On 11 July 2017 the ‘Holy Synod’ of the Eritrean Orthodox Church issued a statement declaring that the issue of Patriarch Abune Antonios had been resolved and that there was “a full reconciliation, peace and love with Abuna Antonios in the presence of Union of the Monasteries and Church Scholars.” Apart from the fact that the ‘Holy Synod’ ceased to have any credibility as the canonical authority of the Eritrean church at the moment that it concurred in the illegal removal of the Patriarch and supported the usurpation of the government-sponsored anti-patriarch, Dioscoros; the ‘Holy Synod’ is recognised as the mouth-piece of the Eritrean government.

Abune Antonios, now a frail 90 years old, has been kept under house arrest at an undisclosed location since January 2007. He suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure and in May 2017 it was reported that he had fallen gravely ill following having been injected with a harmful substance. It is believed that the Eritrean government is anxious to prepare the ground for his successor, whom many people believe may be Abune Luqas, who was uncanonically consecrated bishop by the late anti-Patriarch Dioscoros, prior to the latter’s death on 21 December 2015. Luqas is the “front man” who appears on official videos making statements on behalf of the church and formal greetings at New Year and other festive occasions. He is believed to be one of the main instigators behind the imprisonment of clergy and recently toured churches in the diaspora to raise his own profile, in what many people believe to be a preparation for his elevation to patriarchal rank. Having the appearance of reconciliation with the legitimate patriarch, Abuna Antonios, would ensure Luqas’s acceptance by other Orthodox churches.

Details of the service of reconciliation are sparse and not derived from any reliable and independent source. Father Bereket of the parish of Adikeyih, another Eritrean priest serving the interests of the government, is said to have read out a letter of apology to Abuna Antonios, who – despite his request – was not allowed to pray for those assembled or to make any public address on this occasion, whilst photographs of the event were blurry and restricted. The presence of plain-clothes security officers, pushing people out of the church compound, clearly revealed who was in charge of this sham reconciliation. Afterwards, Abuna Antonios was returned to house arrest. This cynical attempt at manipulation of this frail, but holy hierarch, is symptomatic of the ongoing persecution of Eritrean Christians; but we thank God that there are those in Eritrea who are not unaware of government strategy, whilst international organisations like CSW (Christian Solidarity Worldwide) which have been vocal supporters of Abune Antonios and persecuted Christians in Eritrea, have exposed this contrived attempt to conceal the reality of the ongoing persecution of the Eritrean Church. No statements by the “Holy Synod” can be regarded as dependable and unless events can be corroborated by a reliable and independent source, such as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, they are of little value.

The British Orthodox Church continues to pray for Abuna Antonios and all those righteous bishops, priests, monks and faithful who stand for truth and justice against a cruel and oppressive régime.

Sunday, 9 July was the fortieth anniversary of Abba Seraphim’s episcopal consecration, which took place at Blackheath in 1977. There was no special festivity planned, as Abba Seraphim felt it was more important for him to meet his regular Sunday obligations, rather than disrupt them for a celebration, but a special Thanksgiving Prayer was offered during the Divine Liturgy, which he celebrated at St. Alban’s Orthodox Church in Chatham, as well as prayers commemorating his late consecrators: Metropolitan Georgius of Glastonbury, Bishop Ignatius Peter of Priddy and Archbishop Iltud of Dol. Abba Seraphim was touched to receive many affectionate greetings and assurances of prayers from the British Isles as well as around the world and, after leaving Church, he and the other clergy were entertained to lunch nearby at the home of one of the Chatham congregation. Later, in the evening he and Archdeacon James were entertained to dinner by a long-standing friend of the Church. The attached pictures of four decades ago were located in the extensive British Orthodox church archives; whilst a special YouTube compilation of photos was posted online as a tribute by Egyptian friends of the British Orthodox Church.

On Sunday, 29 May – following the Divine Liturgy at The British Orthodox London Mission of St. Thomas the Apostle at Charlton – Abba Seraphim, assisted by Archdeacon James and Subdeacon Athanasius Hall, baptised and chrismated eleven-week-old Alexander Peter Nicholas Sidoli of Rotherhithe, whose godparents had travelled from Wales and Shropshire to make their vows on his behalf. Alexander, whose ancestry is a mixture of Italian Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox, also received his first communion and Abba Seraphim spoke of the Orthodox tradition of infants receiving chrismation (or confirmation) at the same time as baptism, which meant that they become full church members from the outset and are able to enjoy the blessing of Holy Communion from their childhood to enable them to grow spiritually, as well as physically, in their formative years.

The sickening news which broke this morning of the vicious attack on a busload of Coptic Christian pilgrims, in which at least 26 passengers were killed and a further 25 wounded, is the latest atrocity to be committed by murderous fanatics, masquerading as religious zealots. It comes at a time when the United Kingdom is still stunned and horrified by the massacre of innocents in Manchester. Over the past few years the frequency of attacks on Christians around the globe has become so common that there has been a danger of  us becoming desensitised to their suffering, tending to regard such events as a symptom of social and political chaos in countries lacking strong and stable governments. It is clear, however, from the spontaneous outburst of compassion and common humanity which the Manchester atrocity has ignited, that the British public is still largely tolerant, humane and loving and would regard the cruel treatment of innocent victim elsewhere with the same abhorrence as we do for attacks on our own citizens. Indeed,  Egypt is an ancient civilisation with a responsible and just government, which is doing everything within its power to protect all its people, regardless of their religious affiliation and, like us, most Egyptians reject the divisiveness of religious bigotry and long for peace and concord.

The perpetrators of these acts of evil are fully aware that their savagery occurs on the eve of the Islamic Holy month of Ramadan, which the prophet of Islam tells them is the month “whose beginning is mercy”, when the devout, through prayer and fasting and the giving of alms, seek forgiveness of their sins. As Christians we can identify with such religious aspirations, because we know that hatred, destruction and murder have no place in true religion. Such actions unjustly bring shame on god-fearing Muslims, who would never countenance such wickedness, and we must rejoice that among the thousands who came out onto the streets of Manchester and other cities around the world, to express their grief and opposition to violence, many were Muslims.

A fifth edition of The Glastonbury Confession has just been issued by the British Orthodox Press, some sixty-five years after it was first published by the late Metropolitan Georgius (1905-1979).

In 1994, when the British Orthodox Church united with the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, the Protocol determining our relations simply stated that the British Orthodox Church “confesses the same faith as the Coptic Orthodox Church and rejects all that the Coptic Orthodox Church rejects.” Although the late Pope Shenouda III accepted the Confession as a sound exposition of our Orthodoxy, it was no longer deemed necessary to have a distinctive statement of faith, and it was accordingly withdrawn from circulation.  However, in 2015, when the British Orthodox Church returned to its status as an autocephalous jurisdiction, the need to express our faith clearly and unambiguously necessitated the re-adoption of The Glastonbury Confession as the Dogmatic Constitution of the British Orthodox Church.

In publishing a fifth edition the only change made from the fourth edition is in Article 3 of Chapter VI, where previously seven councils were recognised as ecumenical, a tradition derived from Bishop Julius of Iona in 1866, despite the church’s original Apostolic Succession deriving from the Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. Without impugning the integrity of the faith of those Orthodox Churches recognising seven councils as ecumenical, the British Orthodox Church professes only three, desiring to continue as a jurisdiction faithfully adhering to the Oriental Orthodox tradition and venerating her predecessors and fathers among the saints who rejected the Council of Chalcedon of A.D. 451. Indeed, the church’s understanding of these differences fully accords with the Second Agreed Statements and Recommendations agreed by the Joint Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, held at Chambésy, Switzerland, 23-28 September 1990; whereby both families accept the first three Oecumenical Councils and, in relation to the four later Councils of the Orthodox Church, the interpretations provided by the Orthodox Church in the Second Agreed Statement are ones which the Oriental Orthodox tradition can respond to positively.

The Confession contains some ninety-one articles, divided into ten chapters dealing with God and His Creation; Divine Revelation; the Person and Work of Christ; the Person and Work of the Holy Ghost and Grace; the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church; the Sacred Scriptures and Apostolic Tradition; Charism of Office in the Church; Divine Worship and the Sacramental Life; Life in Christ and Eschatology. It is a valuable exposition of the Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Faith of Undivided Christendom which can be useful for catechesis among enquirers, wishing to learn more about Orthodoxy.

The Glastonbury Confession is a 106-page paperback. Copies can be ordered either directly from the British Orthodox Church Secretariat, 10 Heathwood Gardens, Charlton, London, SE7 8EP for £9.95 plus £2.99 postage (U.K. only) or online from Lulu.com for £9.95 plus postage (UK and abroad).

http://www.lulu.com/shop/the-british-orthodox-church/the-glastonbury-confession/paperback/product-23185489.html