On 15 May, the second Sunday of the Glorious Fifty Days following the Lord’s Resurrection, following the Divine Liturgy at the Church of Christ the Saviour, Bournemouth, Abba Seraphim and Archdeacon James visited the graves of departed members of the British Orthodox Church in the Wimborne Road cemetery and sang the Paschal Troparion at their graves. Abba Seraphim said, “They died in the hope of the Resurrection and the Scriptures tell us that the dead in Christ will rise first; so sharing that blessed hope, we cannot forget them but come to proclaim that Christ is Risen.”

The Bournemouth Church also has a cinerarium in its churchyard, where the ashes of departed members are reverently deposited. The large stone covering, which one passes on the way into the church, acts as a constant reminder of the Resurrection.

On Thomas Sunday, 8 May, Abba Seraphim preached at St. Alban’s Church, Chatham, on the Lord’s Resurrection appearance to the Apostle Thomas, where he specifically confronted Thomas’ doubts. Questioning is inherent in our human condition, but it can be used by the Devil to entice us away from truth. Doubt is part of our journey of faith and is not in itself wrong. There is an honesty about it because it faces up to intellectual challenge, to issues in our personal lives and to conflicting emotions and unstable mood swings. Like Thomas, it is only through a personal encounter with the Risen Christ that we can overcome these challenges and be brought to a deep and enduring Christian faith.

At the Cusworth Church the congregation celebrated Thomas Sunday with the baptism of two adult catechumens, Natalie Steive Riches and Brynie Louise Blackham, who had been under instruction by Father David for several weeks and were now admitted to the fellowship of the Church and received their first communion. Also joining them was one of our church members from Lincoln. The Cusworth congregation is a healthy mix of ethnic Orthodox and local South Yorkshire folk, who have found strength through the Orthodox Faith. Father David observed, “Our Mission is to bring the fullness of faith to all local people, which is a universal gift and not the preserve of any particular culture or ethnicity.”

Following the Good Friday services in Charlton, Abba Seraphim travelled to Babingley where he celebrated the Divine Liturgy for Joyous Saturday, 30 April, during which he also taught on the significance of our Lord preaching “to the spirits in prison” (1 Peter III:19). Following the Liturgy, he prayed for the sick and blessed traditional paschal food which had been brought to the church.

From Babingley Abba Seraphim made two pastoral visits to Holbeach and to Lincoln before travelling on to Cusworth for the Paschal Vigil and the late night Divine Liturgy with candlelight procession, where he was assisted by Father David and Archdeacon James. Here he preached to a packed congregation on the radiance of the Lord’s resurrection and its significance for creation. At the conclusion of the Liturgy, he blessed more traditional paschal food and those present also broke their fast in a festive late-night supper.

During the evening of 5 February 2016, Tasoni Effa died in Cairo died in her 97th year.

Miss Effa Boules Garas was born on 28 November 1919 in Nagada, Egypt. She was the eldest of three children in a devout Coptic Orthodox family. In the 1940s, they moved to Cairo where they lived in Shoubra. As a young steward at St Antonios’ Church, Shoubra, she came under the influence of Nazeer Gayed, who was later to become Father Antonios, then Bishop Shenouda and later Pope Shenouda III. His ministry had a profound influence on her life and she retained a keen recollection of those early days until the end of her life. In the 1950s, the family built a 4-storey house in Heliopolis where the two sisters Effa and Adiba, and their younger brother Ezzat, started to serve at St. George Church, Heliopolis. Effa was responsible for spiritual ministry and education; Adiba was a musician who composed and played many church songs; while Ezzat was responsible for Sunday School Preparatory phase for children. In June 1981, Pope Shenouda revived the long-neglected ministry of deaconesses in the Coptic church by consecrating 27 deaconesses to serve in the churches of Cairo. Five of the consecrated were virgins, amongst whom were Effa and Adiba. This first group of deaconesses were followed by hundreds being consecrated throughout different dioceses. After the death of their brother, Effa and Adiba donated their parents’ home to the church, keeping the ground floor flat for their accommodation. The second floor was transformed into a Coptic students’ hostel under the oversight of Metropolitan Bishoy and the nuns of St Demiana’s convent.

“Miss Effa” as she was affectionately known, became a good friend of the British Orthodox Church and on his many trips to Cairo Abba Seraphim always paid a visit to the house in Heliopolis, to which many members of the British Orthodox Church also became frequent visitors. Well into her ninth decade Miss Effa would entertain them with her rendering of traditional Coptic chants on the piano. Although frail with her advanced years, she remained mentally alert and her conversation was always spiritually edifying. Successive young Coptic female students who shared her house delighted in meeting her and shared great love and respect for her selfless concern for others. She was not ill, but on Sunday, 31 January, at noon, her disciple Tasoni Helena watched her staring into the air. When she asked her what was happening, Miss Effa said she was seeing angels and monks. On Sunday night, she asked that she be anointed by the blessed oil of the Virgin Mary which Tasoni did. The following days she stopped eating and talking. For a couple of days, the doctors tried to revive her, but she peacefully slipped away to be with the Saviour she loved and to rejoin all those from earlier generations, with whom she had shared her service and devotion to the Church. Abba Seraphim spoke of her faith and unfailing commitment to service and of the precious memory of times spent with her. Memory Eternal.

Deacon Mark Saunders celebrated the 90th anniversary of his birth on 18 October and the following day, being a Sunday, the congregation  at St. Felix, Babingley, led by Father Simon Smyth, offered him their congratulations as well as heartfelt thanksgiving for his ministry among them.  As Abba Seraphim was visiting the Bournemouth congregation, he was unable to attend, but he sent his own message of appreciation, saluting him as “an indefatigable churchman and a faithful friend,” which was read out after the liturgy.

Noting that Deacon Mark and his late wife, Sybil, were founding members of the Orthodox community which worships at St. Felix, Babingley, Abba Seraphim observed that he was in fact  “the constant servant upon whom the continued ministry of this community has depended.”  Noting that the commemoration in the Synaxarion read that day was for James the Deacon, one of the original clergy who accompanied the Augustinian mission to England in 597. He later joined St. Paulinus in re-establish the Christian church in York and when Penda defeated King Edwin and re-established paganism, the clergy retreated south, but not James, who alone remained to exercise pastoral oversight over the remains of the mission. “So it has been with Deacon Mark, who in the absence of a resident priest in Babingley, has been the responsible person for both the church fabric and the flock. Bishops and priests may come to officiate but it is Deacon Mark who remains the respected father of this community.” Abba Seraphim also spoke of  the “total support and encouragement” received from Deacon Mark, whose practical skills and general wisdom would be an invaluable asset to any community.

To mark the occasion the congregation made a presentation of an icon of St. Mark the Apostle and a celebratory tea followed the presentation and speeches.