Lenten Retreat!

We are holding our annual Lenten Retreat this weekend on Saturday, March 1st at St. Stephen's Orthodox Church from 1pm to 4pm. Tenny Thomas from NY will speak about The Path to the Cross. Tenny is a notable speaker so you won't want to miss this event! We plan to go out for dinner so please plan to attend. The flyer above has more details.

Also, we really encourage you to donate to help out the retreat. Your generosity will be key in our ability to hold more retreats, Faith/Bible classes, Translation projects as well as funding other future projects.
A donation link is available on the right side of the blog under DONATIONS.

See y'all at the retreat!

"Commitment is a major part of a committee."

Focus Houston gathered together with its committee for the first time to decide and discuss several important topics, thoughts, and ideas for this year. We have a good group of people who are willing to sacrifice their time for our organization. A few things to note from their discussion:

Second English Holy Qurbana Service
The details are currently being worked through for conducting this service at St. Thomas Church. More details to follow on actual start dates and times.

Catechism Classes
Preparations are being made to finalize details for these classes similar to that led by Abey George in early January. Seminarian Jake is working on a catechism course for Houston as well as translation projects.

Donations
There is now a FOCUS Houston PayPal account that can be used to donate money to help with future events and projects. A donation link is available on the right side of the blog under DONATIONS. FOCUS members can donate to help pay for the seminarian's flight and honorarium once we begin our catechism course. Also, donations can be given for projects such as sponsoring seminarian education, translation of texts to English, etc.

OCYM event on 2/16/08
OCYM (Orthodox Christian Youth Movement) at St. Thomas is holding its Annual Retreat on Saturday, February 16th. Aju Achen from NY is holding a special session for OCYM, FOCUS, and MGOCSM at 5pm and will discuss Sacraments and Orthodox Living. OCYM would also like to invite everyone for the election of next year’s committee to anyone who would like to participate. This will take place after Aju Achen’s session. Following the election will be evening prayer and they will close this occasion with dinner for everyone. Please make every effort to attend and try to plan and stay for the entire event.

Lenten Retreat
Since last year’s retreat went so well, we are looking to organize another retreat for this year's Lent. We’ll update you guys once we finalize dates and guest speakers.

MGOCSM Mentorship Program
Planning is in process to create a mentorship program between FOCUS and MGOCSM members.

New Orthodox Study Bible
-There is a new Orthodox Study Bible that will be available soon. Pre-orders of 12 or more are 40% off and individual pre-orders are 20% off. To purchase a bible or for information click here.

-Also, if you click here, you can get the full Orthodox Study Bible for $32 (including shipping/pre-order price). It's a good price but the only catch is that you have to wait until June to get it. They may be letting the Orthodox Bookstores sell first, and then releasing it to Amazon, etc.

Websites
Check out these websites under the LINKS section on the blog and see what we’ve added.

• The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church link is the worldwide official website of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. There is a lot of information on there, especially on Church History, Liturgy Tradition, and Administration. It is good for all of us to have a basic understanding of our Church and to get a world view as well.



• The Official Church Constitution link is definitely something we should be familiar with, especially if we want to start taking an active role in the General Body and Committee.

image credit: www.orthodoxstudybible.com

First FOCUS event of the year!

We had a wonderful FOCUS event at the start of the year! It took place on January 5th at St. Thomas Orthodox Church. It began with a bible reading from Joel Wilson and a couple of Praise and Worship songs. Then we had Seminarian Abey George conduct an insightful faith/bible study on Scripture and Tradition. After the presentation, we had evening prayer in English. We were lucky to have Seminarians Jake Kurian and Christopher Mathew to join us at our event. We took all the Seminarians out for dinner to end the night.

To view Abey’s Scripture and Tradition presentation, click here.

(although the slideshow opens up in a new window, please allow a couple of minutes to load.)

To view pictures taken on the event, go to the link on the right side of the blog under PICTURES.

Welcome to FOCUS Houston’s blog!

First up, Happy New Year everyone! The Houston division of FOCUS finally has a blog! There is a lot to get excited about this year. We have found ways for our FOCUS members to keep in touch online. So far we have started a web forum through Google Groups which all of FOCUS members are encouraged to join. And now this blog will serve as FOCUS Houston’s primary website. Keep checking this website for updates on the latest happenings. You will be able to access our calendar as well. On the right side of the blog, you can click on the link under CALENDER for dates and times of our future events. Add this blog as a favorite or bookmark it so you can keep it on hand. Next up, we'll be creating a Facebook Group for FOCUS Houston so be on the lookout!