Saint Aidan Orthodox Church

Vespers with Shroud Veneration
2023-04-14 16:30 - 17:45 (America/Edmonton)
Taking our Saviour down from the cross and setting up the tomb…

Great and Holy Friday - Royal Hours
2023-04-14 10:30 - 12:30
Royal Hours…continuing the journey to Pascha!…a once a year service.

Matins with the 12 Gospel Readings
2023-04-13 18:30 - 21:00
Please note change of venue for this service.

Great and Holy Thursday - Vesperal Divine Liturgy of St. Basil
2023-04-13 10:30 - 12:30
Two events shape the liturgy of Great and Holy Thursday: the Last Supper of Christ with His disciples, and the betrayal of Judas. The meaning of both is in love. The Last Supper is the ultimate revelation of God’s redeeming love for man, of love as the very essence of salvation. And the betrayal of Judas reveals that sin, death and self-destruction are also due to love, but to deviated and distorted love, love directed at that which does not deserve love. Here is the mystery of this unique day, and its liturgy, where light and darkness, joy and sorrow are so strangely mixed, challenges us with the choice on which depends the eternal destiny of each one of us. “Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come… having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end…” (John 13:1). To understand the meaning of the Last Supper we must see it as the very end of the great movement of Divine Love which began with the creation of the world and is now to be consummated in the death and resurrection of Christ… read more https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/13/24-great-and-holy-thursday

Great and Holy Wednesday - Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
2023-04-12 17:30 - 19:15

St. Aidan Church Breakfast
2023-04-12 07:30 - 09:30, 2023-04-05 07:30 - 09:30
A free breakfast is served the first two Wednesdays of every month.
Wednesday breakfast consists of burritos with coffee, juice, yogurt and two pieces of fruit.

Great and Holy Tuesday - Bridegroom Matins
2023-04-11 17:30 - 19:30
…For there were “normal” men who shouted “Crucify Him” who spat at Him and nailed Him to the Cross. And they hated and killed Him precisely because He was troubling their normal life. It was indeed a perfectly “normal” world which preferred darkness and death to light and life…. By the death of Jesus the “normal” world, and “normal” life were irrevocably condemned. Or rather they revealed their true and abnormal inability to receive the Light, the terrible power of evil in them. “Now is the Judgment of this world” (John 12:31). The Pascha of Jesus signified its end to “this world” and it has been at its end since then. This end can last for hundreds of centuries, but this does not alter the nature of time in which we live as the “last time.” “The fashion of this world passeth away…” (I Cor. 7:31)…read more: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/11/22-great-and-holy-tuesday

Great and Holy Monday - Bridegroom Matins
2023-04-10 17:30 - 19:30
These three days, which the Church calls Great and Holy have within the liturgical development of the Holy Week a very definite purpose. They place all its celebrations in the perspective of End Times; they remind us of the eschatological meaning of Pascha. So often Holy Week is considered one of the “beautiful traditions” or “customs,” a self-evident “part” of our calendar. We take it for granted and enjoy it as a cherished annual event which we have “observed” since childhood, we admire the beauty of its services, the pageantry of its rites and, last but not least, we like the fuss about the Paschal table. And then, when all this is done we resume our normal life. But do we understand that when the world rejected its Savior, when “Jesus began to be sorrowful and very heavy… and his soul was exceedingly sorrowful even unto death,” when He died on the Cross, “normal life” came to its end and is no longer possible…read more: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/10/21-great-and-holy-monday

St. Aidan Church Breakfast
2023-04-10 07:30 - 09:30, 2023-04-03 07:30 - 09:30, 2023-03-27 07:30 - 09:30, 2023-03-20 07:30 - 09:30
A free breakfast is served every Monday of every month.
Monday breakfast consists of a breakfast sandwich with coffee, juice, yogurt and two pieces of fruit.

Bridegroom Matins
2023-04-09 17:30 - 19:00

Divine Liturgy-Entry of Our Lord into Jerusalem (Palm Sunday)
2023-04-09 10:30 - 12:30
Palm Sunday is the celebration of the triumphant entrance of Christ into the royal city of Jerusalem. He rode on a colt for which He Himself had sent, and He permitted the people to hail Him publicly as a king. A large crowd met Him in a manner befitting royalty, waving palm branches and placing their garments in His path. They greeted Him with these words: “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! (John 12:13).
This day together with the raising of Lazarus are signs pointing beyond themselves to the mighty deeds and events which consummate Christ’s earthly ministry. The time of fulfillment was at hand. Christ’s raising of Lazarus points to the destruction of death and the joy of resurrection which will be accessible to all through His own death and resurrection. His entrance into Jerusalem is a fulfillment of the messianic prophecies about the king who will enter his holy city to establish a final kingdom. “Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass” (Zech 9:9)…read more: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/09/20-entry-of-our-lord-into-jerusalem-palm-sunday

Great Vespers
2023-04-08 17:30 - 18:30

Divine Liturgy-Lazarus Saturday
2023-04-08 09:30 - 11:30
Visible triumphs are few in the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. He preached a kingdom “not of this world.” At His nativity in the flesh there was “no room at the inn.” For nearly thirty years, while He grew “in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52), He lived in obscurity as “the son of Mary.” When He appeared from Nazareth to begin His public ministry, one of the first to hear of Him asked: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). In the end He was crucified between two thieves and laid to rest in the tomb of another man.
Two brief days stand out as sharp exceptions to the above—days of clearly observable triumph. These days are known in the Church today as Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. Together they form a unified liturgical cycle which serves as the passage from the forty days of Great Lent to Holy Week. They are the unique and paradoxical days before the Lord’s Passion. They are days of visible, earthly triumph, of resurrectional and messianic joy in which Christ Himself is a deliberate and active participant. At the same time they are days which point beyond themselves to an ultimate victory and final kingship which Christ will attain not by raising one dead man or entering a particular city, but by His own imminent suffering, death and resurrection…read more: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/08/19-the-raising-of-lazarus-lazarus-saturday

Holy Unction Service
2023-04-05 17:30 - 19:00

Typika Service - St. Mary of Egypt
2023-04-02 10:30 - 12:15
Saint Zosimas (April 4) was a monk at a certain Palestinian monastery on the outskirts of Caesarea. Having dwelt at the monastery since his childhood, he lived there in asceticism until he reached the age of fifty-three. Then he was disturbed by the thought that he had attained perfection, and needed no one to instruct him. “Is there a monk anywhere who can show me some form of asceticism that I have not attained? Is there anyone who has surpassed me in spiritual sobriety and deeds?”… to continue reading click: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/02/18-5th-sunday-of-great-lent-st-mary-of-egypt

Readers Vespers Tone 1
2023-04-01 17:30 - 18:30

Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great-Saint John Klimakos (of the Ladder)
2023-03-26 10:30 - 12:30
The Fourth Sunday of Lent is dedicated to Saint John Klimakos, the author of The Ladder of Divine Ascent. In this book the Igumen of Saint Katherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai bears witness to the great effort which is required for entry into God’s Kingdom (Matthew 10:12). The spiritual struggle of the Christian life is difficult since it is “not against flesh and blood, but against … the rulers of the present darkness … the hosts of wickedness in heavenly places …” (Ephesians 6:12). Saint John encourages the faithful in their efforts for, as the Lord has said, only “he who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:13)…completed at: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/03/26/16-4th-sunday-of-great-lent-st-john-climacus-of-the-ladder

Great Vespers-Tone 8
2023-03-25 17:30 - 18:30

Divine Liturgy-The Annunciation of our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary
2023-03-25 09:00 - 10:15
The Feast of the Annunciation is one of the earliest Christian feasts, and was already being celebrated in the fourth century. There is a painting of the Annunciation in the catacomb of Priscilla in Rome dating from the second century. The Council of Toledo in 656 mentions the Feast, and the Council in Trullo in 692 says that the Annunciation was celebrated during Great Lent…continue at: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/03/25/100884-the-annunciation-of-our-most-holy-lady-the-theotokos-and-ever-vi

Great and Holy Friday - Royal Hours?
2023-03-23 10:30 - 12:30
On the Cross Jesus thus became “the man of sorrows; acquainted with grief” whom the prophet Isaiah had foretold. He was “despised and forsaken by men” and “smitten by God, and afflicted” (Isaiah 53:3-4). He became the one with “no form or comeliness that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him” (Isaiah 53:2). His appearance was “marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the sons of men” (Isaiah 52:14). All these Messianic prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus as he hung from the Cross.
As the end approached, He cried: “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). This cry indicated His complete identification with the human condition. He had totally embraced the despised, forsaken and smitten condition of suffering and death—alienation from God. He was truly the man of sorrows.
Yet, it is important to note that Jesus’ cry of anguish from the Cross was not a sign of His loss of faith in His Father. The words which He exclaimed are the first verse of Psalm 22, a messianic Psalm. The first part of the Psalm foretells the anguish, suffering and death of the Messiah. The second part is a song of praise to God. It predicts the final victory of the Messiah…read more: https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/04/14/25-great-and-holy-friday

Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
2023-03-22 17:30 - 19:00
All are welcome to join us at this very special Lenten service.

"Great Lent" Book Study
2023-03-21 20:00 - 21:30
As this will be a service-limited Great Lent, due to only having access to our church hall on weekends, I would highly recommend you try to find time to spend 1 – 1/2 hrs with us at our Tuesday evening Great Lent and book study. Lent is a valuable time to re-focus on growing in Christ, but this is of course dependent upon the extra time and energy we put into increasing our time in Church and in prayer, fasting and almsgiving efforts.
The study is offered at the Applegate residence. A zoom link will also be provided.

Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great-Sunday of the Cross
2023-03-19 10:30 - 12:30
The Third Sunday of Lent is that of the Veneration of the Cross. The cross stands in the midst of the church in the middle of the lenten season not merely to remind men of Christ’s redemption and to keep before them the goal of their efforts, but also to be venerated as that reality by which man must live to be saved. “He who does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt.10:38). For in the Cross of Christ Crucified lies both “the power of God and the wisdom of God” for those being saved (1 Cor.1:24)…taken from oca.org

Great Vespers-Tone 7
2023-03-18 17:30 - 18:30

Soul Saturday Memorial Divine Liturgy
2023-03-18 09:30 - 11:00
We gather today to remember those who have been chosen and taken by the Lord. Bring your list to Fr. Andrew.

Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts
2023-03-15 17:30 - 19:00
Once again we are blessed to be able to celebrate this special, specific to Great Lent only, service.
