We are pleased to announce that the British Orthodox Press has just published a new book on the history of Orthodoxy in Britain. “Ex Oriente Lux. The Story of Dr. Joseph J. Overbeck (1820-1905) and Father Stephen Hatherly (1827-1905), two converts to Orthodoxy with different conceptions of founding an indigenous Orthodox Church”.

This chapter in the history of nineteenth century Christendom has been sadly neglected by writers and Church historians. During the middle of the 19th century Stephen Hatherly, an English church musician and Dr. Joseph Overbeck, a Prussian Catholic scholar priest who had settled in England, both converted to Orthodoxy. Tragically, an early clash of personalities caused them to be life-long enemies. Hatherly believed the Byzantine Liturgy the very essence of Orthodoxy and told the Greek community in Manchester, “I glory in nothing more than that I stand before you as a Greek priest.” Dr. Overbeck’s scheme for a Western-rite Orthodoxy was repugnant to Hatherly and he wrote to his rival that he would not stand by and see him “blend any figment of your old popery or any old Protestantism with our Orthodox ritual.”

The author, Abba Seraphim, Metropolitan of Glastonbury, is a noted authority on British Orthodox history and has based this book on a series of articles which he first wrote for The Glastonbury Bulletin between 1978-1980, but greatly amplified by hitherto unpublished material he has since researched; notably detailed analysis of contemporary manuscript correspondence, as well as his friendship with members of the Hatherly family. The book also includes the first published photograph of Father Stephen Hatherly, with one of Dr. Overbeck in mid-life, as well as a beautiful miniature of him in his later years, the copyright of which belongs to the National Trust, who authorised its reproduction.

Although there have been numerous references to them in wider studies on Orthodox history, other than Wilhelm Kahle’s 1968 academic study (in German) on Dr. Overbeck’s scheme, this is the first full book in English specifically written on these Orthodox pioneers.

Copies of “Ex Oriente Lux” (hardbound, 231 pp + illustrations)  can be obtained online from Lulu.com, price £20. 

 http://www.lulu.com/shop/abba-seraphim/ex-oriente-lux/hardcover/product-23764953.html

After a long period of ill health, Deacon John Stuart of Dartmoor, died on 9 August, aged 71 years.

John Howard Newton Stuart was born on 5 June 1947 in the small historic market town of Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire, close to the home of his maternal grandfather, Fred Wright, who owned Hemingbrough Hall  1938-1952. When, less than a year old, his father took the family to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and later establishing a printing business in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). John attended a boarding school in Southern Rhodesia and, on leaving school became a photographer with the Northern News, Northern Rhodesia’s daily paper. He also trained as a film cameraman and moved back to Southern Rhodesia when television broadcasting began in 1960.

Whilst he was doing his military national service, John’s father died and he returned to England with his mother, as his younger brother was at sea as a cadet. He studied his A-levels at the former Taunton Technical College, from where he went to Hull University with the intention to read Divinity & Politics, but didn’t settle to academic life there, so joined the army instead.  This coincided with his mother having joined the WRVS and being posted to Hong Kong. After commissioning he was posted to the Gulf to join the 200 Hovercraft Squadron, Royal Corps of Transport (RCT). Following Britain’s decision to withdraw from the Gulf, the Hovercraft Squadron was eventually disbanded and John was re-badged as an Infantry officer. At the end of engagements, mainly in Northern Ireland and Germany, he left the army, but returned to the Gulf, where he worked on several projects for the Ruler of Dubai.

After this he returned to Britain and resumed his camera work, working for the Ministry of Defence, the BBC and other broadcasters. For a period he served as Head of Film at TSW (Television South West) and then Electronic News Gathering at TVam. He was the first national cameraman at  Lockerbie in December 1988 when the Pan Am jumbo jet crashed with the death of 259 passengers on board and a further 11 casualties on the ground. After 1992 when the franchise ended, he worked as a freelance, during which period he married Amelie and their daughter, Lissi, was born.

John’s background was certainly not that of a conventional clergyman, but his Christian faith had sustained him through his life, whilst his essential decency of character, and selfless kindness began to manifest themselves more as he matured with age.

John now decided to resume his academic studies, which had been interrupted by his military career, so he started to read Theology at Exeter University, where he met Father Martin Lee, who not only had common academic interests, but also shared a military background. As part of his commitment to supporting those in need, John  took up driving HGV lorries of aid to orphanages and missions in Roumania, which took him across the Carpathians in Moldova. Whilst abroad he began attending Orthodox church services, with which he felt profoundly at home. Through his friendship with Father Martin he began to learn about the mission and vision of the British Orthodox Church and was eventually received into the church and attached to Father Martin’s St. Mark & Archangel Michael Mission at Sidmouth. To support the mission he was first ordained as a Reader on 26 March 2000 and later as a Subdeacon on 23 July 2000, both at Sidmouth at the hands of Metropolitan Seraphim. He was finally ordained as a full Deacon on 10 February 2001 by Metropolitan Seraphim in the Chapel of St. Luke’s College, Exeter. The following year Amelie and Lissi wished to relocate to Berlin, so in August 2002 Deacon John bought a cottage at Wotter on the south western edge of Dartmoor, as a retreat to continue his local ministry, although he was a frequent visitor to Germany.

In 2005 Father Martin retired from active church ministry on health grounds and the Sidmouth Mission was closed. After that Deacon John continued with the pastoral ministry he had developed whilst working as a part-time medic in local hospitals, but now was only able to attend the occasional liturgies celebrated by the British Orthodox Church at Glastonbury Abbey or make the longer journey to the Bournemouth Church. In November 2009 he suffered a slight stroke, which necessitated some restrictions on his activities although in 2012 he sought permission to work closer to home, serving as an Honorary Orthodox Chaplain within the NHS Plymouth Hospitals Chaplaincy team and in supporting his local Anglican clergy on Dartmoor in their pastoral ministry to local Christians, especially the sick and elderly. Although he was no longer able to officiate under the auspices of the British Orthodox Church, he insisted that he still regarded himself as one of Abba Seraphim’s deacons and was not prepared to align himself with those who, after 2015, decided not to support its renewed independence.

His health, however, continued to steadily deteriorate and he spent much time convalescing in Berlin, where he was finally diagnosed with cancer of the stomach and leukemia. At the end of July, upon his return from Germany, where he had spent a long period receiving medical care, he telephoned Abba Seraphim from a hospital in Plymouth to advise him of his terminal condition and to seek his prayers.

Deacon John’s genuine pastoral spirit and commitment to those in need, was a constant strength to all those to whom he ministered. His practical nature and personal warmth, combined with an impressive intellect, provided sound and solid support to all who sought it. Sadly, circumstances and his own health, limited the scope of his ministry, but among those few to whom he so freely offered his service, the benefits were significant and he truly manifested the earthly diaconal ministry of our Lord and Saviour, who went about doing good, for God was with him (Acts X: 38).  Memory Eternal !

Sunday, 13 May was a special day at St Mark’s & St.Hubert’s Church in Cusworth. At Holy Pascha Abba David had ordained Vladimir Sandis Roze as a Reader in the Church. His parents were there, as they are most Sundays, even though they are Lutherans. When they first left Latvia for Moscow, where Sandis and his sister Santa (Maria in religion) were baptised as Orthodox in the Russian Orthodox Church, they began worshipping regularly in the Orthodox Church. They continued in this way at Cusworth and are well versed in Orthodoxy. Abba David, therefore, asked if they would like to become Orthodox and be able to share with us all in the Holy Eucharist. After explaining what would be required, Abba David received their reply that they would very much like this.

On Sunday 13 May and the Fifth Sunday in Pentecost, Janis (meaning John) Roze and his wife Liene (meaning Helena) were received by baptism & chrismation and received their First Communion. It is a blessing to have them in our Cusworth Orthodox family, along with their offspring, Vladimir and Maria. We pray that Our Lord will bless their new life as Orthodox Christians.

On 3 June, a beautiful, sunny, late-spring Sunday in Norfolk, Ethan, the infant son of Vjaceslavs & Luidmyla Cvetkovs, was baptised and chrismated at St Felix’s British Orthodox Church at Babingley, with Metropolitan Seraphim and Father James officiating after the Divine Liturgy, at which his Orthodox family and godparents were also present. The baptismal waters used included waters from the Virgin’s Life-Giving Spring (Zoödachos Pege) in Constantinople, a shrine first founded at the end of the fifth century, destroyed by the Ottomans but since restored; as well as blessed Jordan water. In his homily, Abba Seraphim preached on Luke XI: 1-13, highlighting aspects of the Lord’s prayer, especially the enigmatic word epiousios, which is found only in the Lord’s Prayer as reported in the New Testament passages. It is generally translated as ‘daily’ but St. Jerome and other church fathers use the words ‘supersubstantial’ or ‘superessential’ as referring directly to the Eucharist: the Bread of Life, the Body of Christ, the “medicine of immortality,” without which we have no life within us. Its heavenly meaning is evident: “this day” which we anticipate each time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist and is already the foretaste of the kingdom to come. How appropriate, therefore, that little Ethan, who today passed through the laver of regeneration and as a king and priest unto God was crowned with glory and honour, received his first communion.

It is with great sadness we learned of the death of Father Theodore de Quincey on 22 May, aged 77 years.

Alan de Quincey was born at Nowa Sol in Silesia (now Poland) on 28 November 1940, but was educated in England and spent his youth in Sussex. He discovered Orthodoxy through his early interest in monasticism. On leaving school he entered the novitiate at Prinknash Abbey, but left after six months and found employment at the Catholic bookshop, Ducketts in the Strand. After a few years he left Britain for Belgium, where he spent a year at Chevetogne Abbey, a community committed to Christian unity and celebrating both Eastern & Western rites, which enabled him to become familiar with the Byzantine rite in a Benedictine setting. From there, in 1963 he travelled to the Levant and, after visiting the Holy Places, he went to Mount Lebanon where he met the Melkite Patriarch, Maximos IV Sayegh (1878-1967), and the Roumanian Orthodox Archimandrite Andre Scrima (1925-2000); who recommended that he might enter the Antiochian Orthodox Monastery of Saint George, Deir el-Harf,  set in the midst of a pine forest that covers Ras el-Matn Mountain in Lebanon and situated on an open hill at 1050m, the monastery overlooks the Mediterranean Sea as well as the Mountains and is only 33km from Beirut.

It was during his sojourn at Deir el-Harf that he was received into the Greek Orthodox Church. He received a grant from the Greek government to read theology at Athens University, but after two years he decided to abandon his studies, return to the West and join a new Western Orthodox monastic foundation in France. This venture, centred in a former Cistercian Abbey, was short-lived and he left with his spiritual father, Hieromonk Gabriel Bultman. After several years of peregrinations, he settled down for six years in the Alps of Provence to lead a solitary life. This culminated in a spiritual crisis which led him to question and reconsider the nature of his spiritual life and it was shortly after this turning point in 1976 that he met his future wife, Marie Françoise Crebassol, whom he married in London in 1983 and who was to become the mother of their daughter, Mélanie.

He also later met Père Eliyas Leroy who was serving as a priest of the French Orthodox Church (ECOF), which at that time was part of the Roumanian Orthodox Patriarchate but who shortly afterwards transferred to  Eglise Orthodoxe Copte Francaise under Metropolitan Marcos of Toulon and Bishop (now Metropolitan) Athanasios in Marseilles. Through his friendship with Archimandrite Barnabas (Burton) he learned of the union of the British Orthodox Church with the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, which delighted him because he had long been drawn to the spirituality and theology of the Alexandrian tradition. In 1994 he first met Abba Seraphim and the following year was received into the British Orthodox Church. Although living at that time in Le Pouget, a commune in the Hérault department in the Occitanie region in southern France, he was a frequent traveller to London to visit his elderly mother, who lived in Holland Park, as well as his daughter who, having studied literature at Montpellier University, moved to London to study sculpture at the Slade School of Fine Art. During these visits he attended the churches at Charlton and Chatham and frequently accompanied Abba Seraphim to services, conferences and ecumenical gatherings in London and other parts of the country. He was ordained a deacon by Metropolitan Marcos on 15 August 2007 at le Revest-les-Eaux, with the understanding that he could serve both the churches in France and in Britain. He was later ordained priest in 2016. The death of his mother in December 2011 meant that his visits to the UK became less frequent, although he last lunched with Abba Seraphim at Charlton in February 2017, whilst on a visit to meet his new grandchild.

In his later years he also put his historical and cultural knowledge to good use and served as a guide touristique et traducteur at the Le Pouget dolmen (also called Gallardet), some 4,500 years old and one of the largest prehistoric funerary monuments in the region, and certainly one of the most beautiful.

Father Theodore was a widely read and knowledgeable priest with a deep personal understanding and experience of Christian spirituality; yet he possessed a humble and approachable spirit which endeared him to all whom he met. Although cosmopolitan in his own background and experience he exuded a quintessential old-fashioned English charm. He was much loved and always welcomed when he came to serve in British Orthodox churches. Memory Eternal !

Abba Seraphim will commemorate Father Theodore in Memorial prayers which will be said after the Liturgy at Charlton on Pentecost Sunday, 27 May and on the 40th Day after his repose, which will prayed at Babingley on Sunday, 1 July.