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12:10pm |
Scrobbled 4 songs on Last.fm. (Show Details)
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1:18pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
Family and I just joined the Y. Fitness here we come.
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1:18pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon Family and I just joined the Y. Fitness here we come.
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1:18pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon Jim Family and I just joined the Y. Fitness here we come.
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1:19pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
Next a quick stop at the store then some snow clearing. The Buffalonian in me comes out when I’m pushing the snowblower…
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1:19pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon Next a quick stop at the store then some snow clearing. The Buffalonian in me comes out when I’m pushing the snowblower…
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1:19pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon Jim Next a quick stop at the store then some snow clearing. The Buffalonian in me comes out when I’m pushing the snowblower…
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8:25pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: A call to the future by Metropolitan JONAH http://tinyurl.com/76urq8
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8:25pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon Jim New blog post: A call to the future by Metropolitan JONAH http://tinyurl.com/76urq8.
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11:46pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord http://tinyurl.com/9db5q8
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11:46pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon Jim New blog post: Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord http://tinyurl.com/9db5q8.
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First reading: Isaiah 42:1-4,6-7
Psalm: Ps 29:1-4,9-10
Epistle: 1 John 5:1-9
Gospel: Mark 1:7-11
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Our baptism
Today we reclaim our baptismal promise. In commemoration of our Lord’s baptism in the Jordan, we stood this morning, proclaiming our faith and our resolve to live by those promises.
What were those promises? Simply they were the renunciation of evil and a statement of belief in God as He has been revealed to us, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Further, we state that we believe in the Holy Church and the effects of our participation in the Holy Church: an eternal communion of saints, of which we are a part, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of our bodies, and life everlasting in God.
In our baptism we reject the things that destroy human life — all of which is precious and beautiful, and we accept new life, the fullness of life, in Christ Jesus. We offer ourselves as those begotten by God.
The door to truth
Being begotten of God in baptism, my friends, is the door to truth.
It is hard to acknowledge when one has the truth. We may be embarrassed, or shy about that knowledge, reticent to say: ‘I have the truth,’ but isn’t that who we are as baptized believers, people who bear the truth to all men?
St. John says an interesting thing:
If we accept human testimony,
the testimony of God is surely greater.
Now the testimony of God is this,
that he has testified on behalf of his Son.
Don’t we accept human testimony? We easily offer ascent to the words of parents, spouses, witnesses, teachers, scientists, even government officials and salespeople. We believe that their words are true witness to what they have seen and done, to what they know. Today we see God Himself bear witness, as the heavens open and the Spirit descends on Jesus, we hear His words: —You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.—
The Father and Spirit show their unity with Jesus Christ as God. Do we believe God’s words? If we do, if we know these words to be true, as recorded by the witnesses who stood along the banks of the Jordan, the witness of John’s disciples and the men who would become Jesus’ apostles and disciples, then we must acknowledge that we have the truth — Jesus is God.
Jesus brought God’s truth, and He passed it on to His apostles, the men He commissioned to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They in turn have passed that knowledge to us through an unbroken line of bishops who preserve and teach the Apostolic truth. It is surety, God came to dwell among us and assured us that in following Him we have the truth. God’s sure truth.
Our promise gives us hope
Thus, knowing and relying upon the truth given us, truth we have claimed in our baptism, we are heirs and beneficiaries of Christ’s promises. He has gone to prepare a place for us, where we will dwell with Him forever. Yet, He is not apart from us, simply waiting for us to show up. He lives with us in our earthly sojourn and continually strengthens us in hope.
To make hope real we must claim the regeneration of baptism. We must claim the change that has taken place in us, not simply the explanation that a change has occurred, but the reality of that change. Doing so, we take up the mantle of our regeneration putting that regeneration into practice.
The first step on that path is to say clearly what Jesus Christ knows of us — we are valuable, of worth, to Him. He claims us as He claimed Paul on the road to Damascus, as He claimed Andrew upon coming up out of the Jordan. He calls to us and tells us that He loves us and needs us.
Knowing this and knowing that His promise is true, causes us to change. This is the second step — to live in the knowledge of our regeneration. In every situation we see the same factors, the same evidence others see, yet for us it is different, because all things point to God and reveal God. Even the saddest moments, in which our grief seems inconsolable, are different, because our eye is on heaven. Our perspective has been changed so that hope is always before us.
This my friends is real change and real hope. In our journey we have a taste of the change that awaits us and hope for its fulfillment.
Our promise is a guarantee
The change that awaits us and our hope for its fulfillment comes to life in serving the Lord, serving each other, and calling all to new life in water and the Holy Spirit.
The saints lived this, the smiling saints who saw the joy that awaits them.
When we look to the saints we see heroic, unimaginable deeds, and deaths — no matter how awful — as peaceful and joy-filled experiences. We see the saints that bore witness, the confessors who suffered for their witness and the martyrs who died for theirs. Their eyes were continually focused on the promise they made and the way they had to live that promise. We see saints who ministered to the sick and the dying, contracting horrible diseases, yet who comforted their bothers and sisters because of their promise. We see saints who gave and gave, ministering to the poor, the crippled, prostitutes, the homeless, prisoners, captives, on the battlefield, and in cities that wanted nothing to do with God. Yet they spoke God’s word of comfort and love. They touched and they healed. They saw Jesus Christ in their midst because of their promise. Their promise made real what Isaiah had foretold: He shall bring forth justice to the nations, He establishes justice on the earth; opens the eyes of the blind, brings out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.
Because of our baptismal promise there is no cost too high, no witness too difficult, no sacrifice we would be unwilling to make. All, because we are those saints and those saints are us. We know the joy that God has guaranteed for us, we who live out the baptismal promise.
Our promise seals us
We know that we are begotten of God in our baptism. We know that we have the truth of God. We know that our baptism gives us hope, as long as we live out our regeneration. We know that by living our promise we are guaranteed a treasure of inestimable value (Matthew 13:45-46). Thus we are sealed in a new birth by water and the Spirit, living in truth, with hope, and taking action with an eye to eternal life in Christ Jesus. These things seal us, they mark us as people who live the Christian life — the life of Christ among us.
As we stood to state our promises, we asked all to see the seal with which we are sealed. We didn’t do this in a closet or behind closed doors, but in the community, with doors open to all.
We are the people who live this life, who show forth the seal of the Lamb, who bring Christ to the friend, the enemy, and the stranger.
Making our promise real in today’s world
To be begotten by God, to be sealed with Him, means that our lives have become purposeful. The commitment, the purpose to which we are set, is the proclamation of righteousness in God.
Our proclamation is twofold. It takes shape in our doing and in our being. By this I mean that what we do is not done as mere niceness, as something invented by man, but goodness and love as created by God. Our doing takes shape in the way we place the Gospel into action. Anyone can be nice to those who are nice to them. Anyone can love those who love them.
We are different, the sealed bearers of Christ in the world. Because of our baptism we act with goodness and love toward all. We often develop this into a dichotomy. We compare love of friends to love of enemies. But it is more. Certainly we are to love our friends and our enemies, but there is more. The next step is to love the unexpected, the stranger who is neither friend nor enemy. That’s where we can see our earthly ways fighting us. We recoil at the unknown. We hold back from the uncategorized. If one doesn’t fit into the friend or enemy category we crawl back into ourselves and wait. By baptism we are called out of that wait. The wall between us and the friend, enemy, or stranger no longer exists. What exists is our call to connect with all, to live with all and relate with all in a bond of love.
In this doing, in this building of bonds defined by goodness and love, we become. Our doing becomes our being. We are no longer the old man; our presence transformed into the presence of Christ in goodness and love (Romans 6:6).
When our doing translates into His presence we are approaching the perfection we are called to in baptism. Doing as God commands transforms us into the people Christ has called, a righteous and holy people, a people of the truth, living in the Sprit, overflowing with goodness and love.
Trust in God, trust in Me
Making the promise is serious stuff, living the promise is immensely difficult. I imagine that this is what Jesus meant when He spoke of those things that seemed impossible — camels passing through the eye of a needle (Matthew 19:24). But, there is hope and there is help. We have made the promise and are sealed. We have the truth and sure hope — a guarantee. Now it is time for our doing and our becoming. None of this is done on our own, but first and foremost in prayer. Let us cast ourselves at Jesus’ feet in our prayer and ask that He give us the strength we need for our work.
Jesus asked us to trust in God and to trust also in Him (John 14:1). Trusting in Him we will do all we are called to do, and more. Like the saints, living their baptismal promise, seeing their regeneration in the forefront, we will bring the comfort and freedom of God to all mankind. We will live our baptism. Amen.
The Speech of Metropolitan JONAH in Washington, DC on December 28, 2008, on the occasion of his enthronement as the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America. A great message for the future, in Orthodoxy and in Christianity.
Today is the final for the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity (Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy, WOŚP), a project that began in Poland in 1993, and to date has collected over $96 million dollars to fund children’s health care. This year’s focus is on early detection of childhood cancers.
If so moved, I encourage you to join in support of this worthy organization. Note that if you wish to donate by credit card you have to use their Polish site. Chose the banner link that says “Wpłata Kartą.” Note that donations are in Polish currency and the current exchange rate is about .33522 dollars per zł, so a 100 złoty donation would be about $33.52. Check out the OANDA Forex converter for details.
A profile of the organization and its history can be found on its website and on Wikipedia. A story covering the organization’s founder, Jerzy Owsiak (you could liken him to Jerry Lewis and the MD telethon), can be found in the Student Operated Press. That article notes that the program is being opposed by some Roman Catholic Church leaders in Poland.
If ever in that my country,
where my Ikwa flows in its valleys,
where my mountains grow blue in the twilight
and the town rings above the chattering stream,
where the tree-clad banks a-scent with lily-of-the-valley
run up to cliffs, cottages, and orchards—”If you will be there, soul of my heart,
though given back from the splendour to the body,
you will not forget this my longing,
that stands there like a golden archangel
and from time to time circles the town like an eagle,
then once more rests on the cliffs and shines.The lighter airs, that will restore you to health,
I have poured from my breast to my country.
Translation is unattributed
Jeżeli kiedy w tej mojej krainie,
Gdzie po dolinach moja Ikwa płynie,
Gdzie góry moje błękitnieją mrokiem,
A miasto dzwoni nad szmernym potokiem,
Gdzie konwaliją woniące lewady
Biegną na skały, pod chaty i sady –Jeśli tam będziesz, duszo mego łona,
Choćby z promieni do ciała wrócona:
To nie zapomnisz tej mojej tęsknoty,
Która tam stoi jak archanioł złoty,
A czasem miasto jak orzeł obleci
I znów na skałach spoczywa i świeci.Powietrze lżejsze, które cię uzdrowi,
Lałem z mej piersi mojemu krajowi.
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7:57pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: The Word empowers us and calls us to action http://tinyurl.com/9la6zg
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7:57pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon New blog post: The Word empowers us and calls us to action http://tinyurl.com/9la6zg.
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8:52pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: Ethnic trees in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania http://tinyurl.com/9w74j9
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8:52pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon New blog post: Ethnic trees in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania http://tinyurl.com/9w74j9.
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9:29pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: The fruits of American intervention http://tinyurl.com/7gowhg
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9:29pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon New blog post: The fruits of American intervention http://tinyurl.com/7gowhg.
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11:38pm |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: Protest the closing of your parish and the PNCC way http://tinyurl.com/8fhktn
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11:38pm |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon New blog post: Protest the closing of your parish and the PNCC way http://tinyurl.com/8fhktn.
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12:14am |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: January 10 – Safe Treasure by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn http://tinyurl.com/9ktfat
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12:15am |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon New blog post: January 10 – Safe Treasure by Jan Andrzej Morsztyn http://tinyurl.com/9ktfat.
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1:42am |
Posted a tweet on Twitter.
New blog post: January 11 – If ever in that my Country by Juliusz Słowacki http://tinyurl.com/8d2r6g
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1:42am |
Updated status on Facebook.
Deacon New blog post: January 11 – If ever in that my Country by Juliusz Słowacki http://tinyurl.com/8d2r6g.
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A thief will break into your Gdansk coffers,
A promised harvest will turn out much worse,
Lightning will burn down your barns and your rest,
A poor debtor won’t pay cash with interest,
The ruined peasants will not pay their lease,
Grain barges will sink in a stormy breeze;
But what you have given to every friend,
Fortune won’t claim – it’s surely your stipend.
Translated by Michal J. Mikos
Złodziej ci gdańskie powyłupa skrzynie,
Plon cię w zagonie obiecany minie,
Pioron popali dwory i stodoły,
Nie odda lichwy z sumą dłużnik goły,
Czynszow zniszczeni nie popłacą chłopi,
Szkuty ze zbożem nagły wiatr potopi;
Lecz tym, coś rozdał między przyjaciele,
Szczęście nie władnie; to swym nazwi śmiele.
From just across the border, east of Albany in The Berkshire Eagle: Vigil at St. Stan’s to be featured in Time magazine
ADAMS —” The St. Stanislaus Kostka parishioners’ vigil to keep their church open
Also see St. Stanislaus Kostka, Braving the storm. is featured in the next edition of Time magazine hitting newsstands Monday.In fact, the growing effort to prevent Catholic church closings is garnering growing media attention, including a front-page story that appeared last week in The New York Times about the ongoing vigils in Boston titled “Quiet Rebellion.”
And a news crew for WNYT, Albany television channel 13, stopped into St. Stan’s Friday for interviews and footage.
In particular because the WNYT is building up for a similar occurrence here in Albany when the Roman Catholic diocese closes a large number of parishes next weekend.
St. Stan’s parishioners —” who’ve been keeping vigil since the morning of Dec. 26 and beyond the church’s Jan. 1 closing —” are glad they’re getting the widespread attention, but they aren’t sure it’s going to help.
“I think it’s indicative of what’s going on in Catholic churches across the country,” said Adams resident Paul Demastrie as he stood vigil in the church Friday afternoon. “It’s a major story because it’s national, not just a community issue. And if the church winds up closing anyway, at least we can say we did our best.”
“It’s getting the word out nationwide and even worldwide of what’s happening with the churches,” said Francis Hajdas, a spokeswoman for the St. Stan’s vigil. “As far as we’re concerned, there’s no reason to close our church, outside the fact that they need the money to pay off lawsuits for clergy abuse.”
The vigil movement has had mixed results.
Of nine vigils in Catholic churches in Boston, four churches have been reopened, and five vigils are ongoing. Vigils that started in October to keep two churches in New Orleans open were ended earlier this week when the diocese put an end to the sit-in. Police there forced their way into the buildings, and two parishioners who locked themselves in and refused to leave were arrested.
The closings of St. Stan’s and St. Thomas Aquinas was announced in August, and went into effect at the first of the year. Those two churches are being merged with Notre Dame under a new name.
‘It was heartbreaking’
…
Although owned by the Diocese of Springfield, St. Stan’s was funded and built in 1905 by Polish immigrants, and has been decorated, enhanced and added to using donations from the local Polish community ever since. Parishioners contend the diocese is trying to take away the spiritual and cultural center of their community that was paid for, built and maintained by generations of their families.
Yes, the Diocese is, but as every Roman Catholic should acknowledge, parishioners and parish councils, even pastors, have little power other then that delegated by their bishop. Roman Catholic bishops in the United States own everything, and most particularly each parish’s property. Therein lies the real power. It is their right to demand that parishes close or merge, to sell the property, and take charge of the property’s contents, determining its distribution.
This is exactly the thing that the parishioners of Sacred Hearts in Scranton rallied against in 1897, and the very reason for the organization of the Polish National Catholic Church. Bishop Hodur and the members of the PNCC enshrined the democratic character of the PNCC in its constitution and in its life so that this wouldn’t happen.
On August 25, 1907 Bishop Hodur presented a speech at the blessing of the Polish National Church in Nanticoke, Pennsylvania:
Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)
These words came to mind today and I would wish them to cling also in your hearts and thoughts and when you return to your homes that they might occur to you and strengthen you in your faith and love in the national wandering in the diaspora. For these words are for us of more particular attention because they are the source of that value of sanctifying humankind about which bishops and priests speak so little, and which always pose a fundamental difference between the old Roman Church and the Polish National Church.
In the old Church may often be heard: Prayer, the Sacraments, the Holy Mass, are valid in this place conducted by such a bishop or priest and by that one are even more valid, but we feel that the great significance of the Holy Mass comes from Christ, from God. Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.
If, therefore, God abides everywhere, then why build churches?
Because the church is a collective place to honor God, it is a visible monument of the love and gratitude of the nation in serving the Most High Being, and the Church is also the nation’s school. God likes to visit temples raised by human hands.
The National Church lives by these ideals to this very day. By working together in a democratic society which seeks to fulfill our Lord and Savior’s instruction to us, we build and support parish churches. Those parishes are owned and operated by their parishioners, because they are a visible symbol of God dwelling among us and our collective cooperation with God.
We support parish churches and see them as the center of our communal life. The building of a church, its establishment, its life, is more than a legal deed and a bishop’s power. It is the people’s power, their work and support, which raises a living monument to love and gratitude. More so, it is our school, where the teachings of Jesus Christ take root. God visits us there. A parish’s presence in our community bears witness to the world. Closing a parish may be practical and financially sound, but its diminishment is a blow to community, to man’s striving, and to our ability to meet with and learn from the Word. It is an insult to the faith of those who support the witness of faith in the local community.
The PNCC has many small parishes, but regardless of size, their life is a direct result of the love, dedication, and hard work of their parishioners. The people of the parish work together as part of a free society of believers.
The Roman Catholic faithful who formed Resurrection PNCC in Temperance, Michigan went through three church closings before they left the Roman Church. Now they are building their monument of love and gratitude – a place that is theirs, where Christ lives in their midst. That opportunity is open to everyone who wishes to buildup rather than tear down.
From the transcript of America and Islam After Bush, a symposium sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life:
George W. Bush has been, objectively speaking, the most pro-Shia president in American history. Granted, it’s not a title most American presidents have traditionally competed for, but by any measure, he has done more for Shia empowerment, and Shia religious empowerment in particular, just by the invasion, which opened up Najaf and Karbala, the pilgrimage cities, than any other American president. I know he didn’t set out to be the pro-Shia president.
That’s just one small piece from a very long transcript. The key points relate to huge shift in the Middle East. The conflict and the issues once thought of as important, i.e., Israel, now matter very little. The key area of conflict, brought about by the power shift enabled by the American intervention in Iraq, is the emergence of Shia power and the reaction of the Sunni power centers, now on the decline. Vali Nasr states:
The world has changed significantly since 2003, as we know. The Middle East has changed in a very significant way. Part of the problem is we have never really understood we are dealing, post-Iraq, with Middle East 2.0: that there are some fundamental, and in my opinion irreversible, shifts in the balance of power of the region.
First, there is a palpable, significant, and, I think for the time being, irreversible shift of power and importance from the Levant —“ the area of Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Egypt and Syria —“ to the Persian Gulf and the Afghanistan/Pakistan corridor. The region that for 50 years was the basis of our foreign policy —“ we thought its conflicts mattered most, our alliances there mattered most —“ does not matter as much to peace and security anymore. When the Lebanon war happened in 2006, the country that had most to do with it was not in the neighborhood. It was Iran. The countries in that neighborhood could do nothing to stop the war, and this was attested to by Israel, the United States and the regional powers themselves.
Everybody today thinks the Palestinian issue has to be solved because it is a surrogate to solving a bigger problem, which is somewhere else in the region. Once upon a time we used to think —“ and some people still do —“ that the Arab-Israeli conflict is the key to solving all the problem of the regions: terrorism, al-Qaeda, Iran or Iraq. I don’t believe so. I think the Persian Gulf is the key to solving the Arab-Israeli issue. All the powers that matter —“ Iran, Saudi Arabia, and even the good news of the region: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, et cetera —“ are all in the Gulf. And all the conflicts that matter to us —“ Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran —“ are in the Gulf and then to the east.
So the Arab-centeredness of the Muslim Middle East is gone. We haven’t caught up to that in our foreign policy. The Middle East now is far more Iranian and Pakistani and Afghani in terms of the strategic mental map we have to deal with. Trying to deal with the Middle East as if we’re in 2002, before the Iraq war, is one of the main reasons why we haven’t been able to bring the right force to bear on the problems in the region.
The second shift, connected to this, is a palpable movement from the Arab world toward Iran. The Arab world has declined very clearly in its stature and power; Iran is a rising force. …you don’t hear a single Iranian leader express any kind of anxiety; in fact, in a very patronizing way they constantly say to Arab countries, —Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you. You don’t need to rely on the United States; we’ll protect you.—
…It’s clear that the balance of power —“ and a lot of power is a matter of perception —“ has moved eastward. The center of gravity has moved eastward. It’s a problem for us because most of our alliance investments were to the west, in the Arab world. Now, those alliances have not done for us as much as we hoped they could, even in the Arab-Israeli issue, where they were supposed to be the ones providing all the help.
The third and, again, connected shift is that after Iraq there is a palpable shift in the religio-political sphere from the Sunnis to the Shias, a sect of Islam that has been completely invisible to us. We all of a sudden discovered them, but I don’t think we quite understand what we discovered and what it means for us going forward. A fourth, related shift is that many of the conflicts we are dealing with, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, involve insurgent Sunni forces.
The losers in America’s battles in this region are not evenly distributed among the actors I’m mentioning. The Sunni powers, the Arab powers, have clearly lost as a consequence of our wars of choice and necessity in Afghanistan and Iraq. Iran and its allies and the Shia forces have clearly gained.
In this respect the United States enabled a shift in power that has long term geopolitical consequences. It isn’t about the Israelis and Arabs anymore. That’s a minor conflict to be used for cred in a larger religio-political power struggle.
The other fascinating part of the discussion centers around the differences between the Shia and the Sunnis. Mr. Nasr does a good job of drawing parallels, although slightly uninformed parallels, to differences between the Churches of the East and the West, as well as between the Catholic and Protestant Churches. He touches on parallels to Christian issues such as biblical interpretation, inerrancy, and the development of doctrine argument and how these play into the Shia-Sunni power struggle.
In reading of the conflicts between Shia and Sunni I couldn’t help but to think of the Young Fogey’s references to the on-line religious arguments that he avoids, occurring in various fora. Think of those arguments as arguments on steroids, backed up with massive armaments, bit players, and enough bloodshed to drown whole cities. If only his discipline in avoiding the on-line conflicts, a common sense approach, would transfer to our leaders in Washington. Our uninformed actions have, as in prior instances, release forces we never expected. Here’s to a non-interventionist foreign policy.
From The Morning Call: Ethnic trees in Bethlehem a success
The South Bethlehem Historical Society thanks all those who made the Nov. 30 Ethnic Tree Lighting Ceremony a rousing success. The staff of the Comfort Suites was most welcoming and more than helpful by preparing each tree with lights, then setting up the tables for refreshments for all to enjoy.
Ahart’s Market, Weis-King, Giant, Wegman’s and BJ’s Wholesale Club contributed cookies and pastries, as well as individual bakers. Via helped with red, white and blue ornaments for the new American tree.
Entertainment was by the string ensemble from Holy Infancy School under the direction of Rosemary Fry; Liberty High School pipes soloist Tyler Albright; and the Greek folk dancers led by Tammy Pappas and Panagiota Papalopoulos.
The Rev. Ron Rice of Advent Moravian Church offered ”Moravian Traditions,” Mayor John Callahan spoke, Frank Podleiszek led a carol sing, Rev. Wayne Killian of the Holy Ghost parish offered the invocation, and Rev. Carmen Bolock of Our Lord’s Ascension Polish National Catholic Church closed with the benediction.
We thank all those who attended the event in hopes that they will join us again next Christmas season.