His Holiness Abune Paulos, Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, appears to have suffered a heart attack yesterday and was admitted to Balcha Hospital in Addis Ababa, where he is reported to have died this morning (16 August), aged 76. He had served as Patriarch since 1992.

Abune Paulos was in Cairo in March for the funeral of His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, where he delivered a dignified eulogy. Only recently, on 16 July, he met with President Mohamed Mursi  during the African Union (AU) leaders’ meeting in Addis Ababa.

Abba Seraphim announced that he had sent condolences to His Eminence Archbishop Antonios, the head of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in Great Britain, assuring him of the prayers of the British Orthodox clergy and faithful in their loss.

We were very happy to hear the news of the marriage of Tina Hammond of the British Orthodox Chatham parish with Youhanna Said Hakim Georgious of Luxor. This took place on 31 July at St. Antony & St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church in Luxor and was performed by Abouna Gladious Gerges and Abouna Bolis in the presence of a congregation of more than a thousand people. The wedding had originally been planned for last year, but the sad death of Youhanna’s mother in August 2011 resulted in a year’s delay until the periods of mourning had been accomplished.

Tina will continue to share her time between Luxor and Kent, from where she runs her travel company. Abba Seraphim and Father Peter Farrington with her many friends in the British Orthodox congregations at Chatham, Charlton, the London Mission and the South Coast parishes all send their warmest greetings to Tina and Youhanna and look forward to welcoming him to England.

On 26 July Abba Seraphim visited His Eminence Archbishop Aram Ateshian, General Vicar (Acting Patriarch) of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople at the Patriarchate in Kumkapi, Istanbul, accompanied by Mr. Trevor Maskery and Archimandrite Deiniol of the Wales Orthodox Mission, who was visiting the city at the same time. This was in return for Archbishop Aram’s visit to the British Orthodox Secretariat at Charlton in March. They were able to discuss a number of matters of common interest, including the progress of the Papal election and the current health of His Beatitude Patriarch Mesrob II, who since 2008 has been suffering from Frontal temporal degenerative dementia and has been unable to exercise his office. His physical and mental situation have steadily deteriorated and he is now being cared for at Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital in Yedikule.

On Sunday, 29 July Abba Seraphim accompanied Archbishop Aram to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy at Surp Yerits Mangants (Three Holy Youths) Armenian Church at Boyacikoy and afterwards lunched with members of the congregation in their recently renovated church on the Bosphorus.

Warm fraternal links between the British Orthodox Church and the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul have existed for a number of years and go back to the time of the late Karekin II (Kazanjian), Patriarch  of Istanbul (1995-1998). Abba Seraphim also participated in the enthronement of His Beatitude Patriarch Mesrob II.

On 16 July the Anglican-Oriental Orthodox Regional Forum held its half-yearly meeting at St. John’s Church, Notting Hill. Chaired jointly by The Right Rev’d Geoffrey Rowell, Bishop of Europe, and His Grace Bishop Angaelos, General  Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church. This meeting had a very good attendance with the Anglican Bishops of Southwark and Reading also present as well as Metropolitan Seraphim (British Orthodox Church), Archbishop Athanasios Dawood (Syriac Orthodox Church) and Bishop Mathews Mar Thimothios (Malankara Orthodox Church) as well as other Anglican and Oriental Orthodox clergy who are members of the Forum.  The Revd Roger Paul, National Adviser (Unity-in-Mission), Council for Christian Unity, spoke to the Forum about the role of the CCU and its relationship with AOORF. The main body of the meeting comprised detailed reports on the current situation of all the member churches churches with particular consideration of events in Egypt and Syria, as well as a report on the recent meeting of the General Synod of the Church of England.  

During his recent visit to the Bournemouth Parish of Christ the Saviour on 1 July, Abba Seraphim ordained two new subdeacons for the Portsmouth Parish, James Anthony Kelly and Anthony-Paul Holland. During the Liturgy Abba Seraphim was assisted by Father Simon Smyth and Subdeacon Daniel Malyon. Preaching to a full church on the Sunday Gospel (Luke X: 1-20) he draw parallels between our Lord’s commission to the LXX and the present mission of the church. Following the Liturgy Abba Seraphim chaired a parish meeting to explain the electoral process for choosing a new Pope & Patriarch, answered questions from the congregation and passed on Metropolitan Bakhomios’s invitation to all church members to express their opinion on the selection of the future patriarch.

Abba Seraphim was pleased to welcome to Bournemouth, Archimandrite Deiniol of the Wales Orthodox Mission of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, who attended the Divine Liturgy. Afterwards Fr. Deiniol was able to chat to most of the people present.