This is a warm invitation to two opportunities to worship with us in Windsor at our Orthodox Mission of St Andrew this week.

On Monday 11th March we are meeting to pray a service of Orthodox Evening Prayer in the English language. We begin our prayers at 6:30 pm at St Andrew’s Church of England, Mill Lane, Clewer, Windsor. Father Peter Farrington will lead the prayers from the Orthodox Daily Office of the Coptic Orthodox tradition in the English language. After the service of prayer there will be time for conversation and refreshments.

On Saturday 16th March, this coming Saturday, we are meeting to celebrate the Orthodox Liturgy in the English language for the first time at St Andrew’s, Mill Lane, Clewer, Windsor. Our morning of worship will begin at 9:30 am with the Raising of Incense, and the Liturgy itself will begin at 10:00 am. His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim will celebrate the Liturgy assisted by Father Peter Farrington. There will be an opportunity for conversation and refreshments after the Liturgy.

You are most warmly welcome to attend either or both of these services. If you know of others who may be interested in participating in our Orthodox worship then do please pass this message on to them.

On 5 May, during the regular monthly celebration of the Divine Liturgy for the British Orthodox London Mission of SS. George & Paul the Hermit at St. George-in-the-East, Shadwell, Abba Seraphim ordained Daniel Malyon as a Subdeacon. Daniel is a member of the BOC Portsmouth Parish but whilst teaching near St. Albans, has been serving as a Reader attached to the Secretariat staff, so has been serving with Abba Seraphim at Babingley, Charlton and Shadwell.  A graduate in theology, he is currently studying for his Master’s degree in Orthodox Theology at the University of Winchester. 

Assisting Abba Seraphim at the Liturgy were Fathers Simon Smyth and Peter Farrington as well as Deacon Theodore de Quincey. They were joined by two of Daniel’s fellow Readers from Portsmouth, James Kelly and Anthony-Paul Holland. 

On Thursday, 19th April, Father Peter Farrington participated in the Evangelical-Orthodox Dialogue, sponsored by the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius. The meeting took place at the Fellowship house in Oxford, adjacent to the Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity and the Annunciation.

Each meeting of the Dialogue consists of a presentation on a theme of interest by alternately an Evangelical and Orthodox speaker or participant, followed by questions and discussion, a shared buffet lunch, and closing with prayer. The meeting which took place last week was concerned with the subject of mission, and an evangelical speaker, Canon Mark Oxbrow, spoke about the Evangelical understanding and practice of mission. His interesting lecture was followed by a period of honest questions and answers which did not shy away from the difficult relationship between some Evangelical mission organisations and Orthodox communities.

Father Peter greatly appreciated the opportunity to meet with Eastern Orthodox clergy and laity, as well as Evangelicals who have a commitment to dialogue with Orthodox Christians. Almost the first person that he spoke with turned out to have a background in the Plymouth Brethren, as does Father Peter. Other participants included the former principal of the bible college that Father Peter attended when he was himself an Evangelical.

The meeting was entirely positive and worthwhile, and Father Peter is looking forward to the next meeting of the Dialogue in October when an Orthodox participant will speak about mission from the Orthodox perspective.

On 15 March at St. George’s-in-the-East, Father Peter Farrington inaugurated the first of the new London Mission’s monthly evening meetings with a talk, “Lord, Teach us to pray.” Drawing on St. John Cassian’s Conferences he explored the counsels of Abba Moses on Prayer before going on to consider the different, but significant, contexts in which the Lord’s Prayer is introduced in the Gospels of Saints Matthew and Luke. Father Peter will return to the theme in his next talk on 12 April.