Church Services in Galveston this Sunday

God-willing, dear brothers and sisters, we will be having a Service of Thanksgiving this Sunday September the 28th at our church of Sts. Constantine and Helen at 10:00am. Seeing that we still do not have electricity and a majority of our parishioners have lost a majority of the earthly possessions we still wish to thank our patron saints and our Good Lord for sparing our lives and most importantly to give us strength, hope, courage and love so that we can lean on each for support and of course see each other for the first time after this calamity that has befallen us.

Enclosed also is a new link with more pictures taken by the IOCC Team:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sveselinovich/IOCC?authkey=KC1OR2oWJVc#

Sunday Services

Services will be held this Sunday, September 21st at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Houston.

Divine Liturgy at 9:00 a.m. (English) 10:30 a.m. (Greek)

Fr. Serge will be serving at the 9:00 a.m. service. Following the Divine Liturgy, we will meet with representatives of IOCC in the church hall.

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral
3511 Yoakum Boulevard
Houston, TX 77006
713-526-5377


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Local News Media Outlets

The following links are to local Houston news media outlets.

Houston Chronicle Newspaper

http://www.chron.com/

KHOU-Channel 11 News (CBS Affiliate)

http://www.khou.com/

KPRC-Channel 2 News (NBC Affiliate)

http://www.click2houston.com/

Photos of Serbian & Greek Orthodox Cemetery

The following link contains photos of both the Serbian & Greek Orthodox cemeteries on Galveston Island.

http://picasaweb.google.com/sveselinovich/SerbianGreekOrthodoxCemeteries#

Photos from Sts. Constantine & Helen Serbian Orthodox Church & Hall

Click on the link below to see photos from Sts. Constantine & Helen Serbian Orthodox Church & Hall:

http://picasaweb.google.com/sveselinovich/StsConstantineHelenSerbianOrthodoxChurchHall#



More photos will be forthcoming as they become available from the IOCC team.

Photos of Greek Orthodox Church & Hall

Please click on this link to view the photos from the Holy Assumption Greek Orthodox Church & Hall.


http://picasaweb.google.com/sveselinovich/HolyAssumptionGreekOrthodoxChurchPhotos#

IOCC and Fr. Serge Visit Galveston Churches

IOCC representatives Lee Kapetanakis, Pascalis Papouras, Deacon Dan Gray and Fr. Serge visited Galveston Island yesterday. They toured the Sts. Constantine & Helen Serbian Orthodox Church and the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church. A report and photos will be forthcoming.

Video from the Strand

Channel 2 News did a walking tour/video of the Strand. Follow this link:

http://www.click2houston.com/video/17492630/index.html

Update on Parishioners & Friends

Here is a list of the following parishioners/friends I have heard from thus far:

Sveto & Angela Andrich
Allison Baker
Sandra Bartosh & Family
Leslie Canatella
Tom Colyandro
Fr David & Presbytera Eckley
Joby & Colleen Erickson
Celina Guyewski
James & Pat Callahan w/children
Branko Gligoric & Family
Slavica (Silvia) Hallum & Family
Alex & Monica Heckner
Gordan & Mileva Heckner
John (Ilija) & Nataliya Hryshecko
Lister Family
Bernice Kovacevich
Eleanor Kovacevich & Family
John & Cindy Kovacevich
Natalija & Danica Kovacevich
Pete Kovacevich & Family
Larry & Taki Kriticos (Olympia Grill) & Family
Getrude (Baba Goya) Popovich & Family
Danilo (Danny) Popovich & Family
Elizabeth (Betty) & Marko Markovich & Family
Bobana Matic
Dana & Nenad Mirkovich
Elizabeth Mitich
Elaine Mitrovich
Mimo Milosevich
Ilija Milovanovic
Valentina Novakovich
John & Sharon Powell & Family
Bethany Powell
Vida Rector & Family
Alex Savic
John & Lisa Stanish
Raul (Ralph) & Joanne Valencia & Family
Stephanie (Caravageli) & Brent Vasut

FEMA Will Pay for Hotel Bill Directly

For those of you who cannot return to the island, or any area that has been designated a disaster by the federal government, FEMA will pay for your hotel directly. Please visit the FEMA website for more information-you must register for assistance with FEMA first, then apply for this program-and it is only available to those who are unable to return to their home:

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=45791

Look & Leave Policy for Galveston Residents

Galveston was allowing residents onto the island this afternoon on a "look and leave" policy only. Each car was marked with "LL" to designate that it must exit by curfew. As word spread, I-45 the Gulf Freeway became a parking lot with cars trying to get on the island. A few minutes ago, news reports indicated that the "look and leave" policy was going to stop due to the number of police needed to monitor the overwhelming traffic and the number of incidents of looting that subsequently increased due to police being diverted to the handle the huge inflow.

Update Regarding Churches

We have just received information from Leroy Naschke, president of The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church on Ball Street, that the Greek church did take in some water. He will going by there today to reassess the damage.

Sts. Constantine & Helen Serbian Orthodox Church is in good condition, from the outside there doesn't seem to be any damage to either the church or the hall.

Leroy remains on the island and will contacting Fr. Serge in approximately 2 hours with another update.

Sts. Constantine & Helen Church

Fr. Serge and Christopher Bolan emptied out the church on Friday, September 12th at 4:00 pm. All liturgical items, vestments, church records, icons, etc. have been removed and are being housed in a safe location. The only thing, unfortunately, that was not taken out of the church were the icons on the iconostas.

If you have heard any information on the condition of the church, please post here.

Blog Set Up to Share Information

This blog is created to help share information regarding the Orthodox faithful on Galveston island. As you've seen in the news, Galveston took a direct hit from Hurricane Ike and the devastation is far and wide. No one is being allowed onto the island and it is extremely difficult to get information from anyone still located on the island.

If you have heard from parishioners from the following churches, please post information regarding their status:

Sts. Constantine & Helen Serbian Orthodox Church
4109 Avenue L
Galveston, TX 77552

Holy Assumption Greek Orthodox Church
1824 Ball
Galveston, TX 77550