Upon the invitation from father Thomas John of the Indian Orthodox Church in London, Deacon Daniel and his wife attended the Orthodox Christian Youth Mission conference held on 28th February 2015 at St Gregorios Indian Orthodox Church in Brockley. The conference theme was based on the verse ‘Man shall not live by bread alone’, in reference to the Holy lent period.

Deacon Daniel and his wife took on roles assisting the youth conference which had more than 140 delegates of aged between 11 to 25 years from across 23 parishes across the UK including Wales, Coventry and Belfast. Fr. Thomas John, who has always been a close friend of the British Orthodox Church, warmly welcomed the couple and introduced them to the youth leaders who coordinated this conference. Events included sing along sessions, Bible study, games, talks, discussions and a quiz based on Lenten practices in the Malankara Orthodox tradition.

During the afternoon session, Deacon Daniel and his wife spoke alongside Fr George Joy in a discussion of Lenten Challenges facing 11-18 year olds with regards to their faith and life as Orthodox Christians. In this, they were given the opportunity to guide the discussion as well as answer many of the questions that are often raised by young Orthodox Christians in relation to how to overcome challenges and temptations they face. Following this, the conference ended with a photo session of the delegates and organisers (See above) as well as a vote of thanks for all those involved.

The Coptic Medical Society of the UK held a Spiritual Conference for Medical Personnel at the Frontier Centre, Wellingborough from 27 February-1 March, under the direction of Father Daoud Lamei of St. Mark’s Church, Heliopolis. The theme of the conference was “Doctors as missionaries of God”. Among others participating by invitation were Fr. Peter Farrington and Abba Seraphim.  Father Peter spoke on 27 February and 1 March about mission in the UK. There is a need to address the British people through their own language and culture; a great issue is the ignorance of Christianity as most people had not rejected Christ, they’d not heard of him. He also described some of the aspects of our society, and suggested people were trying to fill their lives with material things but thought it was positive that more than half the population wanted to call themselves Christian. He asked if we Orthodox are prepared to welcome all British people into our communities, making  the effort to present the Orthodox faith in a way that serves the British people, and believed that our mission requires us to work together to bear fruit.  As 2015 marks the fiftieth anniversary of Abba Seraphim becoming Orthodox, he spoke about his personal pilgrimage over half a century and especially of the support the British Orthodox Church received from the late Pope Shenouda, before talking about the Gospel imperative to evangelise.

On 27 February, Abba Seraphim marked his sixty-seventh birthday by visiting and praying at the grave of his predecessor, the late Metropolitan Georgius of Glastonbury (1905-1979), it also being the eve of the thirty-sixth anniversary of his repose. Abba Seraphim recalled that three days before predecessor’s death he had celebrated the Liturgy in his presence, as after a minor stroke he was too frail to do so himself. It had been a very happy day for him as he had been surrounded by his flock but the next day he suffered a further fatal stroke and Abba Seraphim was with him when he reposed. He had served the church as Metropolitan for almost 35 years which, through the grace of God, Abba Seraphim had now exceeded.

Abba Seraphim called for prayers for the families of the twenty-one new Coptic martyrs in Libya, who were so brutally and publicly slaughtered by the Daesh extremists. “These workers from Egypt were murdered simply because they were Christians. They were innocents captured by cruel men, purporting to act in the name of religion, who showed neither mercy nor justice, and whose acts dishonour the very Creator they profess to serve.” In their deaths they showed impressive dignity, born of their faith, some even calling on the Lord with their last breath. They were the latest in an impressive line of martyrs stretching back to the earliest years of the church and their precious souls were now with a loving Saviour.

On 16 February Abba Seraphim was interviewed on the BBC News Channel about the Egyptian government’s bombing of Daesh positions in Libya. He stated that he found some encouragement in this as it demonstrated the present administrations much more positive line towards Christians. He welcomed the gestures by the President,  who last month had attended the Cathedral in Cairo for the Coptic Christmas celebrations and had now returned to offer his condolences to Pope Tawadros. The administration’s actions showed that they treated Christians and Muslims equally as Egyptians. There was none of the divisiveness of the former government and he took heart at this. Christians were free to worship now, unless they were attacked by extremists.

On 8 February at Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church in Bournemouth, Antony-Paul Holland of  Portsmouth , who has served as a subdeacon for the BOC South Coast communities in Portsmouth, Southampton and Bournemouth since July 2012, was ordained to the Sacred Order of the Diaconate at the hands of Abba Seraphim. Clergy assisting at the ordination liturgy were Father Simon Smyth, Deacon Daniel Malyon and Subdeacon John Morgan.

Abba Seraphim preached on the apostolicity of the diaconal ministry and its importance in the Orthodox tradition. A buffet lunch reception for members of the three congregations followed Deacon Antony’s ordination. Before returning to London, Abba Seraphim called on Ken & Joyce Andrews at Throop, who are long-standing members of the Bournemouth congregation, in order to pray for Ken, who recently suffered a slight stroke, but is now making steady progress.