Parish life

Life Together

The life of our parish extends beyond Sunday morning. We worship together, share meals, celebrate feast days, teach our children, serve our neighbors, and grow together in the life of Christ.

Come and see what parish life looks like at Nativity of the Theotokos.

Where to begin

How do I become part of life at Nativity?

There is no single door. Most people arrive through one of these, and the rest follows.

Get Connected

The newsletter, the bulletin, the calendar and the ways parishioners keep in touch between Sundays.

Coffee Hour

Everyone is invited to the Fellowship Hall after the Liturgy. It is where most of us actually got to know one another.

Youth & Families

Sunday School, HOPE, JOY, GOYA and YAL — where the children and young people of the parish belong.

Ladies' Philoptochos Society

The women’s philanthropic society, and the parish’s charitable arm.

Worship & Liturgical Ministries

Chanting, singing, reading and serving in the altar.

Hellenic Heritage

Dance, the festival, the traditions of a Greek kitchen, and AHEPA.

A priest reading by candlelight at the altar table in front of the iconostasis during a Holy Week service. At the left an icon stands draped in black and dressed with flowers.

Dimensions of parish life

Worship & Feast Days

Divine services, Holy Week and Pascha, feast days, processions, baptisms and other moments in the sacramental life of the parish.

The epitaphios canopy banked with white carnations and greenery, standing before the royal doors.

The congregation holding lit candles in the darkened church at the Paschal midnight service.

Fellowship & Coffee Hour

Coffee hour after the Divine Liturgy, shared meals, celebrations and parish gatherings. It is an old Christian habit — the shared table that follows worship. What is on the table varies from week to week.

Everyone is invited to the Fellowship Hall after the Liturgy — including anyone visiting for the first time, who need bring nothing at all.

Find a ministry

Parishioners serving themselves at a buffet table in the Fellowship Hall.

Children and adults folding palm crosses together at a table in the Fellowship Hall.

Three children in costume beside the manger during the Sunday School nativity play.

A boy holding up the palm cross he has just folded.

Children & Families

Sunday School, children participating in parish life, family events and opportunities for children to grow within the Church.

Learning & Formation

Bible studies, catechesis, classes, talks and other opportunities to learn about and grow in the Orthodox faith.

A Bible study or catechism class

Service & Outreach

Ways our parish serves people within the parish and our surrounding community. Most of it happens through our ministries, and every one of them welcomes newcomers.

Get involved

Two parishioners folding palm crosses at a table in the Fellowship Hall.

Three volunteers in the festival kitchen, two of them in Greek Festival aprons, holding out a tray of roast chickens.

Parish Events & Traditions

Festivals, celebrations, seasonal traditions and other events unique to the life of our parish.

The Greek Festival →

Life at Nativity

Photographs from our parish

A priest at a candlelit table in the nave during a Holy Week service, with the congregation gathered around.

Two parishioners with cups of coffee in the Fellowship Hall.

Chanters

An altar server holding a candle beside the altar during a service.

The carved crucifix set up in the church for Holy Week, a crown of thorns and red roses at the head of the cross.

Visitors and parishioners eating at long tables under the tent at the Greek Festival.

Sunday School children in costume performing the nativity play in the Fellowship Hall.

Volunteers preparing and packing food at the Greek Festival.

A family gathered with the priest in front of the iconostasis after a baptism, the newly baptised infant in a white gown.

Members of the parish dance troupe in traditional Greek costume.

The parish gathered with its clergy and the visiting bishop in the nave during Holy Week.

Photographs

Photographs are published with the permission of those pictured, and we ask permission separately before publishing any photograph that prominently features a child. If you would like a photograph removed, please contact the parish office and we will take it down.

Coming up at Nativity

The next few weeks

View full parish calendar →

Sunday 6 September

Orthros

9:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy

Coffee hour in the Fellowship Hall afterwards.

10:00 a.m.

Tuesday 8 September

Nativity of the Theotokos

Divine Liturgy · Our patronal feast day.

Sunday 13 September

Orthros

9:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy

Coffee hour in the Fellowship Hall afterwards.

10:00 a.m.

Sunday 20 September

Orthros

9:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy

Coffee hour in the Fellowship Hall afterwards.

10:00 a.m.

Sunday 27 September

Orthros

9:00 a.m.

Divine Liturgy

Coffee hour in the Fellowship Hall afterwards.

10:00 a.m.

Where next

Come and be part of it

Belonging here begins with turning up.

If something above is what you have been looking for, our ministries are the way in — none of them asks you to have been here long. And if you are already part of the parish, everything practical for the week ahead is gathered in one place.

Get involved → For our parish →