffee & Beverages Prepare regular coffee (large pot) and decaf (small pot). Use 1 cup of coffee per 20 cups of water. Place refrigerated coffee creamers near the coffee station. Put refrigerated juices and a pitcher of cold water near the hot water/tea station. After coffee hour, discard coffee grounds and rinse coffee pots with water (no soap). Place creamers in the fridge. Leave coffee pots inverted on the counter next to the sink by the telephone. 3. Table & Serving Setup Set out paper products and utensils, or set out church dishes. Set up the serving tables with trays and serving utensils. Clearly mark common allergens when applicable: milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, and sesame. Place hot food on the wooden boards provided on the serving table. Set aside prepared plates for the clergy. Fr. John cannot have shellfish, bell peppers, coffee, or chocolate. After coffee hour, clear and wipe the serving and round tables. You do not need to wait until everyone has left to begin wiping tables. 4. Dishes & Kitchen Cleanup Wash, dry, and put away all church dishes, utensils, pots, and serving items. Wipe all kitchen counters. Empty and rinse sink strainers. Clean any spills or messes in the kitchen. Do not put food down the drain. 5. Trash & Final Cleanup Remove all garbage from the kitchen and hall and take it to the dumpster. Make sure the stove and ovens are turned off. Vacuum any carpet spills or messes. Distribute or take home all leftover food and condiments. Do not leave food in the refrigerator or kitchen.
2026-27 Coffee Hour Teams
Coffee hour is an important part of parish life—a time to share a meal, welcome visitors, catch up with one another, and build community after Divine Liturgy. To make hosting coffee hour easier and give more parishioners an opportunity to participate, St. John’s has assembled eight coffee hour teams to fill gaps on the existing sign up sheet. How the Teams Work Each Coffee Hour Team consists of 5–8 parishioners who collaborate to host Coffee Hour a few times throughout the liturgical year. From September 1, 2026, to August 31, 2027, each team will host approximately 4–6 Sundays. The Finer Details: Team Coordination: Members of each team share responsibilities for bringing food, setting up, cleaning up, and covering costs. There are no strict rules for how teams organize themselves—each group is encouraged to find a method that works best. Team Leadership: Every team has a leader, whose main role is to help keep the team organized. The leader communicates with team members, confirms responsibilities, and guides decision-making, but does not need to be an expert in hosting or cooking. Church Support: The parish provides essential coffee supplies and paper products, ensuring teams can focus on hospitality. No Experience Required: Everyone is welcome to join a team, regardless of hosting experience. Teams are designed to bring together parishioners with varying levels of familiarity with Coffee Hour, so no prior experience is required. The goal is not to reinvent Coffee Hour but to ensure hosting is easier and that gaps and last-minute scrambles on the sign-up sheet become a thing of the past. Questions or Scheduling Support Anita continues to oversee Coffee Hour and manage the sign-up sheet, ensuring everything runs smoothly. The goal of the team system is to complement the existing scheduling process by creating an additional structure of support. For questions about Coffee Hour, scheduling, or the sign-up sheet, parishioners are encouraged to contact Anita directly. Join a Team Anytime There is no set window for becoming part of a Coffee Hour Team; participation is open throughout the year. The online interest form remains available at all times, making it easy for new parishioners, regular Coffee Hour attendees, or anyone eager to become more involved in parish life to join a team. Whether someone enjoys cooking, organizing, picking up simple items from the store, or lending a hand with setup and cleanup, there is a place for everyone to contribute. Interested in joining a Coffee Hour Team? Complete the Coffee Hour Team Interest Form
Orthodox Architect Andrew Gould to speak at St. John’s, 10/21
St. John the Baptist Church in Canonsburg would like to invite you to join us for “An Evening with Orthodox Architect Andrew Gould” on Wednesday, Oct. 21. His presentation will begin at 7:00 pm and will be preceded by Vespers at 6 pm. There will be some refreshments available before his lecture. A flyer is attached.Please join us for a beautiful slideshow and talk presenting Gould’s past and ongoing Orthodox church projects around the country. He is an artisan and designer specializing in traditional buildings and liturgical art. He has practiced in Charleston, SC since 2004 under his company name “New World Byzantine”. He has designed several prominent Orthodox churches, numerous renovations and liturgical furnishings, and dozens of other buildings across North America. He founded and runs the Orthodox Arts Journal.In Christ our Lord,Dn. John Thompson
Using Commemoration Slips
At the Proskomedia (Liturgy of Preparation), the priest commemorates the living and the departed. For Orthodox Christians who are united with Christ in His Church, he places a small particle of bread on the paten before the Lamb, the portion of bread which will be offered up and become the Body of Christ. For non-Orthodox, he prayerfully reads their name, without placing a particle on the paten. After Holy Communion, these particles are wiped from the paten into the chalice, which contains the Body and Blood of the Lord, with the words “Wash away, O Lord, the sins of all those remembered here, by Thy precious Blood, and through the prayers of Thy saints”, symbolizing their saving union with Christ. We hope and pray that those outside the Church, commemorated without a particle, are saved by the Eucharistic prayers of the Church. To commemorate the living, please use the red side of the slip; for the departed, the black side. Use as many slips as needed, making sure to differentiate between Orthodox and non-Orthodox commemorations. When & Where Do I Offer Commemorations? Please offer commemoration lists before the beginning of the Liturgy; it is bestto do so at Vespers or Matins before the Liturgy. How Do I Offer Commemorations? Below are some guidelines, which are generally followed across our parishes, which all our babas and yiayias knew, but which are often forgotten here in America. Everyone should be aware of these rules, and try to follow them, as they reflect our theology and help the priest to offer them prayerfully, without him having to figure out what to say: Concluding Words on Commemoration Slips A concrete example of ‘bad’ commemoration slip usage would be “Aunt Tillie Smith”. It is the priest who will be offering the prayer, and she isn’t the priest’s aunt; her nickname shouldn’t be used, but rather her baptismal/saint’s name; and the surname is just something the priest must spend time and mental energy parsing out. Instead, simply write “Matilda”.Of course, it is important to remember that, if offered in love, we can’t really offer these commemorations in a ‘wrong’ way. Children are going to innocently just put ‘grandma’ on the slip; in such cases, the priest will look to the name in the “Offered by” field, and say “Daniel’s grandmother”. However, following these customary rules concerning the offering of names on commemoration slips really does help the priest toefficiently and prayerfully offer them on our behalf. Even if we aren’t used to filling out a slip, consider starting. Ecclesiastical Abbreviations The following abbreviations are encouraged when filling out commemoration slips:Pat. – PatriarchMet. – MetropolitanAbp. – ArchbishopBp. – BishopArchm. – ArchimandriteHmk. – HieromonkProtopr. – Protopresbyter (Russian Title)Mit. Apr. – Mitred ArchpriestApr. – ArchpriestProt. – Protopresbyter (Greek/Serbian)Pr. – PriestAdn. – ArchdeaconPdn. – ProtodeaconDn. – DeaconSdn. – SubdeaconRd. – ReaderMka. – MatushkaPres. – PresbyteraKh. – KhouriaDna. – Diaconissa
Making Orthodox Campus Connections August 9, 2026
Did you know that studying at a college or university can help you grow in your faith? It takes some work, but it has happened many times! Come to “Making Orthodox Campus Connections” at St. John’s on August 9, 2026 to learn more. Any student entering or returning to their studies at a college or university is warmly invited to come to this evening of conversation and fellowship, where you’ll have a chance to meet other Orthodox students. There will be presentations by students and graduates who’ve grown in their faith, and opportunity to learn about the Orthodox Christian Fellowship and what resources it provides. We’ll meet in the church hall from 6 to 8 on Sunday evening, August 9, and there will be plenty of refreshments! If you plan to come, please go to St. John’s home page, and click on the “Making Orthodox Campus Connections” flyer (under “Parish Life”) to go to the RSVP page. Special note: if you know a college or university student who might be interested in this, please encourage them to come! Send them a link to the flyer if you can. Loading…
