January 2008

The Orthodox Parish of St Aidan & St Chad, Nottingham

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

EPISCOPAL VICARIATE OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

Exarchate of Parishes

of Russian Tradition in Western Europe

Extracts from Parish Newsletter, January 2008

FATHER DAVID’S LETTER:

Love came down at Christmas

God in His great love of unimaginable dimensions put into action His second great plan for creation. What He had begun in the first creation He now completed in the second. He himself in the form of His Son, the Christ, the Promised One, became a tiny child born of his mother Mary. As St John Cabasilas acclaims, she in the beauty of her purity and love for God, as it were, caught His eye and became irresistible to Him. God realised that in Mary, at last, was the one to whom He could safely entrust Himself. She could and would become a good and worthy mother and He would put out His great love for humanity in a new way.

Now, in the fullness of time, Christ, the Anointed One, named Jesus, was born in Bethlehem to his mother Mary. Those around, her spouse, Joseph, the one who had agreed to take her as his wife at the completion of her years of dedication in the Temple service, the shepherds, the wise men, Joseph’s young son James, the midwife, and indeed all who could see with the eye of faith were touched and amazed.

Love came down at Christmas but so did humility and the salvation that lies within it. Our salvation, as we gaze on the events of the Nativity, is to see the amazing humility of God who poured himself out in Christ and became a vulnerable child. We are called to follow this example because then we can see reality as God has made it, we can see ourselves as we really are. Just as important, and in the light of this, we begin to see others as they really are, their reality and ours. It means that we now see every man and woman at their best. St Silouan of

Mount Athos says: ‘Salvation lies in Christ-like humility.’ He used to try to see the best in everyone and we must endeavour to follow this example. It is to find a way to the heart of everyone, for in that heart is the capacity for loving Christ, both for them and for us. In this humility there is no place for pride, no place for selfish self-centredness, no superiority, no dominance. We are no better that the ones who give us most difficulty and indeed we have something to learn from each one. When we have a sincere desire to see what is good in the other, we can no longer dwell on negative aspects, in fact we learn to accept and in no way offend anything that they hold sacred and dear to their heart.

We begin to see that love links with humility for in humility we set aside our our own self-assured arrogant agenda, our desire to be right; rather, we discover our reality as we stand before God and with our brother and sister. Once we have a true glimpse of our reality, our frailty and our weakness, we begin to see the goodness in others from which we have much to learn.

So, in humility is the key to love. Joy and peace will follow.

Love came down at Christmas! So did humility! Here are the best gifts we can desire; indeed they are one and the foundation of our salvation, the beginning of our new life in Christ.

Happy Feast! Happy Christmastide!

Fr. David

Shepherd’s Law

Fr David visited the Hermitage of St Cuthbert and the Glorious Mother of God and served Liturgy on Saturday, 24th November. Father Deacon John Muster and his wife Jenny visited from their new home in Keswick, and from across the North we had many from the scattered Orthodox households. It was a good and joyful gathering in a developing Orthodox presence. Brother Harold offered generous hospitality in his new chapel, with a very special atmosphere and a good monastic broth for lunch afterwards. The chapel is heated by oil which requires wind-generated electricity for heat circulation. Despite the fact that Shepherds Law is on a hill and in a situation which experiences

high winds, the wind turbine does not

work when shielded from the wind by buildings or trees. Then the chapel becomes quite Anglo-Saxon: very cold and barely useable!

Episcopal Vicariate of Great Britain and Ireland
Annual Conference
‘For the Life of the World’: Communion and Community
Friday 23rd – Sunday 26th May 2008

All Saints Pastoral Centre
London Colney, St Albans

How we relate to difference and integrate it into our lives is one of the greatest problems facing our world today. How do we acknowledge and accept our differences? How do we make peace with those who threaten us? How do we take responsibility for the world and one another? This conference will reflect on these things, asking how, inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, we may grow into communion with God who draws us into ever deeper commitment and fellowship with each other.

Speakers will include Wendy Robinson, Bishop Basil of Amphipolis, Fr Sergei Ovsiannikov, Fr Boris Bobrinskoy, and Irina von Schlippe. There will be discussion groups and workshops, as well as a plenary session

to end the conference.

All members of the Vicariate are urged seriously to consider attending the conference. This is our annual chance to meet with other parishes and to gather around our Bishop. The conference is extremely important for the life of the Vicariate, as well as for the Exarchate as a whole. If you are unable to afford the conference fee, please apply for a bursary! Special efforts are being made this year to raise money to enable all who are desirous of coming to attend.

For application forms or queries, please contact Kelsey Cheshire at:
020-7243-0801
E-mail: conference@exarchate-uk.org
Full attendance will cost £175, but alternative packages are available (involving non-residential, 24-hour attendance, etc.). There are reductions for families with children.

(BOOK NOW if you wish to attend - deadline is 15th February!! Ed. )

Forthcoming event

ORTHODOX FELLOWSHIP OF ST, JOHN THE BAPTIST

ANNUAL SUMMER CONFERENCE 2008:

Ushaw College, Durham, Friday 11th July - Sunday 13th July 2008

"Living the Liturgy – Public Worship, Private Prayer, and Daily Life"

Public Worship
Bishop Basil of Amphipolis

Private Prayer
Mother Sarah (Convent of St. John of Kronstadt, Bath)

Daily Life
Bruce Clark (The Economist )

Booking details to follow, or click here

Giving to the Episcopal Vicariate of Great Britain and Ireland

Arrangements are being set up for parishes and communities to contribute towards the running costs of the Vicariate. But even when this process is complete such contributions will not be enough to cover those costs.

Therefore, we also need individuals to be generous in making direct contributions to the Vicariate. This can be done in one of the following ways:

• cheque made out to ‘Episcopal Vicariate of Great Britain and Ireland’

• or send self-addressed envelope for a standing order form for your bank

• or download a standing order form here

• or make a donation on-line (see web-site below)

Cheques and s.a.e.’s should be sent to: The Treasurer, Birchenhoe, Crowfield, Brackley NN13 5TW.

Gift Aid: as soon as the Exarchate has completed its registration as a charity it will be able to claim Gift Aid back, dated to 23 June 2007, when it adopted its constitution.

For further information, contact the Treasurer: treasurer@exarchate-uk.org

(Web editor’s note: If every member of the Vicariate were to pledge just £10 a month, the Vicariate would have about £60000 a year, with which much could be done!)

Report: Conference at Ampleforth Abbey

The Abbot of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, arranged a one-day conference to celebrate the 1600th anniversary of St John Chrysostom’s falling asleep in 407 AD. Fr Bernard Green OSB spoke of the life and times of St John, setting out most clearly the turbulence of those years and noting the fact that so many important saints lived across the Christian world in such a short space of time. He referred to Pope Benedict’s recent comment on St John as ‘a shining figure for the joint edification of the Universal Church’; yet at the time he was sent into exile and hastened to a premature death. Fr Benedict suggested that St John was caught into a fourfold conflict involving the sacredness of the imperial family, rivalry between patriarchs, the new power of monasticism, and the demogogic control of the crowds who were motivated by religious zeal.

Dr Marcus Plested, of the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies at Cambridge, gave a beautifully informal lecture on the

importance of St John’s influence in the West, especially in the Church of England.

Revd Deacon Mathew Steenberg, now a Lecturer in Leeds, St John, gave and inspired talk entitled ‘The Sermon and the Chalice’. He spoke of St John’s preaching technique based on his acclaimed skill as an orator, but the word is to be ‘heard, sown, and eaten’, so that the ‘inscribed word makes changes to give divine union’. To this end, ‘the priestly office is to sow every day (and in every place) the Word of God.’ Every homily, however well delivered, would fall short if it did not point to the chalice. The purpose of the homilist is not to create ‘an illuminated Bible but spiritual transformation’; the Word is not to be ‘written in books but engraved in hearts’.

On the following day, Bishop Basil served the Pontifical Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, assisted by Fr David and Fr Elwin of York.

Fr David

I Corinthians 13:
The Nativity Version
(Anon.)

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights and shiny balls, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.

If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime, but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.

If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home and give all that I have to charity, but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.

If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties and sing in the choir’s cantata, but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.

Love is kind, though harried and tired.

Love doesn't envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.

Love doesn’t yell at the kids to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love doesn’t give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can’t.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust, but giving the gift of love will endure.
(Discovered by Sue Thompson)

A Poem Written by Archpriest Grigori Petrov Shortly Before his Death in a Siberian Prison Camp
in 1942

What is my praise before Thee?
I have not heard the cherubim singing,

that is the lot of souls sublime,
but I know how nature praises Thee.

In winter I have thought about the whole earth praying quietly to thee in the

silence of the moon,
wrapped around in a mantle of white,
sparkling with diamonds of snow.

I have seen how the rising sun rejoiced in Thee,

and choirs of birds sang forth glory.

I have heard how secretly the forest noises Thee abroad,

how the winds sing,
the waters gurgle,
how the choirs of stars preach of Thee
in serried motion through unending space.