May 2008

ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian Tradition
in Western Europe

Deanery of
Great Britain
and Ireland

The Orthodox Parish of
St Aidan
& St Chad,
Nottingham

Extracts from Parish Newsletter, May 2008

FATHER DAVID’S LETTER:

Pascha, 2008

This joyful Eastertide, Away with sin and sorrow.
My Love, the Crucified, hath sprung to life this morrow:
Had Christ that once was slain. Ne’er burst his three-day prison,
Our faith had been in vain:
But now hath Christ arisen, arisen, arisen, But now hath Christ arisen.

For now is Christ arisen and this means change and new life for all of us. One of the saddest of experiences is to see men and women fixed in their ways with no desire to change, indeed with no awareness that change is needed or would be beneficial -- the same old way, the same old view of life, this is how it is, no change is necessary or desirable.

But on Easter morning it is all change! The old has passed away and something very new and at first unbelievable has happened. The tomb is empty and Christ who was buried there but three days ago is not in it. In fact He is Risen -- back to life but in a new way -- a completely new order of things has emerged.

The disciples were the first to experience this. They couldn't at first believe it. Only gradually, what had happened dawned on them. Then all was different, and they changed. How they changed! Sadness and grief turned to joy and exhilaration, despair and doubt turned to hope, their uncertainty of the path ahead became better than the certainty of life they had know hitherto. No longer hiding away they suddenly burst out with confidence. There was now, for them, no turning back, no looking back. They preferred to march forward into new life, uncertain of the path but sure it was the right one. They may have been unsure of how they would manage but they were certain that the Risen Christ was with them. They probably felt weak and inadequate in themselves but they were also aware of being empowered by this new experience and the quickening of the Holy Spirit within them. Recently an eminent Jewish scholar has published a book in which he says that there is no factual evidence that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. Yet there is clear evidence that the early disciples believed that Jesus was alive; for them the Resurrection was certain reality.

And so for us there must be change: Had Christ...Ne’er burst his three-day prison, Our faith had been in vain... If this is not true, we have been wasting our time and effort; if it is true, well, change there must be. St Ignatius Brianchinov, the eminent Russian teacher, warns us that there is always a danger that we return to, rejoice in, and are content with the way we have always been, albeit whilst trying to do better and cease falling into our usual weaknesses. But, as St Ignatius points out, this is a return to our unnatural self, a self imaged on fallen Adam and set in a failing world. There may be comfort in the way that we have always coped, and ease in doing what our family and society expects, but this so often is the path of Adam and does not lead to new life. The natural self, on the other hand, is what we are really meant to be. Made in the image of God and being transformed into His likeness, being Christ-like, living in the Kingdom of Heaven and according to the new order unveiled at Pascha, is what is truly natural.

Now is Christ arisen and change is in the air. We are now to radiate the love of Christ with greater generosity, model his ever-forgiving nature, conduct ourselves with greater patience and humility, reach out to others with costly care which proclaims that He is truly Risen. Alone, we are like pieces of coloured glass or glazed porcelain, each with a great intrinsic beauty, but when gathered into a mosaic, becoming the Church. As individuals we are what we are, but gathered together we can become more, even the icon, more than the icon, the Risen Christ on earth in a world so in need of renewal.

Alone and together we are to cast off the unnatural and become what is natural; to cease to be like Adam and to become like Christ. May God grant to each of us and all of us a wonderful life-changing Paschal season.
CHRIST IS RISEN!
CHRISTOS VOSKRESIE!
CHRISTOS ANESTE!
SURREXIT CHRISTUS!

Conference in Memory of Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh

A one-day Conference will be held in London on Saturday the 21st of June, 2008, dedicated to Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh and commemorating the 94th anniversary of his birth on 19 June, 1914.

The Conference is being organised by the ‘Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh Foundation’ and will be the first Western European Conference to be held in his memory. Its purpose will be to begin to reflect on what constitutes his legacy in Western Eruope. What was it that made him special? How was he a source of inspiration? What did he contribute to the life of the Church in this country and elsewhere? What was the influence of his spiritual vision in our lives, in our contemporary situation?

Speakers

Amal Dibo, Professor of Civilisation, American University of Beirut

Canon Dr John Binns, St Mary the Great, Cambridge

Father John Lee, St Andrew, Holborn, London

Barbara Newman, Professor of English, Religion and Classics, Northwestern University, Chicago
Father Sergei Ovsiannikov, Prish of St Nicholas of Myra, Amsterdam

The Conference will take place at St Sava’s Church Hall, 89 Lancaster Road, Kensington, London W11 1QQ. Further details will be forthcoming on the Vicariate web-site at:
http://www.exarchate-uk.org/

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Fellowship of St John the Baptist
Annual Summer Conference

‘Living the Liturgy: Public Worship, Private Prayer, and Daily Life’
Friday 11th- Sunday 13th July 2008
Ushaw College, Durham

Speakers will include Bishop Basil of Amphipolis, Mother Sarah (Convent of St John Kronstadt, Bath), and Bruce Clark.

For more information, please contact Gladys Bland, 30 Priory Road, Cambridge CB5 8HT.

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The Orthodox Study Bible

Created by the Orthdox Study Bible Old Testament Project, the OSB is now available for sale in the Parish. This is the first ever full-length Orthodox Study Biblie in English, based on the Greek text of the Septuagint for the Old Testament and on the Greek New Testament.

Please see Sue Thompson to order your copy.

A review of the OSB will appear in next month’s issue of the Newsletter.

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MOSC (Midlands Orthodox Study Centre)
of St Theodore of Canterbury

Certificate and Diploma Courses on the Orthodox Church, accredited by
The University of Wales, Lampeter

(Report by Mary Cunningham)

These courses meet every second Saturday (during ten months of the year, September- June) at the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Sun Street, Palfrey Walsall, W. Midlands, WS1 4AL. They are organised by Fr John Nankivell and Fr Stephen Maxfield (of the Greek Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain), Dr Nikolai Lipatov, and Mr John Davis.

During the academic year, 2007-2008, both the Certificate and Diploma courses have been covering modules connected with the Scriptures and with Canon Law. Thus there have been lectures on the Old and New Testaments, Patristic interpretation of Scripture, the use of Scriptures in the Liturgy, and many other topics. Fr Stephen Maxfield has offered a fascinating introduction to the history and content of Canon Law, a topic which is frequently cited in Orthodox circles, but not always well understood. In the recent April session, Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia delivered two interesting lectures on ‘The Trinity in the Gospel of John’ and ‘A Comparison of the Passion Narratives in Luke and John’.

I have been attending the Study Days all year because I am assisting with the lecturing and leading of seminars. I have greatly enjoyed this experience both because the students (about twenty in all) are lively and interested and because I am able to attend the other lectures in the course of each day. I have learned an enormous amount from each of them, and have gained a stronger sense of the importance of scripture in our lives and worship as Orthodox Christians. I strongly urge any who can spare the time to enroll in this course if they are interested. It takes about one hour to drive to Walsall from Derby (1 ½ hours from Nottingham?) and the whole teaching experience is contained within one day. Thus there are no extra expenses incurred for overnight accommodation. Students bring packed lunches which they share in the common room between the morning and afternoon sessions. Coffee and tea are provided.

In future years, more subjects of study will be introduced, including all aspects of Orthodox Christian Theology and Worship. Students are asked to write monthly essays, which are assessed as accreditation for the awards of Certificate and Diploma from the University of Wales at Lampeter.

For further information, please write to:
Mr John Davis
51 Gungrog Road
Welshpool SY21 7UL
01938-554642

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Ascension Day

The Divine Liturgy may be celebrated in Stowe Minster on Thursday, 5th June, 2008; if not, it will be in the Church of the Holy Transfiguration, Carlton. Please ask Fr David for details nearer the date.

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A MEDITATION

On the Healing of Jairus’s daughter and the Woman with an Issue of Blood

(Luke 8: 40-56: Gospel for the 24th Sunday after Pentecost)

There is a tradition in parts of Russia – I think it must stem from a pre-Christian superstition—that if possible, the prosphora, the loaves for the holy communion, should be baked by a pre-pubescent girl. The reason for this is that a young girl is considered to be ritually pure since she has not yet reached the age when she will be tainted by the ‘issue of blood’. And if any thing were needed to show that such a custom is not Christian, it is this passage.

Jesus is on his way to heal someone who is dying: a twelve-year old girl— and not just any girl. This girl is the daughter of a ruler of the synagogue: an important person in Jewish religious life; a man whose job it was to uphold religious customs and regulations. No doubt he was highly respected. And while he is on his way to the ruler’s house, Jesus is touched by a woman who, according to Jewish law, was in a permanent state of religious uncleanness. For twelve years she had been losing blood, not just periodically but continually. She had spent all her savings consulting doctors but none of them had been able to help her. The dying girl is twelve years old and the woman has been afflicted for twelve years. St Luke mentions these facts in succeeding sentences to emphasize that there is a spiritual connection between them. And because the woman presumed to touch the hem of Christ’s garment— which she should not have done, being ritually unclean— there is a delay, in the course of which a servant arrives from the ruler’s house to tell Jesus not to trouble himself any further because the girl is now dead.

How shocking, you might say. A young girl has died who might have lived if only Jesus had been a little quicker in getting there; but he was held up by a ritually unclean woman. And it would be so easy to point the finger of blame at her. See what comes from disobeying the Mosaic Law! But what does Jesus say to her when he has listened to her trembling explanation? He says, ‘Go in peace, daughter. Thy faith hath made thee whole.’ And in calling her ‘daughter’ he acknowledges her right to be accepted as a full member of the Jewish community. She had done nothing wrong. She touched Jesus because she was desperate and because she had faith in him, and she was healed.

Of course that is not the end of the story. Jesus sends a message to the dead girl’s father. ‘Only believe, and your daughter shall live.’ And he continues on his way to the house. When he arrives there the girl’s family, their friends and neighbours— and perhaps the professional mourners, if they had already been sent for— are all weeping and wailing. And Jesus realizes that there is going to be a problem. Not the problem of raising the girl from the dead, but the problem of keeping it quiet. We all know how the chief priests reacted when, at a later stage, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. They arranged to have him killed, because a man who didn’t acknowledge their teaching, who actually poured scorn on it, and who could nevertheless bring the dead back to life, was a mortal threat to the old ways – their ways. He knows that this will happen of course, but it mustn’t be allowed to happen yet, because he hasn’t yet finished his ministry. So he tells the mourners not to mourn because the girl isn’t dead – she’s just ‘sleeping’. You might think that when a well-known healer says something like that they would at least pause to think and ask themselves whether he knows something that they don’t. But no. They’ve heard that Jesus is a man who says wild things, who leads the people astray, and they simply jeer at him. That’s the real impurity: contempt for man (contempt for God if they did but know it), and contempt for the dead. Well of course he does bring the girl back to life, and her parents are ‘amazed’. He had said to them, ‘Only believe…,’ and in spite of their amazement we must assume that there was a tiny spark of faith somewhere. It can’t have been very strong – but it was enough. We should take comfort from that. Doubt is always within us, for otherwise faith would not be faith but certainty. In this world we cannot know; we can only believe. Even saints have to wrestle with their doubts. Think of Joseph in the Christmas icon, doubting the innocence of Mary. But doubt is not unbelief. Indeed – here is a great mystery – without doubt there can be no faith. The time to worry is when we think our faith is absolutely secure and that we have all the answers; because then we really are in the grip of unbelief and merely deceiving ourselves.

I began this meditation by talking about false notions of purity. It is a feature of religious authoritarianism. The Pharisees and the religious leaders at the time of Christ went about in a constant fear of ritual impurity. People said of them that they would have cleaned the sun if they could. Sad to say there are Christians who do the same themselves, who forget that it is not ritual purity but love of God and love of one’s neighbour that lies at the heart of the Gospel.

I recall an episode from an account of a pilgrimage that appeared in an Orthodox journal some years ago. It was a mixed pilgrimage; that is to say that there were some non-Orthodox Christians in the party, and they were visiting monasteries in the Middle East. When they arrived at one particular monastery – I can’t remember which one it was or even whether it belonged to our brand of Orthodoxy, but anyway, the non-Orthodox members were refused entry into the main church because the liturgy had just been celebrated there and it was thought that, being non-Orthodox, they would contaminate Christ’s lingering presence. It evidently hadn’t occurred to the monks that when Jesus walked the earth he ate with publicans and sinners; he allowed a harlot to wash his feet; and he permitted himself to be mocked, struck on the face, scourged and crucified because of his love for all men and women. Again we are dealing with false notions of purity.

I said a moment ago that the ruler of the synagogue had a spark of faith in him. And that tiny spark had freed him from conformity to a dead religious tradition. Although he must have known that Jesus was hated by the religious leaders – by his own religious superiors – it was to Jesus that he turned when he was desperate. It was the same with the bleeding woman.

In our daily life we meet Christ many times. Do we recognize him? Do we respond to him as those two persons did? For there is also a sense in which we are those two persons. The fact is that whenever we act as they did, something within us that was bleeding is healed; and something that was dead within us is restored to life.

(Deacon Ian Thompson)

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A Word from the Desert

We have all had a tough Great Lent but somehow we have been encouraged along until at last Pascha in its glory has dawned. These are the thoughts of Archmandrite Sophrony. The tougher the path, the greater the blessing.

‘When we become so conscious of our frailty that our spirit despairs, somehow, in an unknown fashion, a wondrous light appears, proclaiming life incorruptible. When the darkness within us is so appalling that we are paralysed with dread, the same light will turn black night into bright day. When we properly condemn ourselves to eternal infamy and in agony descend into the pit, suddenly strength from Above will lift our spirit to the heights. When we are overwhelmed by the feeling of our own utter nothingness, the uncreated light transfigures and brings us like sons into the Father’s house. How are these contrasting states to be explained? Why does our self-condemnation justify us before God? Is it not because there is truth in this self-condemnation and so the Spirit of Truth finds a place for Himself in us?’

Archimandrite Sophrony
1896-1993

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A Story of Conversion
(submitted by Sue Thompson and slightly adapted)

I thought that the following story might be enjoyed by many with regard to the practice of repeating things in Church services. It was told to me by an OCA priest, who had heard it from a hierarch.

In Warsaw, in the 1950s, when Communism was strong, three young Communist men were walking past the cathedral on Holy Friday at about noon. The young men realized the significance of the day to Christians and came to the agreement that they ought to go into the cathedral and make a statement, on behalf of ‘enlightened’ Communists. They drew straws to decide who would make the statement, and one of the young men went in. So they went in, and, like many young men who don’t go to church, felt a little awkward and weren’t quite sure what to do.

There happened to be a hierodeacon working in the church between services who spotted the young men coming in and recognized that something was going on. He went up to the young man who was to make the statement, as he was standing towards the front of the group, and asked if he could help him. The young man looked back at his friends, who motioned for him to go ahead and talk to the hierodeacon. The young man, walking with an air of purpose, said, ‘Yes, we would like to make a statement. We don't believe in all this nonsense, and we would like to make a statement.’

‘Sure, sure,’ the monk responded. He put his arms around the young man and brought him to the front of the temple, where the corpus was still on the Cross, while the other young men watched from a distance at the back of the temple. ‘I tell you what I think you should do: Look up here at Jesus crucified, and say, “You died for me, and I don’t care.”’

The young man thought about it, decided that that wasn’t too hard, and said, in a loud voice, “You died for me, and I don’t care!”’

‘Very good, very good,’ replied the hierodeacon. ‘But, of course, in the Orthodox Church we like to repeat things, so go ahead and say it again.’

The young man was a bit taken aback by that, because he thought he had finished with his statement, but he looked up at Christ on the Cross again and said, in not so loud a voice, ‘You died for me, and I don’t care.’

‘Very good, very good,’ replied the hierodeacon again. ‘But I was thinking, and if you REALLY want to make a statement that the Orthodox will respect you should say it one last time, because we are a trinitarian faith, and the Orthodox are always saying things in threes. Yes, I think you should definitely say it one more time.’

This time you could see that the young man was totally beaten down by this last suggestion of the monk, but he pulled himself up for one last ‘statement’. ‘You died for me,’ he began, but then collapsed on his knees, sitting on the floor in front of the Cross. ‘And I care,’ he whispered and began to cry.

The priest who told me this story said that the young man in the story was the same hierarch who told him the story.