The transfer of Father Peter Farrington to wider work within the Patriarchal diocese in the UK, has necessitated a review of the mission activities begun by him. As a result, the Windsor, Stoke-on-Trent and Swindon missions have now been transferred to the oversight of His Grace Bishop Angaelos.

The BOC London Mission at St. George-in-the-East at Shadwell, which began in March 2012, was established to serve as a centre for our people in the capital and as a means of teaching about the Orthodox faith and tradition. Unfortunately it has been decided that currently there isn’t sufficient manpower to sustain an effective ministry there and we will return to using St. Thomas’s at Charlton as our London base.

The scheduled services and Study Evenings at Shadwell for this month through to the end of the year, have therefore been cancelled. Abba Seraphim has now also assumed responsibility for running the Chatham Church, where the Liturgy will be monthly for the time being.

On 29 August Abba Seraphim  visited Saint Mary Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church, which currently worships in Saint Charles Borremeo Catholic Church in Attercliffe, Sheffield, to share with them the celebration of the Feast of the Assumption of St. Mary, according to their calendar. Assisting him at the Liturgy were Father Yonas Tesheme, the parish priest, as well as Father Habtom Ftuwi from the Eritrean community in Manchester and Father Phanuel from Fribourg in Switzerland. During the liturgy Abba Seraphim ordained four of the congregation  to the rank of Epsaltos: Nahom Mussie, Habtom Kibron, Ebenezer Woldu and Msgna Gebrhiwot. Following the liturgy they were joined by clergy from local churches who came to enjoy the traditional celebrations and the award of certificates to high-achieving Sunday School pupils.

The next day, Sunday, 30 August, being the new ecclesiastical year for the British Orthodox Church, Abba Seraphim celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St. Mark & St. Hubert’s Church at Cusworth, near Doncaster, assisted by Father David Seeds, the parish priest, and Archdeacon Alexander Astill. They were joined by the three Eritrean priests and a number of the members of the Manchester church. After the Liturgy they performed traditional church dances in the Cusworth churchyard, to the delight of passing villagers.

St. Mary’s Feast, the Feast of the Assumption, was celebrated by the British Orthodox Bristol community on Sunday, 9 August. In his sermon Father Simon addressed three points:

Firstly, the typical evangelical protestant response or demand to show or prove this matter from the Bible. Whilst noting that there were hints and parallels that could be drawn out of the scriptures Father Simon freely acknowledged that there was indeed no plain and explicit text in support of this belief but was not in the least perturbed by this as the source of the Orthodox Christian Faith is not the Bible but Tradition, the Apostolic Faith that has been passed onto us from the early Church and the belief in the assumption of the body of Saint Mary the Mother of God into heaven is part of that Tradition, that Faith.  The Bible is, of course, part of that Tradition but is not the whole of it which includes as well as the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers, the Councils and Creeds, iconography and liturgy; it being in all of these together that we encounter the Orthodox Christian Faith.

Secondly the sermon considered the place of Saint Mary in the Church, that she is at the heart of the Church, noting from the closing verses of the Praxis reading her presence “in one accord” with the Apostles.  Whilst accepting, due to time constraints, the words of the Pauline epistle (Hebrews 9:1-5) that in the sermon “we cannot now speak particularly” or in detail of these matters, Father Simon nonetheless touched on Saint Mary’s relationship (as fulfilment, as true Ark) with the Ark of the Covenant.  Within the Ark was “Aaron’s rod that budded…the tables of the covenant” and a pot of manna, the heavenly bread by which the Children of Israel were fed in their wilderness wanderings – and within Saint Mary, having conceived without human seed,  was the true Bread from Heaven, even the Word of God.  As for her being esteemed and revered or venerated in the Church, then, yes, of course she is, even as God has declared that one who honours Him, He will honour and if she (even as other saints)  is not honoured in the Church then she is certainly not going to be honoured by the world!

Thirdly and finally the sermon emphasised that in celebrating the feasts of Saint Mary that we are celebrating aspects of our own salvation too.  We, like her, are to hear the word of God and keep it, to obey His Will, to be filled with grace, to be blessed – that being the way, even like her, to enter into eternal, heavenly glory.

The British Orthodox Bristol Community, under the patronage of Saint Cyril the Great, meets in the Anglican Church of Saint Peter, Filton (a Church with long standing family connections for Father Simon).  Following the Liturgy Father Simon and Tasony Sheila remained at the Church, joining with the Anglican congregation in their short service of Compline that evening.  In thanks and appreciation for their kind hospitality in allowing us to worship in their Church building shortly before the start of the service Father Simon presented the Reverend Elspeth Desmond, curate at Saint Peter’s, with a copy icon of an Ethiopian original of Saint Mary in the British Orthodox Church of Christ the Saviour, Bournemouth.

Instead of their usual meditation during Compline, Father Simon was invited to speak briefly about the icon, so he drew attention to a few points: the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, the latter presenting Saint Mary a lily, a symbol of her purity, two of the monks from Syria who had brought the Faith to Ethiopia, each of them holding a Book of the Gospels, each book emblazoned with a cross, the heart of the Faith, the heart of the Gospel; then there was an Ethiopian hermit in the yellow robe typical of hermits in that land and blessing with a large wooden hand cross; there was Saint Stephen, protodeacon and protomartyr, in prayer, and there were priest and monk and a member of the congregation, one of the Faithful, between them all witnessing to the fullness of the Church and all gathered in the icon around the central figure of Saint Mary, at the heart of the Church, holding our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ in her arms.  Our Lord was holding the Book of the Gospels, again displaying a cross on its cover and with the Alpha and Omega thereon, witnessing to His eternal Godhead (Revelation 1:8) and thus to her as the Mother of God.

Following this brief explanation the congregation sat in silent contemplation before the icon for a few minutes.

The Reverend Elspeth thanked Father Simon for the gift which was appropriately timed for their own celebration of the Feast this coming weekend.

On 11 August Abba Seraphim was pleased to welcome to lunch at the Church Secretariat, Father Habton Ftuwi, priest of the Medhane Alem Eritrean Tewahdo Church of Greater Manchester. Father Habtom was ordained priest by Abba Seraphim in November 2011. Father Habtom was able to report on the progress of his community and together they discussed the many issues facing the Eritrean community both at home and in the diaspora, with both expressing profound distress at the plight of so many Eritrean Asylum seekers. Abba Seraphim also asked Fr. Habtom to convey his hearty congratulations to his wife on her recent graduation with a B.Sc. Hons in Dental Technology. Father Habtom is also engaged in translating liturgical and other church texts and is making studies of ancient Ethiopic manuscript collections in the British Library.    

Abba Seraphim led a pilgrim group to Glastonbury. Under the expert guidance of Subdeacon Paul Ashdown, on 10 June the group were conducted on a very thorough tour of the archaeological and historical sites of the Abbey, after which they visited the Catholic Shrine of Our Lady of Glastonbury.  In the afternoon they climbed St. Michael’s Tor, where the refreshing winds compensated for the heat of the day. The following morning, 11 July, Abba Seraphim celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the Undercroft of St. Mary’s Chapel in Glastonbury Abbey, assisted by  Father Simon Smyth, Deacon Anthony Holland and Subdeacons Paul Ashdown and Trevor-James Maskery. During the Liturgy, Dominic George was ordained as a Reader to serve the Bristol Mission. As the schedule for the Anglican celebration of the Pilgrimage had been changed from previous years and because he needed to return to London, Abba Seraphim was not able to attend the Anglican Eucharist in the afternoon, but sent Deacon Anthony and Subdeacon Paul to represent him, bearing one of the prosphoras from the morning Liturgy as a sign of fellowship.