Our series looking back twenty years enters its sixth month. Last month I shared the May 2006 issue of The Messenger, the parish catching its breath after its very first Pascha in the new Shoreline building.

In June, our heroes get to throw another party. The front page of the June 2006 issue looks toward the parish's name-day: the Holy Apostles Feast Day Celebration. Vespers on Thursday, June 29, with dessert and coffee to follow, then Orthros and Divine Liturgy on Friday, June 30, and a celebration brunch. This year, 2026, owing to the building remodel, our parish will celebrate the Feast of the Synaxis of the Twelve at a local park, but all else is pure continuity.

Fr. Tom's message this month is about light. He had just helped officiate the wedding of one of his closest friends, and was struck by a prayer that the couple would be "radiant as the stars of heaven." From there, in very Fr. Tom fashion, he detours briefly through the science of photosynthesis—green plants drinking in light and turning it into life—before bringing his flock back to the Gospel: "You are the light of the world."

Fr. Tom's final charge hasn't aged a day: "We are to live and act in ways that dispel darkness. This, my beloved brothers and sisters, is a high calling. We are to become a light to help others find hope, possibility and direction." If you've read Fr. Tom's recent Pentecost reflection in the June 2026 E-Bulletin, you'll recognize the thread. Twenty years apart, he is still asking us to reflect Christ's light and let our hearts catch fire for God.

The President's Corner, by George Plumis, is all new-building energy. "The past several months in our new church have been filled with activity," he writes, describing the refurbishing, a full Lent of prayer, "our wonderful Paschal celebration," and now, he says, the parish is just catching its breath. He sets the name-day luncheon for June 30 and floats a July 30 appreciation picnic, a proper Greek barbecue with "gyros, guitars and bouzoukia," for the Church of the Redeemer, the parish that shared its roof with us before the move. (We'll see if we hear more about event in the next month or two!)

Our heroes were also sending their young people out into the world. The June issue congratulates eight graduates by name: Andrea and Lauren Bardin, Michael Betts, Katherine DeJong, Christopher Dodd, Anthony Giovannetti, Annie Themelis, and Andrianna Pavsidis, bound for Washington State, Gonzaga, Boston University, the UW, and points beyond. We did exactly the same thing this past Sunday, recognizing our 2026 graduates! The names change; the love and pride we feel for our amazing young people taking their next steps into the big, wide world does not.

My favorite thing in this issue is a single photograph: four generations of one family standing together after Liturgy. "It is a blessing," the caption reads, "to see four generations worshipping together at Holy Apostles." That was the dream realized in 2006, in a building only a few months old, and it is the same hope now, in a building under construction again.

If this series has a theme, perhaps it's this: continuity within times of change. Names change. Buildings change. The feast is still the feast.

The full June 2006 PDF is below. Click on the cover image to download. I'll see you next month for July, when the dust settles and the parish starts asking what comes next.

Warmly,

Erica