On 13th May, Father Alexis Raphael participated in a day retreat in Birmingham for members and friends of ‘Single Consecrated Life’, an Anglican network of solitaries.  He met solitary monastics from a variety of traditions, from Evangelical to Anglo-Catholic, where participants shared the stories of their respective call to the solitary life.  Developments in the religious life in the UK were discussed and there was a talk on Christian Healing given by Sister Beverly SCL. There was a vegetarian lunch and plenty of opportunities to meet other solitaries.  Father Alexis felt encouraged that so many people of different ages, traditions and walks of life are embracing the solitary call in Britain today and was also pleased to learn of an increase in interest in the solitary vocation has been reported.

On Sunday 6 May Fr Alexis Raphael and Fr David Seeds were given a tour of Sprotbrough parish church near Cusworth, Doncaster, by local historian Ted Rimington.  They saw the grave of the medieval hermitess Margaret Tatersall, who died in 1438, and other artefacts, such as the rood screen and choir stalls which came from St Edmund’s Hospital, which was founded about 1270 by Thomas Fitzwilliam and his son, William, as an anchorage for two female recluses. This was attached to the hospital of St Edmund, the master acting as keeper of the lands which endowed the anchorhold. The Ancres Chapel at “the Ancresse Ings” in Sprotbrough, was later corrupted as Anchorage Lane.

The first two anchoresses were sisters, Anabel and Helen de Lisle, and another anchoress with the same surname entered in 1294, perhaps replacing one of the sisters. In 1300 Beatrice de Hodesack, who was a fugitive nun from the Scottish priory of Coldstream, who had fled at the approach of war in which her nunnery had been destroyed, was admitted. By 1315 however her position had been regularised by Archbishop William Greenfield of York, and she remained in her cell until her death in or after 1328. She had a companion whose name is unrecorded. The Fitzwilliams continued to support the anchoresses: in 1348 Isabel Fitzwilliam left to the Lady Joan, anchoress, a robe of her order. Another anchoress was Margaret Tatersal whose tomb is in the parish church. In 1481 Elizabeth Eltoft, widow, sought to be enclosed in the chapel of St Edmund. She was to be enclosed as a postulant for one year and then to make her profession. She did this being of good conversation and honest life, and without a man, and not because of poverty or other illegitimate reasons. It is probable that anchoresses, or at least an anchoress, was still there at the Dissolution of the monasteries in 1536. Sprotbrough was an important site for medieval hermits and Fr Alexis was delighted by the opportunity to see the parish church as he is researching monastic life in the area near the BOC  Cusworth parish.

On Sunday, 7 May at St. Mary & St. Felix Church at Babingley, special prayers of thanksgiving were offered for the return to health of Deacon Mark Saunders, who was last at church on New Year’s Day, having suffered a period of poor health which had resulted in a long stay in various hospitals and rest homes. Deacon Mark drove himself to church and was warmly welcomed  by the clergy and the congregation.

In his address, Abba Seraphim spoke of the various images of the Church: as a community and a family, but essentially as the Body of Christ and quoted the Apostle Paul, who said that if one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it (I Corinthians XII: 26). During his physical absence Deacon Mark remained very much in the thoughts and prayers of the worshippers at Babingley, from which the Sacrament was carried to him; but equally from his sick bed he remained united in prayer with the worship at Babingley, as prayer transcends time and space and reaches out to God from our hearts. The church’s intercession for all manner and conditions of men encompasses the living and the departed, including the sick and those in various types of need. The respect and affection in which Deacon Mark is held meant that up and down the country and even abroad the prayers and good wishes of others were united with the worshippers at Babingley. Only that morning a message of greeting had been received from mainland China rejoicing in his return to church today.

As a practical man of action, whilst he may be frustrated by the restrictions which age and health now impose on him, his presence among us and his prayers are greatly cherished, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James V: 16).

Father Antony Westwood of St. Petroc’s British Orthodox Mission in Torbay will be co-leading a small group of pilgrims on a five-day pilgrimage in Pembrokeshire, West Wales from May 23-27 the journey is titled ‘In the Footsteps of St David and St Patrick’ and will be based at St Non’s Retreat House near to St. Davids. Father Antony is a leader for the non-profit making organisation Journeying.co.uk, which started life in 1988 as ‘Pilgrim Adventure’ and leads small groups of people on pilgrimage to the more remote parts of Britain and Ireland, following in the footsteps of the early Celtic Saints.

As a Journeying leader and Orthodox Priest, Father Antony has discovered a deepened closeness to God through his travels to remote, liminal places and it is this ‘connecting on the edge’ that he wishes to share with others, and to this comes his ministry of the outdoors and his closeness to the early Saints of Britain and Ireland this in turn follows his deep appreciation of the Orthodox heritage of these islands maintaining two thousand years of tradition and life.

Father Alexis Raphael recently had a successful exhibition of wood-mounted ikon prints that he made at St Mary Magdalen’s Church, Bailgate, Lincoln. Originally scheduled from 24-31 March, it was extended until 6 April.  The exhibition provided numerous opportunities for him to explain the spiritual significance of holy ikons, their place in Orthodox worship and other aspects of the  Orthodox faith. On Saturday, 21 April, some of his icons were used at an ecumenical Taizé service in Lincoln and he has also been invited to give a talk about ikons  to primary school children in Uphill Lincoln next month.