Admission to the Monastic Brotherhood

img_9474

On Sunday, 25 September, the congregation at St. Mark & St. Hubert’s Church in Cusworth Village, Doncaster, witnessed the admission of a new member of the Brotherhood of Monks. Father Alexis Raphael of Lincoln was admitted as a Rasophore Monk and ordained to the Order of Reader at the hands of Abba Seraphim, Metropolitan of Glastonbury; with Father David Seeds and Archdeacon James Maskery assisting. As Fr. Alexis received the tonsure twice on the same day, in his homily, Abba Seraphim spoke of the origins and symbolism of the tonsure, both for admission to the monastic brotherhood and for the clerical state. At the conclusion of the Liturgy, the Cusworth congregation hosted a celebratory buffet lunch.  Father Alexis, who has been assisting at the Cusworth Church for some time, lives as a solitary in Lincoln.

img_9425