As members and clergy of St Alban’s British Orthodox Church in Chatham we had felt that we should be organising a regular activity to allow members of the British Orthodox Fellowship in our area to experience something of our Christian life, as indeed was the purpose of the Fellowship being introduced.
So far we have welcomed visitors to two Study Evenings. The first was held in November and had as its topic, ‘The Jesus Prayer’. The second has just taken place and the topic was ‘Praying with Icons’.
Both of these evenings have been a very useful learning exercise, as well as allowing us to meet Fellowship members and welcome them to our Church in Chatham.
The first Study Evening looked at the History, Spirituality and Practice of the Jesus Prayer, but on reflection we considered that we had not allowed enough time for questions and discussions.
The most recent evening spent thinking about ‘Praying with Icons’, seemed to work better with less presentation and more discussion. We were very fortunate that our own Subdeacon Michael Kennedy, himself an artist, was able to lead this fruitful evening.
We have a growing number of Fellowship members in the East of Kent, who cannot easily travel all the way to Chatham, so we are now considering holding the same evening in the Dover or Folkestone area to support and encourage the growth of Fellowship membership.
Subdeacon Peter Farrington