On my journey towards the British Orthodox Church, I found myself in a situation where I was very much alone. This was due to the fact that the BOC had no congregation or mission within a two hour journey of my home. Consequently, with Gods help, I looked for and found the Birmingham Coptic Centre, which is only a ten mile drive from where I live. The journey takes about twenty minutes. I phoned the Coptic Centre and spoke with Fr Peter. I explained the situation and asked if I could see him. Fr Peter had previously met Abba Seraphim, and has great Christian love and respect for him.

I now attend the Coptic Centre almost every Sunday. My experience is that the Coptic Christians have been warm and generous in their acceptance of me. Furthermore, they seem oblivious to any distinction between the Coptic and BOC  Churches. I enjoy their look of amazement as I explain to them who we are. And I am frequently told that we are the same Church, which is very encouraging.

On Tuesday 4th May, I was baptised at the Birmingham Coptic Centre on behalf of Abba Seraphim and the BOC, by the Coptic Priest Fr Peter. Two English members of the congregation came along to support me. I also received much encouragement and emails from the Coptic Christians.

A new British Orthodox Fellowship group is about to commence. And I believe that Coptic Christians will support this venture. After all, it is our responsibility to bring the “Good News” to the people of this country. And as the task is so great, we need all the prayers and help that we can get.

Keith Bailey – Midlands Fellowship

Christ is Risen!

Our final Sayers Common Liturgy is scheduled for Sunday 27^th June: Matins (9.30) & Divine Liturgy (10.15).  The decision to close the Sayers Common mission has not been taken without any regret and reflects a situation in which in terms of our limited resources we have over-stretched ourselves or ‘spread ourselves too thinly’ in taking this on and attempting to sustain it these past two years.

This year’s Oriental Orthodox Festival is Saturday 8^th May at the Coptic Centre, Shephalbury Manor, Broadhall Way, Stevenage SG2 8RH from 10:30 am to 4 pm.  The Council of Oriental Orthodox Churches in the UK organises the Festival and this year His Grace Bishop Angelos is hosting the event at the Coptic Orthodox centre at Stevenage.

The Festival includes a con-celebrated liturgy in which clergy of all of the member churches of the Oriental Orthodox community participate. A buffet lunch follows, made up of contributions brought by all of the participants at the festival, and the festival concludes with contributions from various Orthodox communities, which may include choirs performing hymns and songs from the various Orthodox traditions represented, and one or more short talks by some of the clergy.

The festival is an important opportunity for the various communities of the Oriental Orthodox communion in the UK to meet together to express our unity in the Orthodox Church, and to develop bonds of friendship and fellowship. It is important that as many clergy and people attend as possible to make the festival a success.

Coptic, British, Armenian and Syrian bishops together during the last Stevenage Oriental Orthodox Festival.

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On the north side of the churchyard at Babingley a straggling clump of self-seeded saplings had grown up round the remains of the old stoke-hole or boiler-house dating from the time when the church had a coal-fired central heating system. This had long since been disconnected although holes in the skirting board in the sanctuary are reminders of the former central heating pipes.

In April 2010 the collapsed remains of this as well as the saplings were cleared from the churchyard and the surrounding ground levelled, which has improved the general appearance and will make maintenance of the churchyard easier.

Gabriel and Maria were married in a civil service in Great Novgorod, Russia, in 2005 but following Gabriel’s baptism and chrismation into the Orthodox Church a sacramental church marriage was performed at St. Mary & St. Felix Orthodox Church at Babingley on 25 April 2010.

Abba Seraphim formally launched the upgraded British Orthodox Church website on St. George’s Day. Before introducing the new website he felt it was important to recall the enormous significance and advance of electronic resources over the past few years. The British Orthodox Church’s first venture in this respect came in 1995 through its membership of Copt-Net, “a universal Coptic Fellowship for the Computer Age” but soon developed with encouragement from Shenouda Mamdouh in Cairo, who began the first Computer Department at the Coptic Patriarchate, and Father Peter Farrington – then a layman – who built the first British Orthodox website and has sustained it through many “makeovers” since then. Abba Seraphim wanted to express his appreciation and emphasise the debt of gratitude the Church owes to these pioneers whose technical skills and knowledge were a vital and enriching part of our ministry. As Father Peter’s commitments have grown it has been necessary to relieve him of these responsibilities and to restructure the website to enable the content management to be shared by a number of people rather than left to a single person.

Thanks to Trevor Maskery and ChromexStudios the new website looks very attractive and combines many of the best features of the former site with new ones, especially the scope for video talks and an enlarged picture gallery. The centralising of individual church events should make these details readily accessible and we hope to encourage local communities to contribute more effectively to the site as a whole.