St. Philip Church (Orthodox Church in Fort Lauderdale ,Davie, FL)

Please visit us at : www.saintphilipflorida.com

Sunday Orthros 9:00 am.

Divine Liturgy 10:00 am.

Followed by Sunday-School

For healthful seasons, for abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord.

http://weather.sun-sentinel.com/global/Region/AT/2xIRSatellite.html

http://www.goes.noaa.gov/HURRLOOPS/huwvloop.html

A Study about Spiritual Attitudes of 'Giving'

To change the attitudes toward giving requires understanding the differences between alms, contributions, tithes, donations, support and fund raising.

Alms are a freely given gift to a poor person in need, or to the poor in general, and usually given out of compassion.

A contribution is supplying or furnishing a share, along with others, to a fund or cause.

A tithe refers to a biblical or religious portion of income given to the support of a church. This amount, in the Old Testament, was generally set at one tenth. A donation is a gift to a charity or cause. Support implies a responsibility based upon physical, spiritual or emotional relationship. Fund Raising is a concerted effort, using any of a variety of methods, to collect funds for a project or a cause. All of these usually refer to money, but are not exclusive of time, energy, and material goods, etc. In all cases, there is a motivation factor involved: compassion, duty or responsibility, philanthropy, which is a sense of goodwill and sharing of one's blessings, a desire to see a project or cause to succeed, and lastly, an attitude born of the spiritual relationship to our God. This last item is the focus of this study as it relates to giving within the context of Church, and ultimately the Building of the Kingdom.

The manner and control of how one shares his or her goods, is termed Stewardship.

At the outset, although fund raising would seem to be an umbrella term over all of the others, there is a distinct difference by definition. Fund raising is a designed method with a sole purpose of accumulating money. Even though there may be some aesthetics involved in the giving, there is generally some return for the effort -- satisfaction that a cause is being advanced or that a monetary need, with which one is in agreement, is being met. This is the distinction between secular motivation and spiritual giving. In the last analysis, alms, tithes, and donations, normally could fall under the general heading of spiritually motivated giving, but even these can be born out of wrong attitudes, e.g., the Jews of the Old Testament tithed 'under the Law'; a tuition credit at a parochial school hinging upon consistent use of one's offertory envelopes; gambling and games of chance, where regardless of the professed, "I don't mind because it helps the church", there is the built-in desire to win a value which is more than was 'contributed'. This is not to deride or degrade the work which is able to be carried out with the net proceeds, but to acknowledge that seeking after right hearts and attitudes is the directive of Our Lord, " Seek first the Kingdom and God and His Righteousness, then all these (other) things shall be added unto you besides."

If this article was all about giving or increasing the offertory collections, the logical place to start would be to define the needs, relate the current statistics about how much the current individual donations are, and then exhort or appeal to everyone to dig a little deeper. The resultant increases (?) may be the result of sacrifice, or guilt, or a desire to help out, but in any case, the overall reason would probably be that one has an interest or stake in the continuity of the Church. The purpose of the article is to convey or reaffirm what our relationship is to our God.(Mark 4:11) He answered them, "The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you...." So that, in seeking the Kingdom, we encompass our own right understanding of God.

One of the most difficult aspects of teaching about Giving is that the entire message be both given and received as a message of love, rather than one of exhortation, or worse yet, one of condemnation. To convert the perception of the message from, "All they ever do is talk about money!", to something like, "Since God loves a cheerful giver, I'm so happy to learn how to be one." Another difficult aspect is that of 'burden' that the teacher or conveyer feels because of the negative attitudes born of the constant needs and exhorting for more and more money to operate and minister through the Church, from committees all the way up to the Patriarchate.

Regardless of all the nuances and difficulties, the total solution to the problem is, we all need an enhanced understanding which can result in a change of attitude! Our focus has to be on a love relationship with Our Lord which just naturally will result in our desire to return a portion back to Him of all that He has so graciously given to us. We will want to share, rather than grudgingly or resignedly handing over a portion of our own funds. Again, this is not to say that no one has a good attitude about giving, but statistics and unmet needs show that many are not giving in proportion to what God has given them, and the preponderance of voiced emotions do not convey a cheerfulness about giving. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and all that is, including all that has been, is, and will be manifested (that is, what is seen, known, understood) since His original creation. New American Bible (John 16:15)~Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

Saint Philip Church is a giving community; Therefore, God will always bless and multiply our resourses! May God richly bless you!

Driving Directions

ADDRESS

4870 Griffin Road
Davie, FL 33314

DRIVING DIRECTIONS

From I-95
Griffin Rd. (West) exit off of I-95 after crossing Rt. 441 (State Rd. 7).
Church is right before the turnpike on the left
on Griffin Road

From Florida's Turnpike
Griffin Rd. exit off of the turnpike
Take Griffin Rd. east about 1/4 mile
Church is on south side of Griffin Rd.

Praying for the Victims of Several Tragedies

Please join us as we remember with prayer both those who perished and their families and communities:

The victims of the 9/11 terror attacks
The victims the Caribbean/Florida hurricanes
The children of the Beslan School
NEWS FLASH His Beatitude Pope Petros VII, Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, and those with him (including Metropolitan Bishop Chrysostomos of Carthage, Metropolitan Bishop Ireneus of Pelusim and Bishop Nectarios of Madagascar)
And for peace throughout the world.

Home Blessing

Adult Orthodox Christian Education

George Gallup, through interviews, concluded that among the 80 million Christians in America, how we believe and how we behave as Christians is not very different, if different at all, from the world. Now, that certainly is not the pattern that God's Word gives us. St. James tells us that "Faith and works can never be separated." They have to be completely related and interwined. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that "By our fruit, we will be known." You can tell what kind of a plant or tree you have because of the fruit. So God's Word tells us that belief and behavior ought to be the same. But in our modern society, among Christians, so many times it is not.

Join us every Wed. evening (except for the first Wed. of every month) for Vespers and meditations followed by a Christian education program . However, you are strongly encouraged to come for Vespers on the first Wednesday of every month which will be followed by private personal Meditations and Contemplation in the church.

1) August 25 - Love