The sudden announcement by British Airways that it has cancelled the flight on which Abba Seraphim and his party were booked, coming at this late stage,  has meant that the planned pilgrimage will now have to be postponed. Attempts to make alternative bookings have not been possible as these have now become overbooked with those who would have travelled with BA. “Because our outgoing flight was before the start of the strike we were unable to obtain a full refund until BA actually cancelled one of the flights. By the time they had done so, other options were no longer available to us,” stated Abba Seraphim. “It is a great disappointment to everyone concerned.”  It is  hoped to rearrange the pilgrimage for October.

The announcement that Unite, the trade union for British Airways (BA) cabin crew, will be striking during May and June will cause some disruption to the Egyptian Pilgrimage led by Abba Seraphim 16-24 May. As the industrial action is scheduled to start on 18 May the party will have no difficulty in getting to Cairo, the problems will be when they are due to return home on 24 May. “We hope that the strike may yet be averted”, said Abba Seraphim, “but if it goes ahead there is still a chance that BA may be able to maintain some of its flights or arrange for us to come home with alternative carriers.” Although half of the group had visited Egypt before, all are very anxious to receive the blessing of visiting the saints and shrines of the Mother Church and to celebrate the Pentecost Feast in Cairo. “Over the past years a large number of British Orthodox and their friends have visited the Church in Egypt and to be able to maintain the contact with our spiritual roots is a very important part of our life. It is too important to be missed but we shall, of course, be praying that peace may come to the troubled relations between BA and their staff.”

Father Peter Farrington has just published a collection of some of his articles and papers on Orthodox Christology and other Orthodox topics. The book is available from the publishers website. Many of the articles and papers have previously been published in the Glastonbury Review, the journal of the British Orthodox Church within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate. Though produced with serious scholarly effort, each of these articles and papers has been written with the intent of being of interest to a wide audience, and especially to the interested Orthodox layperson.

Publishers Website

It was a great blessing to be able to celebrate two sacraments for Neil and Sue, who have been worshipping with us for some time, and had become catechumens as a mark of the seriousness of their intention to become Orthodox. Although our facilities are limited we were able to conduct the baptism in the Church using an inflatable baptistery, and after Neil and Sue had been received into the Church through immersion and chrismation, their legal marriage was blessed by the Orthodox sacrament of matrimony.

The double celebration was conducted on the 24th April, and Neil and Sue took the names Seraphim and Susanna in the Church. The following Sunday was a further milestone for them, and a blessing for Father Peter, when they received their first communion in the Orthodox Church.

Seraphim and Susanna at their Baptism and Marriage

The 2010 Oriental Orthodox festival was held at St. George’s Coptic Orthodox Cathedral at Stevenage on 8 May with the Divine Liturgy celebrated by His Grace Bishop Angaelos and His Eminence Metropolitan Seraphim with priests of the British, Coptic, Eritrean and Ethiopian Orthodox Church, supported by many deacons of these churches. The British Orthodox clergy who attended were Fathers Simon Smyth, Seraphim Mina and Peter Farrington with Archdeacon Alexander Astill, Deacon Mark Saunders and Deacon Theodore de Quincey. They were supported by faithful from the British Orthodox parishes and communities at Babingley, Bournemouth, Charlton, Chatham, Cusworth and Portsmouth.
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