https://theflowersoforthodoxy.blogspot.com
The Flowers of Orthodoxy
Scotland of my heart
English Flowers of Orthodoxy 4
ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY – MULTILINGUAL ORTHODOXY – EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH – ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΙΑ – SIMBAHANG ORTODOKSO NG SILANGAN – 东正教在中国 – ORTODOXIA – 日本正教会 – ORTODOSSIA – อีสเทิร์นออร์ทอดอกซ์ – ORTHODOXIE – 동방 정교회 – PRAWOSŁAWIE – ORTHODOXE KERK - නැගෙනහිර ඕර්තඩොක්ස් සභාව – СРЦЕ ПРАВОСЛАВНО – BISERICA ORTODOXĂ – GEREJA ORTODOKS – ORTODOKSI – ПРАВОСЛАВИЕ – ORTODOKSE KIRKE – CHÍNH THỐNG GIÁO ĐÔNG PHƯƠNG – EAGLAIS CHEARTCHREIDMHEACH – ՈՒՂՂԱՓԱՌ ԵԿԵՂԵՑԻՆ / Abel-Tasos Gkiouzelis - https://theflowersoforthodoxy.blogspot.com - Email: gkiouz.abel@gmail.com - Feel free to email me...!
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◦.(¯`:☼:´¯)
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https://englishflowersoforthodoxy1.blogspot.com - Journeys to Orthodoxy
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy3.blogspot.com - Celtic Prayers of Ireland & British Isles
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy4.blogspot.com - Scotland of my heart
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy5.blogspot.com - England of my heart
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy6.blogspot.com - Wales of my heart
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy8.blogspot.com - USA of my heart
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy9.blogspot.com - America of my heart
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy10.blogspot.com - Ireland of my heart
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy11.blogspot.com - Journeys to Orthodoxy
https://englishflowersoforthodoxy12.blogspot.com - Orthodoxy
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Saint Columba of Iona (+597) and the monster of Lake Loch Ness, Scotland
The earliest report of a monster in the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written in the 7th century AD. According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events described, Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he encountered local residents burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man was swimming in the river when he was attacked by a "water beast" that mauled him and dragged him underwater despite their attempts to rescue him by boat. Columba sent a follower, Luigne moccu Min, to swim across the river. The beast approached him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and said: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The creature stopped as if it had been "pulled back with ropes" and fled, and Columba's men and the Picts gave thanks for what they perceived as a miracle.
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Saint Blathmac of Iona, Scotland (+835)
As Ireland was too far to be effected by the persecutions of Roman emperors in the early centuries and was also to far to be effected by the later Islamic invasions, combined with the fact that the conversion from paganism within Ireland was rapid and peaceful, there are not very many Irish saints who were martyrs. Saint Blathmac is an exception to this as he was bravely martyred in a Viking raid.
There had been multiple Viking raids on Iona in the early 9th century causing many of the monks, including the abbot, to move to Kells in Ireland. Saint Blathmac had been an abbot of a different monastery on Ireland but moved to Iona. He was the acting abbot in the abscence of the abbot who was residing in Kells for safety. Anticipating another Viking attack, Saint Blathmac had the relics of Saint Columba of Iona moved to a hidden location.
Just after finishing the Liturgy on the island, the Vikings did attack. They demanded that Saint Blathmac reveal the location of the relics. He boldly refused them and was martyred. Miracles were reported at the site of Saint Blathmac’s grave.
An interesting fact is that the most complete account of the above was written only shortly after the events by Walafrid Strabo, a German monk. He was the abbot of Reichenau Island which is in southern Germany and has many written works to his name on theology, lives of saints and poetry. A common misconception is that Iona, or even worse Ireland in general, was remote, inaccessible, and cut-off from the larger Christian world on the continent of Europe. Although there are many more examples to disprove this idea, the fact that a poetic account of Saint Blathmac’s martyrdom was written by Walafrid Strabo would be one such piece of evidence.
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Iona, Iona, Iona - A prayer of Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Iona, Iona, Iona, the seagulls crying, wheeling, flying o’er the rain-washed bay; Iona, Iona, The soft breeze sighing, the waves replying on a clear, blue day, Iona. Iona, Iona, the waters glisten, the wild winds listen to the voice of our Lord; Iona. Iona’s blessing strengthens and firmly it will hold you; then from this rocky fortress goes forth our island soldier; may Christ who calmed the tempest with safety now enfold you.
Source:
Ray Simpson, Daily Light from the Celtic Saints: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Life
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Saint Teneu / Thaney of Glasgow, Scotland (+6th century)
Protector of the abused and rape victims
July 18
Saint Teneu became pregnant after being raped when she was very much still a child. She was so innocent in her youth that her abuser was able to make her believe that he was in fact a woman and that his act of violence was normal behaviour among women. When the pregnancy became visible, her family rejected the young mother and threw her from a cliff to die. By God’s care, Teneu survived the fall and she sailed in a coracle across the Firth of Forth to Saint Serf’s community in Culross, where she gave birth to a little boy, the future Saint Mungo (Kentigern).
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The Life of Fr. John Maitland Moir, Scotland (1924 - 2013)
Below is his official obituary. Our prayers go to all who knew and loved him, and for the repose of his holy soul.
Father John Maitland Moir, Priest of the Orthodox Church of St Andrew in Edinburgh, founder of many smaller Orthodox communities throughout Scotland and Orthodox Chaplain to the University of Edinburgh, died peacefully in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on the 17th April 2013.
A man of profound holiness and bedazzling eccentricity, of boundless compassion and canny wisdom, utterly selfless and stubbornly self-willed, serenely prayerful and fiercely self-disciplined, Father John will surely earn a place as a unique and outstanding figure in the ecclesiastical annals of Scotland. He was born in 1924 in the village of Currie where his father was the local doctor; his fondness for his mother was always mingled with quiet pride in the fact that she was a member of the lesser aristocracy. The privileged but somewhat severe upbringing of an only child in this household together with a chronic weakness in his knees kept him apart from the hurly-burly of boyhood and directed him from an early age to more spiritual and intellectual pursuits. After his schooling at Edinburgh Academy, he went on to study Classics at Edinburgh University during the war years, his never robust health precluding any active military service. After the war, and a short spell as Classics Master at Cargilfield School in Perthshire, he moved to Oxford to continue classical studies at Christ Church and theological studies at Cuddesdon Theological College.
His interest in Eastern Christendom was awakened in Oxford and he eagerly seized the opportunity to study at the famous Halki Theological Academy in Istanbul in 1950-51. During this year he also travelled in the Holy Land and Middle East and forged friendships in the Eastern Churches which he maintained throughout his life. On his return to Scotland he was ordained in the Scottish Episcopalian Church, which he was to serve faithfully for the next thirty years. His first charge was as Curate at St Mary’s in Broughty Ferry, then for a period of six years he taught at St Chad’s College, Durham. He returned to Scotland in 1962 as Curate in Charge of the Edinburgh Parish of St Barnabas and as Honorary Chaplain at St Mary’s Cathedral, then in 1967 he moved north to the Diocese of Moray where he served as Chaplain to the Bishop of Moray and latterly as Canon of St Andrew’s Cathedral in Inverness. His devotion to his pastoral and liturgical duties as well as his personal holiness and prayerfulness inspired a sense of awe in his loyal parishoners. Only his habit of wearing the kilt beneath his cassock provoked a reprimand from his Bishop, who was more than somewhat bewildered by Father John’s fervent and unbending Scottish patriotism. The Scottish Episcopalian Church which Father John loved and served was, he believed, a Church with special affinities with the Eastern Churches: his eyes would light up when explaining how the Liturgy of Scottish Episcopalian Church, like those of the East, contained an epiclesis. With the passing of the years, however, he became convinced that the Scottish Episcopalian Church was moving ever further away in faith and in practice from that common ground with the Orthodox Church which he had also come to know and love and whose prayer he had made his own.
In 1981, he resigned from his position in the Diocese of Moray and travelled to Mount Athos where he was received into the Orthodox Church at the Monastery of Simonopetra. He returned to Britain to serve now as an Orthodox Priest in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain with utter devotion for a further full thirty years.
After three years in Coventry, Father John returned to Scotland where he united the two small Orthodox communities in Edinburgh, one Slavonic and one Greek, into the single Orthodox Community of St Andrew. At the same time, he travelled tirelessly around the country by bus serving often tiny groups of Orthodox Christians in Aberdeen, Inverness, Perth, Dundee, St Andrews, Stirling and elsewhere. For Father John, the Orthodox Church was what his beloved C.S. Lewis would call ‘Mere Christianity’, transcending the bounds of nationality and language and embracing all who seek to live a Christian life – the scandal of the cross and the glory of the resurrection. It also embraced for him the most precious elements in the Christian history of Scotland, especially that vision of Christianity expressed in figures such as St Columba and St Cuthbert. An ascetic by nature, his interest was in a practical Christianity nourished by prayer and tradition, rather than in the aesthetic refinements and intellectual gymnastics that attract many Westerners to the Orthodox Church. Not without opposition from members of his flock, Father John introduced English as the common language of worship and succeeded in creating a truly international community reflecting the many nationalities of the Orthodox students studying at the Scottish Universities and of the Orthodox families living and working in Scotland. As the Orthodox Church in Scotland grew in numbers through migration from traditionally Orthodox countries, so did the proportion of Scottish members who found themselves at home in the Community.
His role as Chaplain to the University of Edinburgh was one he took very seriously. The Chapel of St Andrew, set up at first in his house in George Square and then transferred to the former Buccleuch Parish School by the Meadows, lay at the heart of the University complex; the daily services held there with unfailing regularity and its ever open door provided and continues to provide a firm point of reference for countless students. The Chapel of St Andrew, however, was also the base for his work at the other Edinburgh Universities and throughout Scotland – work now being continued with equal zeal and selflessness by two gifted Priests, Fr Avraamy and Fr Raphael.
Father John subjected himself to an almost unbelievably austere ascetic regime of fasting and prayer, while at the same making himself available to everyone who sought his assistance, spiritual or material, at all times of day and night. His care for the down-and-out in Edinburgh provoked admiration and no little concern in many parishioners who would come to the Church, which was also his home, only to find him calmly serving coffee with aristocratic gentility to a bevy of homeless alcoholics or to find a tramp asleep on his sofa. He was tireless in his efforts to help the victims of torture and persecuted Christians throughout the world. Few days would pass without him writing a letter of support for someone in prison or in mortal danger. He had inherited a comfortable fortune, he died penniless, having dispersed all his worldly assets to the deserving and undeserving in equal measure.
His habits of life would have marked him as a caricature of Scottish parsimony had they not been joined to an extraordinary generosity of spirit. All his voluminous correspondence was meticulously hand-written on scraps of recycled paper and dispatched by second-class mail in reused envelopes, whether he was writing to Dukes and Prelates or to the indigent and distressed. For many years, he was a familiar sight on the streets of Edinburgh as he passed by on his vintage electric bicycle, his black cassock and long white beard furling in the wind.
As his physical strength ebbed away, he was comforted by the love and care of those who looked to him as their spiritual father and by the ministrations and devotion of his fellow clergy. He was also tended by the medical expertise of the Greek doctors of the Community towards whom he never ceased to express his gratitude.
The last year of his remarkable life was perhaps the most remarkable of all. Completely bed-ridden, nearly blind and almost totally deaf, he devoted himself even more fully to prayer, especially to prayer for the continued unity, harmony, well-being and advancement of the Orthodox Communities in Scotland. On the day he died, an anonymous benefactor finally sealed the purchase of the former Buccleuch Parish Church for the Orthodox Community of St Andrew in Edinburgh thus securing a material basis for the realization of the spiritual vision that had inspired Fr John throughout his life.
May his Memory be Eternal!
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May I Keep the Smallest Door
A Prayer of Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
to me the least of saints,
to me allow that I may keep
even the smallest door,
the farthest, darkest, coldest door,
the door that is least used,
the stiffest door.
If only it be in your house, O God,
that I can see your glory even afar,
and hear your voice,
and know that I am with you, O God.
Source: Attributed to St. Columba, 521-597.
Source of this version: http://yourworshiptools.com/a-prayer-of-st-columba/
Included in Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, © 2018, Paul C. Stratman
This prayer recalls Psalm 84:10.
Source:
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2018/07/21/may-i-keep-the-smallest-door/
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Katherine’s Journey Home
This is my journey home to the Orthodox Church
by Katherine Sanders, Scotland
I was born in the early 1970s into an ethnically Scottish Presbyterian family – my parents had both been baptised and our culture was very sectarian – anything remotely Catholic was immediately suspect, even crosses. Only one of my grandparents was an overtly Christian believer, although I think in hindsight that they all had what I would call a ‘quiet faith’. Scotland is not a demonstrative country and talking of Jesus and salvation immediately marked one out as ‘different’ and perhaps even (say it quietly) foreign.
I had not been baptised, as my family wanted me to decide when I was old enough to understand what I was believing in. In those days we had a regular school assembly led by a very nice Church of Scotland minister, Mr Brown, who spoke softly with a Highland accent of Jesus, the Bible, Creation, and our first school was clearly Christian – we had a hymns at every assembly and I was given a bible very early on – I remember there were pictures of clouds shot through with divine sunlight, which struck me very profoundly.
Even today, they have a special place in my heart. I think I must have been seven or maybe eight when I asked my parents to take me to Church on Sundays. I have no recollection of what prompted it – love for my grandmother, enjoyment of singing, wanting to be ‘proper’ and grown up but by then, I already believed in God… Anyway, they patiently drove me to our town church and let me go in myself. I was initially expected to leave during the service and join the Sunday School, but I loathed the noise, the colouring in, the other children (!) and so developed a good line in slinking down in the pews when other children left, so I could listen to the sermons and keep singing grown up hymns. I remember clearly being in the car with my grandfather one day and hoping to impress him having memorised all the names of the books of the Bible. He was pretty bemused.
I was glad to be in church but of course, with no real structure beyond one hour or so a week, it wasn’t long until I drifted away and as a young teenager, I was far more interested in rock music and art than God. He never entirely let me go, and I did attend a few Scripture Union meetings, having been befriended by a lovely and devout teenage couple (they later married young, she trained as a doctor while he worked, then he trained as a minister, and when he had a parish they had their family. They are still together, still devout and it is lovely to think that I knew them thirty years ago). At that time, I ‘fell in with a bad crowd’.
One of them was Roman Catholic and had an odd relationship with her church – in spite of our behaviour, which ran the gamut of teenage indiscretions, she regularly went to Mass and even taught me the Hail Mary (which I can still recite). Something in me was deeply attracted to the cool, quiet church with air scented with incense, the holy water in the stoup, the idea that there could be beauty and pictures (Pictures!) in a church without people spontaneously combusting. However, the din of heavy metal, rock, boys and motorcycles proved too loud for a good ten years at that point.
I confess that I wandered very far from my roots and life was very dark for a while. I grew distant from my parents and family, narrowly avoided getting into trouble and got through school because I didn’t have to work very hard.
I became interested in the occult, partly because of the music I was listening to and partly because that’s what teenagers do, to an extent. I had no idea what I was dabbling with and I thank God daily that I never tried things like ouija boards etc. I was looking for eternal and universal meaning though, looking for some significance to my life and the Creation.
I was looking in the wrong places.
Around the age of 18, I was at art school, fulfilling my life’s ambition. I had a boyfriend and was living away from home. I then had what I think of as a breakdown – or breakthrough. I wasn’t able to structure my life properly and without the support of my family, I quickly dropped out of a very prestigious fine arts course, where more than 4000 students apply for less than 40 places. I was in despair and had no idea why.
In my desperation, I began to draw Christ on the Cross – it seemed that somehow only this image was strong enough to express where I was. Billy Graham visited Scotland and I went along with my boyfriend’s mother – at the end, when he asked people to come forward, I found myself stepping down to the front to be prayed over. My heart felt like a black weight, burning and poisoning my soul. I had lost my beloved grandmother, I had been unable to cope on the course I had worked most of my school life to get onto, I had to return home, broke and beaten, unable to live by myself.. I desperately wanted to feel whole again.
I began attending church with my boyfriend’s mother, who was a church elder in the village Church of Scotland. The minister was a very intelligent, thoughtful and caring man, who was happy to spend hours talking to me about my life, about Christ, about the Bible – here my love of Hebrew and Greek first began – and in a year or so, I was attending a more ‘practical’ secretarial course, living at home and was christened into the Church of Scotland at the age of 20.
I was delighted to have found a church of my own, even if Communion was only served quarterly (at that time I believed it was merely a representation of the Eucharist) and the most decorative item in the church were the flowers (which I genuinely believe God has created for our delight and comfort – how can looking or smelling at a rose do anything other than give joy to us). The classes on the bible continued and if I felt slightly disenchanted at the separation of my daily life with a once a week service, I got over it by trying to read the Bible more often and praying, eyes shut tight and trying to feel the presence of God.
At the same time, I was once more trying to live alone, having a relationship that was not good for me in several ways – he refused to accept that I no longer wanted the same kind of relationship and I was too weak to break it off – and pretty soon, being bullied awfully in a secretarial job.
This pattern continued even after a serious illness which left me bedridden for months and with a slew of health problems that continue to this day. I believe that life would have continued like this indefinitely – he was about to propose marriage – when I decided to return to college and study to become a minister or a teacher (the very thought makes me laugh now but I was entirely sincere).
I went on holiday to Cyprus around this time and visited my first Orthodox church, where the locals assumed I was Russian by my behaviour. A local restauranteur and his wife took me under their wing, got me nice headscarves, showed me where to stand and so on. I was given kollyva and shown how to reverence the icons, although I didn’t really understand what was going on, I was fascinated. This rather threw a spanner in the works and the unhealthy relationship declined, messily, even as my relationship with that particular church diminished as I no longer went with his mother and the minister moved elsewhere.
My boss said I needed to go back to university, as it was clear I didn’t fit in to office life. I aimed for literature and theology but ended up in Religious Studies, which covered everything from the Old Testament, Egypt, Indian religions, etc. This gave me a fresh view on lots of things and at the end of the first year, I met the man who was to become my husband during one of my many summer jobs.
We travelled widely, including a holiday in Rome where we visited early churches – the apostles and early saints had lived here, and I was desperate to find a church which was full of mystery and history. In one church, I felt very close to some kind of truth but always the stumbling blocks of what I had grown up with as a strong prejudice against Roman Catholicism continued.
There were too many things I could not ignore and so I continued searching for God.
Back in Edinburgh, we went to the Orthodox Church at the end of a day when churches are open for visitors – my husband has always been an unusual man and as a church architect, we had lots of reasons to go and see this unique place.
We turned up at the small chapel of St Andrew the First-Called in the university area at the end of the day and were shown around by Presbytera Elizabeth Flegg, an ex-gym teacher who was spry, funny and very bright. She insisted that we stay for vespers, since it was already 6pm and that, as they say, was that! The lights were dimmed. The candles were lit. Incense rose with the voices in four-part tunes and I felt at home. I can’t put it any more or less strongly than that. I was home. I was at peace. Here was some deep presence of God in the flickering flames, the constant prayers, the harmony of worship. Afterwards, we descended the steep stone stairs to Archimandrite John (Maitland Moir)’s study for some truly awful coffee. We met a young Canadian couple who had come to their first service in Edinburgh, having arrived for study.
They were part of a vibrant parish in Vancouver, were full of excitement and joy in God and the Orthodox church and very quickly became our good friends. They answered a lot of my questions about the faith, as did Fr John, who would usually be found at home, sitting quietly in an antique hard wooden chair, praying in silence. He never sent me away and in time, we began to sit quietly together. He would whistle a little under his breath, make a little note in his unusual script, using a tiny pencil on some re-used slip of paper, then return to silence. It wasn’t ever a difficult one though and he would merely wait for whatever awful question I had dredged up to surface.
We were both Scots in a predominantly Greek and Cypriot community, so had a way of communicating with economy that seemed to suit us very well.
I am not going to say that my path since then has been straightforward or easy. I found the conflicting demands of different groups within the parish pushed me beyond what I could bear easily – there were many days when I had to leave because my anger had grown so great I couldn’t even pray. Fr John would counsel me to always return, as soon as I could, to hold onto the Jesus Prayer, to pray for those I felt anger towards and most of all, to keep my eye on the cross. If nothing else, to focus on that one thing. It worked, albeit slowly.
I was baptised (fully) within a year, after attending daily vespers and weekly and festal Liturgies (“by far the best way to understand Orthodox theology.. Absorb it and let it wash over you”) and moved out of the flat I shared with my then-boyfriend (now husband). Not many men would accept their girlfriend turning their lives upside down, cope with a radical change in not just my behaviour but my clothing, my cooking, our relations and the rhythm of our life being dictated by church services, but he did.
A few years after my baptism, we were betrothed in a highland chapel with huge icons on the wall, as it is within a castle owned by a Scots-Greek shipping magnate, then married in a tiny Scots collegiate church, surrounded by my friends in the choir and with another Scottish Orthodox priest (Fr John Raffan) who had baptised me and given me my Orthodox name.
It took many years of prayer but in the course of time, he too has been baptised (for four years now) as is our daughter.
He too was converted by attending the services – he came with me and our baby every week, became part of the community and one day quietly announced he would be getting baptised. He had long been an example to me of how a Christian should behave (my temper is still a cross/Podvig) and at last, we were all able to attend the Eucharist as a family.
I have now been Orthodox for twenty years; I cannot imagine my life without the faith of my fathers, as indeed it was once. I have trained as an iconographer for more than half of that time and am currently pursuing a year long project to produce high quality icons of the saints of my country, ones which firmly place them within the fellowship of the better known saints of the Church rather than the folk-art type or amateur ones which are often seen.
I believe that God has guided my steps since childhood, has given me a guardian angel who has steered me away from some of the worst rocks and storms I could so easily have succumbed to, that my saint in heaven – Katherine of Alexandria – is steadfast in helping me continue in prayers even when I am struggling.
My faith does not grant me immunity from the insecurities of modern life, even if to the outside world it seems that I am a painter of ‘medieval’ type icons, I worship in a way that hasn’t changed for hundreds of years, I stay at home and light candles daily – rather, it helps me to endure, knowing that we have ‘no continuing city’ and I will one day God willing find myself in ‘the homeland of my heart’s desire’.
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Saint Kentigerna of Loch Lomond, Scotland, from Ireland (+734)
7 January
Died on Inch Cailleach, Scotland, c. 733-734. Kentigerna was the mother of Saint Fillan and the daughter of Kelly (Cellach), prince of Leinster. She married a neighbouring prince, who was the father of Fillan. After her husband's death, she left Ireland with her missionary brother Saint Comghan and her son to lead the life of a recluse on the island of Inch Cailleach (or Inchebroida, according to some), in Loch Lomond, Scotland, where a church is dedicated in her name. Kentigerna is listed in the Aberdeen Breviary.
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Guide Me, Today, Tonight and Forever
A Prayer of Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Be O Lord,
a guiding star above me,
a smooth path below me,
a kindly shepherd behind me
and a bright flame before me;
today, tonight and forever. Amen.
Source: Attributed to St. Columba, 521-597.
Source of this version: https://daily-prayers.org/angels-and-saints/prayers-of-columba-colomcille-of-ireland/
Included in Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, © 2018, Paul C. Stratman
Source:
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2018/07/18/guide-me-today-tonight-and-forever/
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Saint Nathalan, Bishop of Aberdeenshire, Scotland (+7th ce.)
8 January
Born of a noble family at the beginning of the 7th C. on the East Coast of Scotland. Nathalan decided to show his devotion to God by spending his life cultivating the earth. As a result, he grew vegetables enough to feed people in times of famine. He preserved Scotland from Pelagianism. He resided at Tullicht, now in the Diocese of Aberdeen of which he became Bishop. He built churches in Tullicht, Bothelim and Hill. He reposed in the late 7th C. and was buried in the Church at Tullicht. His name appears in the Aberdeen Breviary.
https://celticsaints.org/2022/0108g.html
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God, Be My Guide
A Prayer of Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Be a bright flame before me,
Be a guiding star above me,
Be a smooth path below me,
Be a kindly shepherd behind me,
Today, tonight, and forever.
Source: Columba
Source of this version: Modified from
http://www.faithandworship.com/Christian_Quotes.htm#ixzz4DZpQ04t9
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2016/07/05/god-be-my-guide/
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Dunkeld Litany (8th-12th century)
The litany below is a shortened version of a litany which was sung at public processions of a group of ascetic monks called Culdees. It was used at the ancient Scottish monastery of Dunkeld.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
God, the Father in heaven, have mercy on us.
God, the Son, Redeemer, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
You are three, and yet one God, have mercy on us.
Be gracious, free us, Lord.
Be gracious, hear us, Lord.
Be gracious, spare us, Lord.
From every evil,
from every evil inclination,
from every impurity of heart and body,
from a haughty spirit,
from the evil of sickness,
from the snares of the devil,
from enemies to the Christian name,
from destructive storms,
from famine and nakedness,
from thieves and robbers,
from wolves and all dangerous animals,
from floods of water,
from trials of death,
in the day of judgment, free us, Lord.
By your advent,
by your birth,
by your circumcision,
by your baptism,
by your passion,
by sending the counseling Spirit, free us, Lord.
We sinners pray, free us, Lord.
Holy Father, we pray, hear us.
To give us peace and concord,
to give us life and health,
to give us the fruits of the earth,
to protect our livestock from all pestilence,
to give us favorable weather,
to give us rain at the proper time,
to give us perseverance in good works,
to work true repentance in us,
to move us in charity for those in need,
to give us fervor in your service,
to give all Christian people peace and unity,
to keep us in the true faith and religion,
to preserve and spread your holy church,
to give long life and health to pastors, teachers and all leaders in the church,
to protect the leaders of our land from all enemies and snares.
to give them victory and long life,
to drive out the enemies of Christians from the earth,
to bring them to holy baptism,
to give all Christians your mercy,
to spare us,
to grant us mercy,
to look upon us, we pray, hear us.
Son of God, hear us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us, Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us, Lord.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
grant us peace.
Christ conquers,
Christ rules,
Christ commands.
O Christ, hear us.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
O Christ, give us your grace,
O Christ, give us joy and peace.
O Christ, give us life and salvation.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Our Father…
Let us pray.
Almighty and gracious God, in your majesty remember us. Grant us forgiveness of all sins, increase your heavenly grace to us, and give us your help against all the snares of our enemies, seen and unseen. In the same way, protect our hearts by your command, so that after this mortal life, we may rejoice together with all your saints in the glory of the kingdom of God, serving our Jesus Christ our Lord and Redeemer, who has all power and rule, one with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
Source: Kalendars of Scottish Saints by Alexander Penrose Forbes, Bishop of Brechin, Edmonston and Douglas, Edinburgh, 1872, p. lvi-lxv.
Source of this version: Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, © 2018, Paul C. Stratman
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2018/07/26/dunkeld-litany/
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Renown Scottish Orthodox Priest Dies Just Weeks After Completing His Life’s Work
Another story of Orthodoxy in Scotland
One of Scotland’s most senior priests died just weeks after seeing his “life’s work” complete – as his once tiny congregation bought a huge new church.
Eastern Orthodox clergyman John Maitland Moir died last week at the age of 89, and tributes have poured in from around the world to the respected cleric.
He started a combined congregation of the church in his Edinburgh living room in the early 80s, with just 20 worshippers attending.
This grew to number more than 100 in recent years. But the church faced a steep bill to buy a suitably large property as Father John was plagued by heart trouble, leaving him bedridden for the last year of his life.
Despite that, the priest – described as a deeply humble and devout man – encouraged the Orthodox Community of St Andrew-Edinburgh to raise enough to buy a B-listed deconsecrated church. When he heard the purchase was going ahead on 22 March he said
“Glory be to God”.
On Wednesday last week he died at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Although he lived a quiet life, Father John hit the national headlines in 2001 when he helped shelter an eight-year-old girl from her father.
Defying a court order that the girl should not leave the country without her father’s consent, he helped Ashley-Maria Black and her mother Valerie set up a new life in Greece.
Despite angry visits from the girl’s father Keith Black to his offices he refused to reveal the girl’s whereabouts, despite a court order, claiming Mr Black was using the girl to “harass” her mother.
Born to a wealthy family in Edinburgh, he was first ordained as a Scottish Episcopal priest at the age of 27.
However he loved Orthodox faith, describing it as “the original church”, and converted while in his 50s, later becoming an Archimandrite who was regarded as the most venerable in Scotland.
He started the Orthodox Community of St Andrew – Edinburgh in the early 80s, with around 20 people attending sermons in his living room.
But his flock grew and grew, eventually moving to a new church by the city’s Meadows park.
Colleagues spoke of the congregation’s difficulty in buying a new church after the Meadows building became too small.
Father Raphael Pavouris (corr), who knew with Father John for 21 years, said: “He started with a very small congregation consisting of Orthodox Greeks and Romans.
“From 20 people we now have around 100. We moved to the meadows in 2003 but after eight years we needed a new church.”
But the congregation had to raise £350,000 to buy their preferred building, the disused 18th Century Chapel Street church nearby which is currently owned by Edinburgh University.
Father Raphael said: “It was achieved days before his death. He had pleaded for help, and we had great help from an anonymous donation.
“He was absolutely delighted to hear the news from his bed. He had been bedridden for a year and a half. It’s almost the culmination of his life’s work. He died on Wednesday and we got the keys on Friday.”
Father John was in hospital with heart trouble when the news came through, and exclaimed “Glory be to God” when he heard the deal was finalised.
He paid tribute to Father John, saying
“I can say I have lived and worked with a saint. He was our inspiration, our leader, and a spiritual father for hundreds of people.”
Father Raphael continued:
“He was an extremely well educated man. Both his parents were noble, his father was a well known doctor. But he died penniless, he distributed to all who needed. He sold his house and we bought the church by the Meadows.”
Former Dean of Gibraltar Cannon Gordon Reid, who is now Rector of a church in Philadelphia, described him as a “great man, though so humble that he kept it hidden.”
He said:
“[Father John] was a Scottish Episcopal priest when we first met in the 1960s, but even then he looked like an Orthodox priest, with a wispy beard and a Sarum cassock. He became a “weel-kent” figure riding a heavy iron bicycle around Tollcross and the Meadows. He used to have one meal a day only… he was very strict about his Orthodox diet.”
A Facebook page set up for Father John has seen tributes pour in from around the world.
Father Raphael said:
“He did all he could to help and keep the law of God and the Gospel.”
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What Need I Fear? - A prayer of Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Alone with none but you, my God
I journey on my way.
What need I fear, when you are near
O King of night and day?
More safe am I within your hand,
Than if a host round me stand.
My destined time is known to you,
And death will keep his hour;
Did warriors strong around me throng,
They could not stay his power:
No walls of stone can man defend
If you your messenger will send.
My life I yield to your decree,
And bow to your control
In peaceful calm, for from your arm
No power can wrest my soul:
Could earthly omens e’er appal
A man that heeds the heavenly call?
The child of God can fear no ill,
His chosen, dread no foe;
We leave our fate with you, and wait
Your bidding when to go:
‘Tis not from chance our comfort springs,
You are our trust, O King of kings.
Source: Attributed to St. Columba, 521-597.
Source of this version: http://www.traditionalmusic.co.uk/hymn-lyrics/alone_with_none_but_thee_my_god.htm
Source:
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2018/07/18/what-need-i-fear/
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The Scottish Abbess of Gethsemane Convent
ABBESS MARY (ROBINSON) OF THE GETHSEMANE CONVENT
Gethsemane became one of the first places of the Holy Land to be visited by modern Russian pilgrims. From the tomb of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary people walk up a narrow, steep street. After visiting a Franciscan monastery, where old olive trees of the Garden of Gethsemane that were witnesses of the life of Christ on the earth still grow, Orthodox pilgrims come up to the gate of the “Russian Gethsemane”. It is here that the holy relics of Grand Duchess Elisabeth the New Martyr and her cell-attendant Nun-Martyr Barbara have rested at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, built in the 1880s by the imperial family in honor of the Russian Empress Consort Mary Alexandrovna (1824-1880).
First of all, Russian believers with come great zeal to venerate the relics of the holy new martyrs. At the temple they hear ascetic chanting according to the Typikon, which has largely retained the pre-revolutionary traditions of monastic choirs. An amicable and peaceful atmosphere reigns in the “Russian Gethsemane”. The convent’s nuns show pilgrims the stone on which, according to tradition, Apostle Thomas found the Holy Cincture of the Mother of God. Together with their guests they proceed to visit the cave church dedicated to the icon, “The Prayer for the Chalice”, then lead pilgrims to the ancient Biblical flight of steps from which the Lord is believed to have entered Jerusalem. They tell the visitors about the convent’s cemetery, which became the resting-place of many nuns and Russian emigrants, one of whom is Mikhail Khripunov, the last Flugel-Adjutant of Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II.
The community of Bethany and Gethsemane was founded in 1933 with the blessing of Metropolitan Anastasius (Gribanovsky; 1873-1965), the future second First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Before the October Revolution, between 1906 and 1914, he had been Abbot of the St. Daniel’s Monastery in Moscow. Divided by the tragedy of 1917, the Russian Orthodox people strove to preserve their faith despite everything—both in the Soviet Russia and abroad. Finding themselves in the Russian diaspora and in an unfamiliar religious environment, most Russian people nevertheless preached Orthodoxy by their own lives.
In 1929, novice-nun Valentina (Tsvetkova) from an intelligent Moscow family was put in charge of the Russian plot of land in Gethsemane by Metropolitan Anastasius. It was here that in 1933 two Anglican nuns, Stella Robinson and Alexandra (“Alix”) Sprot, stopped during their stay in the Holy Land. They then did not know anything about Russia or Orthodoxy. Once Sister Valentina (whose confessors were the holy elder Aristokly of Mt. Athos and Moscow, the holy elder Anatoly [Potapov] of Optina, and spiritual father, Bishop-Martyr Arseny [Zhadanovsky] of Moscow) talked with the Anglican nuns about Russia for a long time, sharing the memories of her personal communication with the holy Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna with them. Notably, she told them that when St. Elisabeth had first seen her as a girl she [the saint] exclaimed:
“Valentina will be my follower”.
Nun Stella had a booklet on Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna that she had bought just before her departure from Britain. When both nuns learned that the remains of the new martyr reposed under the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, they began to attend services in there. The life and martyrdom of Elisabeth the New Martyr inspired the Anglican sisters and led to their inner spiritual transformation; as a result, they decided to embrace Orthodoxy and become Orthodox nuns. This they did in 1934.
Two years later, Sister Stella, who had been tonsured a nun with the name Mary, was appointed abbess of the community of Bethany and Gethsemane. Using donations from her relatives, Abbess Mary built a boarding school for Orthodox girls from Arab and Russian families in Bethany, opened an icon-painting school along with a weaving workshop for blind young women, and an outpatient clinic for the local population. Olga Aleyeva, a graduate of Smolny Institute [in St. Petersburg; before the Revolution, Petrograd], became the boarding-school’s headmistress. Sister Olga, an experienced educator and niece of Professor Mechnikov, assisted her with the children’s education. The English Orthodox missionary Archimandrite Lazarus (Moore; 1902-1992), who had come from India to Jerusalem for this purpose, taught English there.
At first the community gathered by Abbess Mary was multinational. Palestinian girls, Russian emigrants, and nuns from Europe initially prayed and worked there. This convent produced such prominent abbesses as Mother Tamara (secular name: Princess Tatiana Constantinovna; 1890-1979), a daughter of Grand Duke Constantine Constantinovich Romanov who also was a well-known poet. She became Abbess of the Mount of Olives Convent in Jerusalem. Nuns of the convent of Bethany also established Orthodox monastic communities in London, and even as far away as Chile.
Thanks to her meekness, self-sacrificing service to her neighbors, and affection for all—Christians and non-Christians alike—Abbess Mary won the hearts and respect of all who ever met her. Archimandrite Dimitry, who worked in the Holy Land at that time, delivered the following oration during the funeral of Abbess Mary on October 26 (according to the old calendar), 1969:
"Leaving all—her homeland, relatives, and material well-being, she joined us on Russian Golgotha with courage, sharing the Russian people’s sorrows and suffering. She became abbess of these Russian convents not in the days of our motherland’s glory and prosperity, but in the period when the Russian Church, persecuted and almost bleeding to death, was being crucified on the cross… Can we forget all of this?".
No! This is the answer of the present-day Gethsemane nuns and all those who come to work at the convent of Gethsemane from Russia and many other countries throughout the world—the pious pilgrims who find here the spirit of love, inner freedom and courteous manners—the qualities that are so characteristic of the “Russian Gethsemane”. The traditions introduced by Abbess Mary are still alive today. This can be seen in the life of the monastic community, which is multinational in composition yet united in spirit, and which adopted and absorbed the monastic traditions of old Russia. The most important of them is the example of the Sts. Martha and Mary Convent of Mercy, founded by the Holy Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna in Moscow. The example of holiness of the Bethany maidens and servants of Christ, Martha and Mary, is the basis of monastic life of the sisters in “Russian Gethsemane”. As before, they are doing their best to uphold the precept that Archbishop (later Metropolitan) Anastasius once gave to the first nuns of the convent: The sisters of Gethsemane should develop inward spiritual activity, like Mary [Martha’s sister from the Gospel – ed]. And the sisters of Bethany should serve their neighbors.
Maria Kozlova
Translation by Dmitry Lapa
Pravoslavie.ru
From Orthodox America, a biography of Abbess Mary (Robinson) of Gethsemane Convent:
It always comes as a surprise to learn that the founding abbess of one of the most revered convents of the Russian diaspora and of the Holy Land was a convert, a Scotswoman who began life as Barbara Robinson. Her life and spiritual character bear evident resemblance to that of another convert, the Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who became her guiding star.
Abbess Mary was born in Glasgow, Scotland, on July 8/21, 1896. She was baptized as an infant in the Presbyterian church, where her father was a minister. After graduating from the Independent Girls’ School, she completed a course in pediatric nursing in Liverpool and went on to further her medical studies in London, receiving a diploma with honors in 1923. Three years later she received a degree in sociology from London’s Bedford University. Meanwhile, she had been confirmed in England’s High Church, and after working for several years for the government as a social worker, she made the decision to enter the monastic community of Christ the Healer in London. As a novice she was sent with a group of missionaries to India where, with the help of the archbishop of Bombay, she founded a clinic: attached to a prayer and missionary center. She returned to London in 1931 to make her vows, and was professed with the name Stella. A year later she was in London again, on business, and she was preparing to return to India when she had a dream prompting her to go to the Holy Land to venerate the Tomb of the Lord. “Yes,” she would later say, “the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. I planned to spend thirty days in Jerusalem — and I stayed for thirty years.”
Sister Stella arrived in Jerusalem accompanied by another Anglican nun, Sister Alexandra (“Alix’) Isabella. They rented rooms on property in Gethsemane owned by the Russian Palestine Society. The rassophore nun in charge of receiving pilgrims, Sister Valentina, showed them around and they found themselves absorbed in discussions about Orthodoxy, which was virtually unknown to them. They began attending services at the church of St Mary Magdalene, an inspiring edifice there in the garden of Gethsemane, and there became acquainted with Metropolitan Anastassy. He also spoke to them at length, and the combined influence of these conversations and the nuns’ contact with Orthodoxy at the many holy sites stirred their hearts with a desire for this fullness of Truth. But the thought of converting did not seriously occur to them until…
They had been at Gethsemane a few weeks, still with the intention of continuing on to India, when one night Sr. Stella had a dream. A woman dressed in a beautiful habit, with strikingly beautiful eyes, came to her and said,
“You cannot leave. Your place is here in Jerusalem.”
When the next day Sister Stella related this dream to Sister Valentina, the latter fetched a photograph of Grand Duchess Elizabeth, whom Sister Stella at once recognized to be the woman in her dream. It was, she later noted, the inspiration of Grand Duchess Elizabeth, herself a convert of part English ancestry, that sealed her decision to become Orthodox. Sister Alix followed her example. Metropolitan Anastassy himself guided their catechesis, and on September 5,1933, they were received into the saving fold of Holy Orthodoxy. Sister Stella received the name Mary, in honor of St Mary Magdalene, and Sister Alix became Martha.
It was evident to Metropolitan Anastassy that this aristocratic-looking Scotswoman was a very capable individual. With his blessing, a sisterhood was founded and a temporary chapel was set up on the Russian mission property in Bethany. Mary, assisted by her companion Martha, worked tirelessly to rescue the property and its buildings from their dilapidated state. She had a gift for attracting benefactors and, through the influence of her family, was able to enlist the aid of the British Bible Society. Martha came from a very well-endowed family, and they, too, contributed significantly. Buildings were restored, the cistern was repaired, the garden was cleared and cultivated, a clinic was opened. Meanwhile, with the blessing of Metropolitan Anastassy, Mary began gathering sisters for a future monastic community at Gethsemane In 1933 she was placed in charge of the Russian Garden of Gethsemane and its church of St Mary Magdalene Martha was appointed to be her assistant and given charge of the Bethany property.
On the Feast of Transfiguration, August 6/19, 1934, Metropolitan Anastassy tonsured the two former Anglican nuns in the church of St Mary Magdalene. His eloquent word addressed to Mother Mary on this occasion is excerpted here:
“You came to us from a different people and from a different religious community, in every nation, however, there are those who fear the Lord. In every Christian country there are people on whom He places His seal at birth and leads them to Himself by means of paths unknown to man. Everywhere there are the chosen ones who have heard God’s call from childhood just as Samuel did. You were one of these. The voice calling from heaven touched your heart very early, and afterwards not all the noise of life’s bustle nor all the songs of the earth could silence it.
At times, according to your own testimony, an element of gloom rushed upon you, ready to swallow you, but you had a lamp which shone brightly in your soul and darkness did not envelope it. You had already come to love the Heavenly Bridegroom with all your heart. Because of Him, you refused all the delights of youth and entered one of the monastic communities in order to dedicate yourself later to self-denying missionary service in India.
Nevertheless, an inner voice told you that the first and basic aim of a Christian must be to know the truth, that is, to learn the pure, undefiled Christian teaching and to join yourself to the fulness of an abundant Church life.
Not finding either of these in the community to which you then belonged, you hoped to fill the deficiency in Anglo-Catholicism, that is, in that branch of the Anglican Confession which most nearly approaches the Orthodox Church. In fact, the motivating force that brought forth the great Oxford Movement a hundred years ago, the continuation of which is today’s Anglo-Catholicism, was the desire on the part of the most fervent Anglicans to re-establish the lost bond with the ancient, One, Universal Church, the living memory of which never died in the bosom of Anglicanism. The Eastern Orthodox Church possesses the advantage over the other Christian confessions in that it never broke this organic unity with the ancient Apostolic Church, remaining faithful to its spirit in all things. This has given it the strength to preserve in itself the complete fulness of truth and grace which was given to His Church by its Divine founder, Christ. You saw this with your own penetrating gaze immediately upon coming closer to Orthodoxy, and your heart automatically [involuntarily] reached out for it.
Even before coming into contact with Orthodoxy, you already clearly felt monasticism to be the highest embodiment of the Christian ideal. You had already entered the path of monastic podvig. Orthodox teachings deepened for you the thought of monasticism itself, and the Orthodox Church now gives you a special grace for the worthy fulfillment of this genuinely super-human way of life, a way of life that is more heavenly than earthly.
In the brilliance et Mount Tabor, which will always illuminate for you the day of your complete betrothal to Christ,, the lofty significance of monasticism is revealed with special clarity. What is the essence of monasticism if not a constant ascent to the mountain of the Lord and entry into the glory of the sons of God. From the crucible of prayer to which the God-man gave Himself on Tabor, the wondrous mystery of His Transfiguration emerged and shone forth.
Truly, it is good for a person to be on spiritual heights — on the mountain of the Lord. He then attains such plenitude and saturation of life that he is ready to exclaim together with Symeon the Theologian: “I take delight in His Love and His beauty I become a participant et light and glory: My face shines like the Beloved’s …. I am more beautiful than the beautiful, richer than the rich, stronger than the strong.”
Now obtain for yourself also this unfading beauty, this imperishable wealth, this all-conquering power of Christ.”
Sister Valentina was also professed at that time and became Mother Barbara.[1] In 1935 Mother Mary was appointed superior of the women’s convent of the Resurrection of Christ in Bethany. The following year she visited Belgrade, where she was raised to the rank of abbess by His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), and given a jeweled pectoral cross belonging to Metropolitan Anastassy.
At the time of their tonsure, Metroplitan Anastassy said to the nuns, “I entrust Bethany to you; we need to start a school there.” With God’s help the nuns organized an elementary school for girls, which officially opened with a special service of blessing on Lazarus Saturday, 1937. That same year the house-chapel was frescoed by a new sister, an iconegrapher, whose talents inspired the opening of an icon studio there in Bethany. The next year the school expanded and received British accredation as an academy. It soon acquired a superior reputation, and its enrollment increased to more than a hundred Orthodox-Arab girl boarders. In addition to the usual curriculum, the girls learned Arabic, Russian and English. They were also schooled in Orthodox piety, and some of the pupils later became monastics. Mother Mary took an active part in the school administration, and visited it almost daily, frequently making the two-mile trip from Jerusalem and back on a donkey.
With the outbreak of World War II in 1939, communication with Metropolitan Anastassy, then in Munich, was suspended; it was later restored thanks to Mother Mary’s persistent inquiries at the Red Cross. Meanwhile, hundreds of Russian soldiers, held up in Palestine on their way to Italy, joined the nuns for prayer in the church of St Mary Magdalene.
In Palestine, however, the horrific realities of war came later, with the departure of the British in 1948. Simmering tensions between Arabs and Israelis exploded in bitter fighting in and around Jerusalem. As a British subject, Abbess Mary could have returned to the safety of her homeland, but she declined to abandon her sisters and her children of the Bethany School. Her energies and her talents were dedicated, as always, to helping those in need. She turned the school into a hospital, the classrooms became wards. A courageous young doctor offered his service, s, and he was joined by a number of professional nurses, who in turn were assisted by the nuns and the older girls at the school. Every day brought more wounded, soldiers and civilians. Bread and other provisions were often obtained under artillery fire. Death and destruction were all around. Fortunately, Mother Mary managed to secure for the hospital the protection of the Red Cross, its flag flying over the walls of the community made Bethany a relatively safe haven. During the worst shelling, local Palestinians sought shelter there, spending the night in the cave on the property, together with their domesticated animals. Somehow the school continued to function, with pupils coming even from other schools. There was no disruption in the order of services, and the intensified prayer of the nuns drew upon them the evident power of God’s mercy.
There was a particularly tense period in the winter of 1949, when the military High Command declared its plans to requisition all the buildings of the Bethany School, due to its strategic location, and to evict the entire community. The nuns began removing furnishings and other items to Gethsemane, some things they stored in the cave, a place in the country was rented to house some of the children and elderly. The sisters prayed fervently, and — a miracle. At someone’s chance suggestion, a letter was sent by courier to Amman, to general Glob Pasha, and on the very Feast of Nativity, at trapeza after Liturgy, a reply was received: the order for the requisition had been given in error. Glory to God!
Throughout these years of difficulty and uncertainty, Abbess Mary was a model of evangelical self sacrifice, inspiring those around her with her courage and energy, consoling the grieving and fainthearted… She was, in a word, a noble example of unfailing and selfless charity, which lies at the heart of true Christianity.
With the end of the war, the Bethany community began functioning more normally, and dozens of schoolgirls once again ran about in the courtyard. The war, however, had left its mark, and among its causalities were a number of blind girls. The community decided to help them by teaching them to weave. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of war there were few tourists and little market for such handiwork, and the project was abandoned.
In the summer of 1952, the Bethany School began receiving groups of Russian pilgrims from Western Europe. These annual pilgrimages, organized and led by Bishop Methodius, had a very positive influence, both on the pilgrims themselves and upon the Orthodox living in the Holy Land. They likewise helped inform the broader Orthodox community of the existence of the Jerusalem convents, eliciting needed financial support.
Upon meeting Mother Mary, pilgrims were consistently impressed by her exceptional spirituality and her noble, luminous soul. She was genuinely concerned for the well-being of each individual who approached her, and she showed extraordinary sensitivity in being able to resolve complex and burdensome problems. Warm, gracious and unfailingly tactful, she was loved and respected by a wide spectrum of people.
Abbess Mary’s high monastic standards reflected upon the community as a whole. Several of her nuns later became abbesses at other convents. Abbess Elizabeth of the Annunciation Convent in London (six of her nuns there are former pupils of the Bethany School), the late Abbess Tamara, and Abbess Juliana, for many years in Chile and now at the Mount of Olives convent.
Not only Russian pilgrims but foreigners and non-Orthodox were drawn by the genuinely spiritual atmosphere there at the Gethsemane convent. A Roman Catholic visitor from Germany in 1965, wrote:
“This is to express my hearty compliments to your esteemed Convent where the smell of piety comes over the pilgrim attending the Divine Liturgy and the Canonical Hours in your Church. I have finished my pilgrimage to the Holy Land on 14th August, by attending the beautiful sung Vespers in your Church, and I suppose that this was an act of worthy finishing these privileged days one may stay at Jerusalem. Please let all your Sisters know that I was deeply moved by their chant in the pure monastic Russian style. It is very seldom that one is finding the sacred music performed like by your Sisters. Here, in Europe, in most of the Orthodox churches, the hymns are performed like in an orchestra hall…”
In 1967, as a result of the Arab-Israeli war, the Bethany community found itself on the territory of Israel. Mother Mary and the sisters staunchly endured the trials that fell to them without retreating from their arena of struggle. But from this time Mother Mary’s physical strength began to decline, her heart weakened. She contemplated retirement, but impelled by the command of love, she remained at her post.
Abbess Mary was called to the Lord on 25 October (7 November), 1969. She died peacefully in her sleep, her fingers folded for making the sign of the Cross. News of her repose spread rapidly. That afternoon, hierarchs and clergy of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate came to the convent and held a memorial service. Then began the Vigil for the departed. Through the night the nuns by turns read the Psalter. The next day, a Saturday, the funeral service was held in a packed church: Abbess Tamara came with nuns from the Mt of Olives convent, as did almost all the Bethany School students; also present were representatives of different church denominations and a large number of other mourners. Afterwards the burial procession filed solemnly up the hill beside the church where, between two pine trees, Abbess Mary’s body was lovingly committed to the earth to await the General Resurrection.
Sister Barbara, Mother Mary’s co-worker for many years, who succeeded her as abbess of Gethsemane, sketched this spiritual portrait of her amma:
“She was a remarkable person, deeply religious, totally dedicated to God in everything, and serving Him through prayer and through her service of love for her neighbor. She was humble, lenient in her judgment, exceedingly condescending and kind even to the ungrateful, attentive to the needs of others… She was a gentle and loving mother, she was our joy, and we thank the Most High for her.”
Blessed are they whom Thou hast chosen and taken to Thyself, O Lord. Their remembrance shall be from generation to generation.
Translated and compiled from materials in the Gethsemane Convent archives.
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May I Keep the Smallest Door - Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Almighty God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
to me the least of saints,
to me allow that I may keep
even the smallest door,
the farthest, darkest, coldest door,
the door that is least used,
the stiffest door.
If only it be in your house, O God,
that I can see your glory even afar,
and hear your voice,
and know that I am with you, O God.
Source: Attributed to St. Columba, 521-597.
Source of this version: http://yourworshiptools.com/a-prayer-of-st-columba/
Included in Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, © 2018, Paul C. Stratman
This prayer recalls Psalm 84:10.
Source:
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2018/07/21/may-i-keep-the-smallest-door/
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“The Search for the True Church is Invaluable”
Interview with Fr. Seraphim Bell, USA & Scotland
Fr Seraphim Bell is an American, a Protopriest of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, founder and former president of the Missionary Department of ROCOR. He established four Orthodox parishes in the USA, did missionary work in Guatemala, Nepal and the Philippines, and also spent time on Mt Athos. At the present time, Fr Seraphim lives at Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. His voice reflects his surname as he proclaims sermons about our Lord Jesus Christ. He consoles those in despair with the hope of salvation. Fr Seraphim talks about his path to the Lord, the life of an Orthodox community in America, about the difficulties of missionary work in a pagan land, about our youth and a great deal more.
-Fr Seraphim, tell us about your path to God, how you came to Orthodox Christianity living in a country so far away, America, where the majority of the population are Protestants or Catholics.
– Let me start from the beginning. My ancestors on both sides of my family hailed from Scotland. Mama grew up in Oklahoma, the home of the Cherokee Indians, and some of our relatives still live there as part of that community. I grew up in California in the family of Scottish Presbyterians. Studying in university, I turned to Christ and began to study the history of Christianity and theology. My wife and I traveled to our ancient homeland, Scotland, where I got my Doctor of Sciences degree in dogmatics. While we lived there, I became a pastor in a local church. When I returned to America, I served for several years at a Presbyterian church in California, but ultimately left the community.
-What caused you to leave?
- In the most important matter, faith, the community was becoming more and more liberal. I founded a new church in San Jose, CA. It quickly grew to over 300 members. A few years went by, and doubts continued to grow: I didn’t have a good idea of which direction to lead my flock, and what our mission was, who we were as a church. I kept repeating to my parishioners: “Our goal is to become the Church of the New Testament.” In conclusion, I always said, “We are not now the Church of the New Testament, but by Divine Grace we could be someday.”
I hadn’t the slightest idea how this could take place. Finally, I gathered all the parishioners and told called upon them to join me in 40 days of fasting and prayer, and to ask the Lord to reveal His will. The very first evening, at prayer time, one person in my flock introduced me to Frank Schaeffer. Frank is a writer and activist, the son of a renowned Protestant theologian. After our meeting, a few of my parishioners learned more about him. How amazed I was when they told me that Frank converted to Orthodoxy! I remember my reaction: “There is no need to even entertain this notion.” A little time went by, and I found out that one of my closest friends was studying Orthodoxy. For several reasons, I became enraged, and I decided that I needed to examine Orthodoxy more closely in order to prove that it was a false teaching, and save my friends from a serious mistake. That’s what I thought at the time, but now, as I look back through the years, I understand how condescending and ignorant I was. When I remember that period of my life, it makes me laugh how stupid I was, how far from reality I was, and I blush to remember.
-And yet, that lay the foundation of your conversion to Orthodoxy.
– Yes, that was the beginning of my path to the Lord. In my case, as paradoxical as it seems, what helped was my lack of faith and my heartfelt desire to help my friends, to save them. I won’t go into detail, I will only say that I came to the firm determination that Orthodoxy is the true faith, though at the time I wasn’t ready for Holy Baptism, but I listened to my inner voice and sensed that I have to be honest with myself and follow the faith one recognizes as being true.
After I shared this with my parishioners (I spent many months studying the foundations of Orthodoxy, the teachings of the Holy Church), some 120 people joined me in converting to Orthodoxy. We founded a Church of Holy Archdeacon Stephan, the very first martyr. Over the course of over two years, over 150 people received Holy Baptism and joined our parish, which quickly grew to 300 people.
The search for the True Faith, the True Church is invaluable, and whoever receives it obtains a treasured jewel.
The process of leaving Protestantism and joining the Orthodox faith was very painful for me. I was attacked, criticized by my family, the bitter loss of friends, the loss of financial support, etc. Still, in the end was all gained much more than we lost.
-What problems did you have when you became an Orthodox priest, living in America?
– There were many problems, in fact. Over many years I had been a pastor, I had a theological degree, over 120 people converted to Orthodoxy with me, and on that basis, the bishop decided to ordain me to the priesthood right away. In my opinion, this wasn’t quite right, but the Lord allowed it by His Providence, so it was to be. The most difficult thing for me was to be ordained.
It became apparently almost immediately that although I could preach, based on my readings about Orthodoxy, but becoming a spiritual father, a guide, exceeded my abilities, since I had little experience. The Orthodox world view accumulates slowly, and not on the basis of reading books, but from the long-time effect of true living tradition, complete immersion. So I tried to seek out such spiritual guidance. Soon I was directed to the writings of Elder Sophrony and the teachings of St Silouan of Athos. After reading the Life of St Silouan, I visited Elder Sophrony’s monastery in England. I spent several months there. This was a turning point in my life, the beginning of my spiritual edification.
I also decided to move to Greece with my family, and we lived in Thessaloniki for a year. Living there, we were immersed in “the living treasure of Orthodoxy,” we attended divine services, we read the Lives of Saints, venerated relics, received invaluable advice from wise elders, in short, we were under great influence. We visited many monasteries then, and I made about 12 trips to Holy Mount Athos.
As I was preparing to leave Greece, Abbot George (Kapsanis) gave me icons, incense, he made the sign of the cross over me and said, “You received the rare honor of spending time here, serving in the monastery and learning the tradition in direct proximity of holy relics. Now you must return to America and pass along what you received.” These words electrified me. After we returned to America, over the next ten years, or maybe more, I returned to Greece every year and spent a few months on Mt Athos or near Thessaloniki.
-You did missionary work in various countries. Tell us about that. How did people of different cultures, with their own social environments and traditions, receive the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ?
-Without a doubt, this was a miracle and I sensed special grace to do missionary work in various countries: Guatemala, Nepal and the Philippines. In each of these countries I found that people have a genuine interest in studying Orthodox Christianity. When I would be in these countries, dressed as a priest in a cassock and a cross around my neck, people would approach me and ask who I was and which faith I confess.
In each of these places I found that “the fields were ripe for harvest,” yet very few Orthodox Christians are willing to serve as missionaries, so there are many missed opportunities. I spent most of my time in Nepal, and had I not fallen ill and been sent to Katmandu, I would be there today. Nepal is a remarkable country. The people are very gregarious and openly listen to the preaching of the Faith. Most are Hindu, but more in a cultural than spiritual sense.
But in general, you might say that the country is “on the dark side.” People worship many idols and gods. Demonic possession is a common occurrence. Since I had no other Orthodox Christians with me, it was spiritually inhibited. That is why it is not right to do missionary work alone over a long period of time. Even now, every month I receive e-mails from people in Nepal. I very much hope that they will be given the opportunity to attend divine services in a church, but there isn’t a single Orthodox church in that country today. What we need is a team of Orthodox faithful who would live there, perform everyday services, and try it and see
-As far as I know, you also visit Russia and you know how they live . I’d like to know: in your opinion, how are young Russians different from young Americans? Is it hard to find a common language with them? In our nano-tech world, when the computer became every kid’s best friend and companion, how can parents protect their children from the lethal effect of gadgets and destructive games like Pokemon Go, which has even led to death? How can we make children live with God, and not in virtual reality?
– I got blessing to visit Russia several times. I made a total of 8 visits. My first was in October, 1993, the day after Moscow’s “White House” was shot up. I lived in Moscow from September 2009 to March 2010 and spent most of 2015 in Holy Trinity-St Sergius Lavra.
What amazed me most of all during my trips was not the difference but the similarities between the youth of both countries. In some respect, this is very good. This is an outstanding example of the fact that despite the cultural difference and enormous distances that separate us, we are all humans who have similar desires and similar habits. In Russia, I mostly met Orthodox youth, and maybe that’s why I see similarities between them and our youth. Still, I was discouraged when I saw how eagerly lay society, at least in Moscow, absorb the worst aspects of Western culture. Russian youth, just like American youth, try to master all the attributes of “the toys of the world.” This means, in particular, that kids in both worlds share a passion for technology.
Unlimited access to the internet has drawn many people to dependency on pornography and computer games. Some young people can’t live without their smartphones. In fact, many kids prefer to send each other electronic messages than sit face to face and talk. If a parent doesn’t pay attention and allows his child unlimited access to the internet when they are still young, then the likelihood is great that as young people, they will lost to this world, and the parents will be helpless to do anything.
The destructive effect usually begins at an early age, so parental attentiveness is very important. Computers and mobile phones have an overbearing effect on impressionable minds. That is why many tech leaders don’t allow their own children access to gadgets. They have heard how damaging they can be when too much time is spent on them. This alone should serve as a warning and spur us to protect our young children from the effects of the computer and other electronic dependencies.
-Fr Seraphim, thank you for your important advice to parents. We hope that they realize this in time and take whatever steps necessary to save their children. Our readers also want to know more about the life of the Orthodox Church in the United States. Do you see cases where people who are ardent Catholics genuinely convert to Orthodoxy and remain adherents? Can you give us examples?
-This is a very broad question, and it’s not easy to answer. Every parish had their own character, their own life. Some have blessing for conducting daily divine services, like we did at St Stephan Church when I served there, as we did when I was rector at St Silouan Church. Unfortunately, this is not a widespread practice, and not easy to organize. As a result, people often move from one church to another. Some are so drawn into church life that they arrange their lives according to the church calendar of services and holidays. They regularly make confession and often partake of the Holy Gifts, they make pilgrimages to monasteries. Still, the fact remains, these are the minority. The majority are devoted to this world, and their devotion to the Church is secondary
There is also a difference between those who were born into Orthodoxy (Orthodox from the cradle) and converts to the faith. Converts are often more zealous, and burn with the desire to improve, follow the Church canons, while “cradle Orthodox Christians” adhere to the faith as an ethnic thing. So the latter are often involved in cultural activities (such as Russian festivals, art, etc), but you won’t find them in church that often. Of course, the newly-converted are sometimes so zealous yet so unexperienced that they can cause problems for the priest or parish. Some of the most pious Orthodox Christians whom I know personally are in fact the “cradle Orthodox.”
As far as the conversion of Roman Catholics to Orthodoxy, this happens, and often. I will bring forth as an example someone to came to St Silouan Church. A woman who was preparing to be baptized into Catholicism heard that there was an Orthodox church nearby and decided to visit. Her colleague, a Catholic (who was her sponsor to Catholicism), was very upset and tried to talk her out of it. Finally she said “I just want to attend their service.” He responded, “If you see their service and compare it to ours, you will never return.” And he was absolutely right: after she came to our church service and began reading about Orthodoxy, she quickly decided to abandon her intention to convert to Catholicism and be baptized into the Orthodox Faith. Her friend called me several times to express his dissatisfaction. He said that the Pope announced that Catholics can even take communion in Orthodox churches. I rplied that the Pope has no standing in our Church. Finally, in a fit of rage, he yelled at me: “Do you know what you’re doing? Our Church is against what you are trying to do. Do you understand that?” Wishing to end the conversation, I said calmly yet firmly “Yes, I know what I am doing. I am snatching a person about to enter heresy and schism and bringing her to the true faith and the true Church.” He fell silent, and then said quietly: “Well, I’d like for our own priests to have your determination and courage.”
Another example. I once baptized a young man, a former Catholic. His mother was a devoted Catholic. She attended the baptism and cried throughout the service; she felt unfortunate that her son made this decision. Still, she would come to church when he was there, hoping that he returns to Catholicism. Gradually, she started reading some Orthodox literature, and finally converted to Holy Orthodoxy together with her husband. From the very start, when she began attending divine services in the Church of Christ, she admitted that she sensed the spiritual profundity and power of Orthodoxy, which she had thirsted for with all her heart, but could not find in the Roman Catholic Church. The Lord finally filled the void in her heart as she received Holy Baptism and the Eucharist, and she never regretted coming to us.
-In concluding our discussion, I can’t help but touch upon a matter that is all over the mass media: it is no secret that there is an information war between America and Russia. What must be done to prevent the deterioration of relations in all facets of life, from the civil sphere to the spiritual?
– This is a big question, not easy to answer. I agree that this is sad and painful… Our countries are becoming more and more antagonistic towards each other. I am convinced that this would not have occurred had not some influential people not gotten involved who profit from war. In our country, there is a group called “neo-conservatives,” adherents to the notion that there should be only one superpower in the world. They see a threat to their hegemony in a renewed Russia and China, which are developing quickly. They are committed to war with Russia and warn of nuclear attacks. This is madness, there is no other word for it, it is demonic behavior. We Orthodox Christians must understand that we must first of all preserve our faith in Christ. It is written in the Scripture, that “our citizenship is in heaven.” We must fervently pray “O God, save Your people and bless Your inheritance.”
Many of us Orthodox Christians in America do everything we can to tell our compatriots the truth, that our leadership is doing everything it can to provoke Russia to war. But there are very few of us in relation to the overall population of the United States, who are still inclined to believe what their political leaders are saying.
Each one of us must strive to obtain the grace and peace of the Holy Spirit, and then a thousand people around us will be saved.
We must pray for peace with all our strength, pray that the forces of darkness recede, that the Lord saves His people and blessed His inheritance. Many saints and holy elders warned us that war has already begun. That is why we must protect our own hearts from hatred and the desire for war, which the devil wants to implant in each of us. St Seraphim is our guide.
-Fr Seraphim, thank you. We wish you Divine help and hope that you visit our country again.
-Thank you for the opportunity to be connected to my brothers and sisters in Christ who live in God-preserved Russia. I hope that I can visit again, and that Divine Grace which has been preserved here will touch me as well. Please remember me in your prayers.
Interviewed by Elena Khomullo
pravoslavie.ru
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Delightful It Is to Serve the King of Kings
A Prayer of Saint Columba of Isle of Iona, Scotland (+597)
Let me bless almighty God,
whose power extends over sea and land,
whose angels watch over all.
Let me study sacred books to calm my soul:
I pray for peace,
kneeling at heaven’s gates.
Let me do my daily work,
gathering seaweed, catching fish,
giving food to the poor.
Let me say my daily prayers,
sometimes chanting, sometimes quiet,
always thanking God.
Delightful it is to live
on a peaceful isle, in a quiet cell,
serving the King of kings.
Source: Attributed to St. Columba, 521-597.
Source of this version: https://daily-prayers.org/angels-and-saints/prayers-of-columba-colomcille-of-ireland/
Included in Prayers from the Ancient Celtic Church, © 2018, Paul C. Stratman
Source:
https://acollectionofprayers.com/2018/07/19/delightful-it-is-to-serve-the-king-of-kings/
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Through Oxford To Orthodoxy
Archimandrite Meletios (Webber), of Scottish background, was born in London, and received his Masters degree in Theology from Oxford University, England and the Thessalonica School of Theology, Greece. He also holds an E.D.D. (doctorate) in Psychotherapy from the University of Montana, Missoula. He is the author of two published books: Steps of Transformation; an Orthodox Priest Explores the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous (Conciliar Press, 2003); and Bread and Water, Wine and Oil; an Orthodox Christian Experience of God (Conciliar Press, 2007).
This interview was originally published in Pravoslavnie.ru.
—Fr. Meletios, could you tell us a little about your journey to Orthodoxy in Oxford, and how you became a priest?
—I went to Oxford as a theology student in 1968, and very quickly found an Orthodox Church there. The parish priest at the time was Fr. Kallistos Ware, who is now Metropolitan of Diokleia, and the deacon at the time was Fr. Basil Osborne, who is now Bishop of Amphipolis. The parish in Oxford was both a Russian and a Greek one, coexisting in a small room in what had once been the house of the famous Dr. Spooner. I was immediately attracted to the quality of the stillness that I found in that small room. That has been something that I have consistently valued in the Orthodox Church ever since. It is a quality which is difficult to talk about, but it happens when one goes into a space which is so obviously God-filled. That is something that I found very important and very attractive at that time. Under the tutelage of Fr. Kallistos I became Orthodox three years later, and I was ordained a priest some three years after that in January of 1976, by the Greek Archbishop of Thyateira in Great Britain, and served with that bishop as his chaplain for a number of years. My first parish in Britain after I returned from my studies in Greece was in an area of London called Harrow. From Harrow I went to the United States and spent 22 years there, before returning to Europe to live in the Netherlands in 2005.
—In which parishes did you serve in the U.S.?
—In the beginning, in 1984, I served as the parish priest in the churches of the state of Montana. There were three active parishes, two missions, and several other groups. This was with the Greek Archdiocese. I used to travel a very great deal throughout the year, which was at times a little more exciting than I wanted it to be. The people were very scattered, but very few in number. A trickle of converts started toward the end of my time there, but for the most part I was serving Greek Americans.
—Were there any converts at all while you were there?
—In Great Falls, Montana there was an air force base, and we had a number of very fine converts coming to us from that direction. We baptized a few families who were attracted to the Church from that place. It would be difficult to say that the Greek community found it easy to accept non-Greeks, because they saw themselves as a sort of bastion of Greekness. They were very friendly on the whole, but they simply did not know how to react to people who wanted to join the Church who were not Greek, who didn’t speak Greek, and so on. They also found it difficult at that time (and I think this is still the case), to keep their children in Montana. Almost everyone would leave the state as soon as they were able, in search of employment or education.
—Because Montana simply does not have very much to offer in the way of employment or education?
—Certainly in Great Falls there wasn’t. In Missoula and Billings there are universities; in Missoula there was quite a thriving Orthodox community. But even then, with the exception of two or three of my former altar boys, who went to get their law degrees and then returned to practice in Montana, most people found it difficult to find professional development in Montana. It is a problem in a state which has a huge surface area and a relatively small population.
—Where did you serve after Montana?
—I went to what is known in America as “The Bay Area,” meaning the area around San Francisco, and became the chancellor of what was then the Greek diocese of San Francisco, with Bishop Anthony. I served with him as chancellor for two years, during which time I served as parish priest in Santa Cruz. After I ceased being chancellor, I was then full-time parish priest in Santa Cruz, for another nine years.
—Is that the same parish in which the murdered Fr. John Karastamatis served?
—Yes. He was not my immediate predecessor; there had been three other priests in between. I knew his presbytera quite well, and his children. He was murdered on the premises of the church, in very unpleasant circumstances, some years before I arrived, but it was still a very dominant factor in the life of parish while I was there—something they couldn’t forget.
—In your experience as a pastor in America, with the Greek population and later with a slightly more diverse group, what would you say is the most challenging aspect of being a pastor there?
—I think that there are many problems, but none of them is insurmountable, so long as the focus of parish life always centers upon the words of Jesus and the Gospel. It is easy to become distracted into the realms of, for example, Greek culture and cooking, or folk dance, all of which are wonderful activities in themselves, but can never be the backbone of parish life. The backbone of parish life has to be spiritual in nature, and based very firmly upon the Gospel. So, the interests of parishioners can be in one direction, and those of the pastor in another, and it is up to the pastor to help the people whom he is serving stay focused on what is important; encouraging them, of course, in all these other areas as well, but making sure that the spiritual core is always present in everything that they do.
—Did you ever find that it was a challenge for your Greek parishioners to have a pastor, even a chancellor, who was not at all Greek?
—Yes, well, you would have thought so. But when I was in London I was serving a community that was almost entirely Cypriot, and also Greek- speaking. I survived that experience reasonably well. They used to call me in the Cypriot dialect “O kochenos,” which means “The red-haired one,” since I had red hair in those days. I have always found that although I am not Greek, I speak Greek reasonably well, and I can feel Greek enough to participate in Greek parish life—sometimes perhaps too much so. (Perhaps a little stoic reserve would be more applicable.) But because I speak the language, with very few exceptions (and there have been some), I have never been made to feel an outsider.
Bishop Anthony (whom I mentioned earlier, and who went on to become Metropolitan Anthony, reposing in 2004, on Christmas day), was not an easy man to work with in many ways. But the one thing that always surprised me about him was that with regard to ethnicity, he was sort of color blind. He actually forgot that the people around him were Greek, or not Greek. It simply was not important to him. This was one of his great strengths, actually, in bringing the metropolis together.
—Now that you have come to Holland, you are entering into a new realm—the Russians, the Dutch, and other Europeans who are living in Amsterdam, a cosmopolitan city. Could you describe what the parish life is like in the Russian Church in Amsterdam?
—First of all, the parish itself is a great deal larger than any other parish I have served in before. Apart from those two years when I was Chancellor and had oversight over a number of parishes, all of the parishes in which I worked personally had around fifty to a hundred families. Suddenly, when I come to Amsterdam, there is a huge parish with a very flexible congregation—new people seem to turn up every week The number of languages flying around is just something that you just have to get used to. In the altar four languages certainly are quite common amongst the clergy themselves.
—Those being…
—French, Dutch, Russian, and English; occasionally there are other languages, too. This being only us communicating amongst ourselves, in order to know what we are supposed to do.
—French being a sort of lingua franca?
Yes. I don’t think there is actually a French person there. But we do have some people who are very, very qualified in language skills. One of our deacons is an international translator who works for President Putin and other people of that ilk, as the need arises.
—Is he Russian?
—No, he is actually Dutch. He speaks four languages fluently. He occasionally translates my sermons, which I enjoy immensely. I deliver them in Dutch, and he translates them into Russian. He catches nuances in what I am saying that I’ve missed. I am just amazed at his skill. He is a very young man. It is quite exciting.
Parish council meetings (which I don’t attend) are entirely bilingual, so everything has to be said in Dutch and Russian, and I should imagine that that becomes at times something less than a pleasure.
—Twice as long?
Twice as long; and the subject matter at parish meetings is at times not so interesting, or not so important to the central interest of the parish. But I suppose that is just parish life.
—Which is the dominant nationality there now?
—I would have to say that the dominant group would be the Russians, most of whom have come to Europe fairly recently. There are very, very few old Russians left from previous immigrations, the notable exception being Matushka Tatiana, the wife of the reposed Fr. Alexei (who was Dutch). There are very few, if any, of that generation. There are some older women—particularly women—from a new generation; but that’s another matter—they came over as old ladies.
—Is this mixture of Russian and Dutch harmonious?
—I would say that it really is. I have been in parishes in England and in the U.S., where people tended to get very defensive about languages. In Holland that is not the case, and in Amsterdam, certainly not. We have a system of trying to balance the languages which seems to work very well. And I don’t think I have ever heard a complaint that we were using one language more than another. Occasionally I have to break into English or Greek during the services, bearing in mind that I know most of the services by heart in Greek, not even as well in English. People will sometimes comment on that, mostly not in too brusque a manner, but it is often the best I can do, if I am in a situation wherein I can’t find the book I need, or if I am in a hurry.
—Do you know any Russian?
—Yes, I also use Church Slavonic in the Services.
—Can you speak to the Russians in their own language?
—To a certain extent. I need some help to learn a bit more Russian. I do hear confessions in Russian, but that is more instinctive than linguistic, and normally I reply either in English or Dutch, depending upon what the person’s language skills happens to be.
I understand that the difficulties that occurred in the London Moscow Patriarchate parish have been more or less smoothed out by this time. But in your opinion, what could have been the underlying problem which could have made it so difficult for the new Russian immigrants to coexist with the local converts—a problem which does not seem to exist here in Amsterdam?
I have never been a member of the parish in London, although I have known about it for forty years or so. I could be quite wrong in what I am about to say, and I certainly do not want to offend anyone. I, like many, many other people, regard Metropolitan Anthony Bloom as a very important part of my Orthodox formation, and I venerate his memory as do many, many others. I think what we saw there—somewhat encouraged by Metropolitan Anthony—was a very high level of expectation as to how the diocese would develop as he got older, and eventually what would happen after he died. But the circumstances in Russia were such, that by the time that happened, the reality was altogether different from any possible dream that anyone might have had. And I think that the reality and the dream simply didn’t mix.
I don’t necessarily think that anyone is to blame for this. I know that many feelings were hurt, but I don’t see any wrong-doing on anyone’s part; I think it was simply people doing their best to fight for what they thought was right and just—on both sides. But it is a situation with which Vladyka Anthony himself never really came to grips; and by the time the Soviet Union dissolved, he was already a very old man. Whilst he was mentally very strong right to the end, coping with the sort of ecclesiastical needs of the new Russians was something he had never had to do. He was ministering mainly to English people in very small, rural communities. There were a couple of exceptions, but on the whole, that was where his main influence seemed to lie.
Then, all of a sudden he was confronted with the huge ecclesiastical needs of a lot of Russians in cities, which was not where he was actually comfortable. That is a bit of a guess. I may be entirely wrong on that, but this seems to be part of it.
This is a point of view of someone who was not in the thick of it, an objective observer.
—How would you, in a few words, characterize this new burst of immigration coming from Russia and Eastern Europe in general? Is the majority or only a small percentage coming to the Church? How does this big wave of immigration affect the Church?
I think that several things happened relatively quickly when the Soviet Union dissolved. One comment that was made to me by a Russian, which I find quite interesting, was that for a lot of people, once the Communist Party was, as it were, no more, they latched onto the Church as being a point of stability in social life. And it was as if the Communist Party were replaced by the Church. We are not talking here about matters of faith, but simply about social structure, how people live their lives, what they do when they get up in the morning, and how they see the world when they look out the window. If that is true, then the Church obviously has a huge burden of evangelizing, bringing the Gospel to these people. I think that is what we see happening.
Typically the Orthodox method of doing such a thing isn’t by making church life attractive, by trying to “sell” an idea, or imposing an ideology upon people, but rather to open the doors of the parishes, to welcome people when they arrive, to make them feel at home, and gradually to educate them in the prayer life, which is after all, what the Church really has to offer. Of course, it is not an activity where efficiency counts for much. You’re looking for quality rather than quantity.
I would say that the Russian population in Amsterdam is something in the region of six or seven thousand people, which in comparison with the total population isn’t that large. Nevertheless, the congregation on Sunday morning is only, say, 350 people, including the non-Russians. So, yes, there is a great deal more that can be done.
The outreach has to be for Orthodoxy on a personal level. The era for the conversion of Russia was already a thousand years ago, and I don’t think those tactics would work on a modern group—the baptism by sword-point is no longer even desirable. The long term answer is for the Orthodox in Amsterdam to live lives which are attractive enough to people who are potentially Orthodox, so that they can be attracted to what the Church has to offer. We are greatly blessed—we have a wonderful bishop, we have fine clergy, and although they are all human beings, there are very human aspects of Church life as well. The very heart of what is going on is the proclamation of the Gospel.
—What is your ministry like to the youth, and how do you bring young people into the Church? How do you feel about rock concerts, and Orthodox priests entering into such realms that are not Christian in nature in order to reach out to the youth?
The teenage years are years of rebellion. Teenagers have been rebelling in one way or another since the dawn of time. So, making teenagers conform to anything has been a heavy task for parents and educators for as long as men and women have been around.
Ultimately, teenagers on the whole—although of course there are exceptions—tend to be driven by peer pressure, and if peer pressure includes a spiritual dimension, then there will tend to be a spiritual dimension to their existence, although it may not be recognizable to anyone else. But if spirituality is entirely lacking—as it tends to be so in the Western world, even amongst fairly religious groups in the United States—you find that teenagers tend to spend time in rebellion. This means that ultimately you pray for the teenagers, and hope that they are going to come through those years without too many scars. The churches tend to pick them up once again when they become young parents. There is nothing wrong with that pattern, it just happens to be the one that seems to be in place.
Now, I know so little about rock music and things of that nature that anything I say is likely to be very doubtful, but let me put it in another context: I can’t say that I have ever met anybody who has been converted to Christianity by attending a symphony concert. Now, if that is true of symphony concerts, I think that that is also true of rock concerts. So rock music is an end in itself—I really can’t say if it is good or bad. But it is unlikely to provide much of a spiritual dimension for most people. It is a diversion, a distraction; it is away from the spiritual quest, rather than on the path. Therefore, I would say that it is somewhat irrelevant; I don’t think that having priests dress as rock stars is going to fill the churches.
—What about priests attending rock concerts in order to reach out to the youth?
As I say, putting the same thing in the context of a symphony hall, having a priest sitting in the front row will not drive those people into the Church. The Church is good at being the Church. When the Church tries to be something else—and in the past it has tried to be all sorts of things, including government or administrator, sometimes because it had to, sometimes because it chose to—it is not at its best. The Church is essentially to do with living, and proclaiming the Gospel. The moment you start moving away from that occupation, then there is trouble.
—Viewing the youth of Europe, do you see any hope? Does materialism totally prevail, or is there any yearning for traditional spirituality amongst the young people of Europe?
I think the Church has failed to make faith a living issue for a lot of people. I am not here talking necessarily about the Orthodox Church, although I have lived in Greece, and I have seen how the Church there has fallen short of bringing the Christian life to people living in that country.
Here in Holland the churches are almost a dead issue, they are almost irrelevant to the life of the country. When youngsters come in contact with the Church—and now I am talking about the Orthodox Church—they tend to be quite taken aback by not only the spiritual strength which they encounter, but also the depth of experience which the Orthodox Church has. (I am talking about very small numbers of people.) That is because our favorite missionary method is simply to open a church door, and that is pretty much the extent of it. So if people choose to come inside, then we have a lot to share with them. But that is the limit of our activity in that direction.
Nevertheless, I also have a tremendous optimism. First of all, God is in charge, and no matter how badly we are doing, God is still God, and He is very good at being God. He has been doing it for a long time. In the end, God’s will will prevail, no matter how many obstacles we put in His path—or other people do.
This may be very wrong of me, but I see both in Europe and in the United States a quest on the part of young people towards what I suppose I could characterize as a quest for “goodness” as opposed to “rightness.” In the 1930’s and 40’s, certainly during the Second World War, Europe like most of the world was torn apart over questions of “rightness.” Goodness was not the issue at all—there was no goodness. Everything was bad. But the fascists thought they were right, and the communists thought they were right, and they tore each others’ throats out to settle it. What I do see amongst young people is a desire to pursue goodness for its own sake. This isn’t any big movement or anything of that nature.
I was a high school teacher for many years, so I have had much contact with teenagers. But simply from talking with teenagers, I would say that if there has been a trend at all, this is what it is.
—Do you have any young people in Amsterdam who have just “wandered in?”
—There are some. We also encourage teachers to bring classes. That is beginning to happen.
—As a cultural experience?
—Yes, because the Church has something very different to offer. The Dutch are living in a post-Calvinist society, where the Church has a rather dour, cold, forbidding aura about it. To come into the middle of a celebrating Orthodox community is actually quite an important event for them, even if it has no spiritual dimension at all.
—The search for “goodness?”
—Yes.
—Is it difficult for the Russians and Eastern Europeans who immigrate here to adjust to Western European life? Do they go through a period of shock? What words of encouragement would you give to those who find themselves in Holland as their new home? How can they adapt themselves without losing what is best about their own culture and personalities?
—I am never quiet clear as to why people come to Holland in the first place, unless they have a specific job offer in this country. Of all the countries in Europe, it is one of the most difficult for an Eastern European to apply to live in. Holland has its own language which is only shared with half of Belgium, and that’s that. So language tends to be something of an issue. Housing is expensive, and social services are no longer as generous as they have been in the past. Having said that, I can also say that many people, although not everybody, find Holland to be home quite quickly.
When I was little, I was intensely aware of the differences between Scotland and England. Most people, for instance, from North America, wouldn’t even be aware that there were such differences. Whenever you move from country to country, or indeed within a country, you are likely to come across some difficulties. Holland has a bureaucracy, which goes at it own pace. Holland has its own educational system, which is different from other people’s. Holland has its own medical services, which tend to have a different slant on things. You can go to a store in Amsterdam and buy marijuana, but you can’t go and buy penicillin. Things are just different.
—Do you have any comment on the decision by the European Union to deny the Christian origin of European culture? And in contrast, on the recent attempt in the United States Congress to affirm and value this origin, and the essential role Christianity has played in the development of Western Civilization? What is the portent of this statement for the European Community?
—I think that one of the most important factors in the modern world is that perhaps for the first time, the Church has become free to criticize any political leader. I think that the Gospel is, and always will be, at odds with most of the social systems we have developed, at least so far. And it is the Church’s task to call government to account whenever political governments are behaving in ways that are at odds with the Gospel. So, I think that it is interesting that America, in which the notion of the separation of Church and State really originated, or partially originated, is now wanting to affirm some Christian roots; whereas, in Europe, where Christianity is so much part of the life blood that it hardly needs to be talked about, such a statement is deemed to be unnecessary.
The high points in the life of the Church, spiritually speaking, have usually been the times when the Church has been heavily persecuted, and the low points, spiritually speaking, have been times when the Church has been allied with political power. Not always, but sometimes. So, I think it is largely irrelevant as to whether political powers seek to have their roots in Christianity or in any other religion, if they use that religion to justify whatever it is they are doing. So, the freer the Church is to comment on political life in the light of the Gospel, the better the situation is, everything else notwithstanding.
—The experience of the Byzantine Empire, which remains somewhere in the consciousness of Christian society, has as its symbol the double-headed eagle signifying the harmonious functions of two heads in one body—the Church as the conscience of the Government, and the Government as the protector of the Church. Does this have any meaning for Europeans today?
—Of course, the Byzantine ideal depends upon Christian emperors. That is a great deal more than emperors who happen to be Christian. In the good examples which Byzantium gives us, we see people who are of great spiritual depth, and under those circumstances it is possible for such a thing to exist. I don’t see that the way modern democracy works is likely to bring people who are more than nominally Christian into positions of leadership.
People who are too demonstratively Christian are going to be wiped out in the primaries. That is the nature of the modern political machine. People with strong views about anything are likely to be wiped out. The people you are left with are those who are good at balancing, pleasing all sides. The Church is not like that. The Church should not be like that. The Church has a mission which hasn’t changed from the day that Jesus was physically amongst us on Earth.
It is the call to repentance, the call to bring people back to God. Very few states can be seen to have been successful in doing that same thing.
—You are speaking of states in the Western world, or states in general?
—In general. I know that Byzantium is a beautiful idea for many, many people. Holy Russia is a beautiful idea for many other people. Yet both the Russian political system and the Byzantine political system fell short of the Gospel in many ways, at least during certain periods of history, and sometimes markedly so. Neither one was of the mold of modern democracy. Unless things change dramatically in the future, I don’t see that the sort of government that existed in Russia, and in Byzantium, is going to be a possibility at all. So I would see the future being where the Church and the State might be amicable, but the Church always needs to reserve the right to criticize. And many governments don’t particularly care for that particular part of the Church’s mission.
—Do you think that this might be the underlying cause for this statement by the European Union?
—To be honest, the people who seem to be making the rules in Europe at the moment baffle me entirely. I have no idea why they say anything. Or even who they are.
—But you do not see this as setting the stage for more strictures on Church activities?
—No, absolutely not.
—They have fallen away from the Church, so they assume that all of Europe has fallen away from the Church?
—Pretty much. In some ways, that is good for the Church. Wherever, for example, Catholicism has been hand in hand with a particular government in a particular country, you haven’t always seen Catholicism at its finest.
—Being hand in hand with the government did not bring out its finest?
—Precisely. On the contrary.
—It brings out its worst?
—Well, the Spanish Inquisition leaps to one’s mind, but there are other examples.
—So, do you think that this decision could also have sprung from the Western European historical consciousness of abuses springing from a unity between Church and State?
—The Christian background of Western Europe is so vast, and so omnipresent, that nobody could actually eradicate it. It is an historical fact, there to stay. That is the basis of what’s going on. Given the arrival of Islam into Spain and parts of Eastern Europe, it has always been one variety of Christianity or another which has dominated this area for 1200 years, in some places even longer.
—And the new wave of Moslem immigration—are you feeling any pressure from this in Amsterdam?
—I am almost certain that there is a solution waiting to be found to what appears to be a problem. Most Moslem people here in Holland are very happy to lead there own lives, doing what they usually do peacefully with what are usually post-Christian neighbors. There will always be layers of fanaticism in every society, but on the whole, the Moslem presence in Holland is something that most people can live with.
However, when people turn to religion to provide themselves with what one might want to call “ego identity,” simply because that identity is not present anywhere else, it transforms the religion into something which is rather distasteful, and also makes their own psychological make-up somewhat suspect. This isn’t the best way of finding an identity. That is the problem. If people only find some sort of living identity in their religious affiliation, then we’ve got a lot of work to do. Because in the end, religions aren’t made to coexist. Religions, by definition, tend to be at odds, and this has always been historically true for Christianity as well as Islam, there has always been a tendency for one to want to wipe out the other. They don’t live side by side naturally. Quite how we can get them to live side by side with some sort of friendliness, I am not quite sure, but that is the work that needs to be done.
—Finally, do you have any words for the readers of Pravoslavie.ru.? Some wishes for the people of Russia, and her relationship to Europe?
—I suppose my view is that the communists who took over Russian society at the time of the revolution were (and I think this is true), genuinely trying to improve society. But I also believe that the way they went about it, particularly becoming adversarial towards Orthodoxy, meant that their labors were, as it were, in vain. Russia is Orthodox to the marrow. I see it in the people who come to Church, who have no real academic or book knowledge of what Orthodoxy is all about, but who have a deep, deep reverence for Orthodoxy, and the life of Christ that Orthodoxy exhibits. Russia without Orthodoxy is, and has been, impoverished. It might be splendid in some ways, but there is something desperately lacking. And I am fairly certain that in God’s time the roots will be connected with the leaves. Then, what is in the depths of Russian history—what you might want to call the depths of the Russian soul (but perhaps that’s a little more dangerous)—will begin to manifest itself once again in positive ways, through growth, outreach, and commitment to the words of Jesus. That future is very bright indeed.
Nun Cornelia (Rees)
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Christ’s Cross
A Prayer of Saint Columba of Iona, Scotland (+597)
CHRIST’S cross over this face,
and thus over my ear.
Christ’s cross over this eye.
Christ’s cross over this nose.
Christ’s cross over this mouth.
Christ’s cross over this throat.
Christ’s cross over the back of this head.
Christ’s cross over this side.
Christ’s cross over this belly
(so is it fitting).
Christ’s cross over this lower belly.
Christ’s cross over this back.
Christ’s cross over my arms
from my shoulders to my hands.
Christ’s cross over my thighs.
Christ’s cross over my legs.
Christ’s cross to accompany me before me.
Christ’s cross to accompany me behind me.
Christ’s cross to meet every difficulty
both on hollow and hill.
Christ’s cross eastwards facing me.
Christ’s cross back towards the sunset.
In the north, in the south unceasingly
may Christ’s cross straightway be.
Christ’s cross over my teeth
lest injury or harm come to me.
Christ’s cross over my stomach.
Christ’s cross over my heart.
Christ’s cross up to broad (?) Heaven.
Christ’s cross down to earth.
Let no evil or hurt come
to my body or my soul.
Christ’s cross over me as I sit.
Christ’s cross over me as I lie.
Christ’s cross be all my strength
till we reach the King of Heaven.
Christ’s cross over my community.
Christ’s cross over my church.
Christ’s cross in the next world;
Christ’s cross in this.
From the top of my head
to the nail of my foot,
O Christ, against every danger
I trust in the protection of thy cross.
Till the day of my death,
before going into this clay,
I shall draw without . . .
Christ’s cross over this face.
http://www.maryjones.us/ctexts/cc10.html
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Orthodox churches in Scotland
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Scottish Orthodox Community
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The Chapel Of Saint John The Baptist, Ross-Shire, Highlands, Scotland
General Details
Type: Chapel
Archdiocese: Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Diocese: Scottish Orthodox Community
Priest: Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Feast Day: January 7
Contact Details
Address: Ardross Castle, Ross-shire, Highlands, IV17 0YE United Kingdom
Phone: 01349-883395
Url: http://www.edinburgh-orthodox.org.uk
Priest: frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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The Orthodox Community Of The Highlands, Inverness-Shire, Highlands, Scotland
General Details
Type: Church
Archdiocese: Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Head Priest: Bishop Raphael of Ilion
Priest: Fr Antonios Kakalis / Fr Christopher Wallace
Second Priest: Fr Andrei Dosoftei
Feast Day: June 9 - Feast of Saint Columba
Contact Details
Address: Ness Walk, Inverness-shire, Highlands, IV3 5SF United Kingdom
Email: antonioskakalis@gmail.com
Phone: 07763-283600
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The Oratory Of The Mother Of God And Saint Cumein, Inverness-Shire, Highlands
General Details
Type: Church
Archdiocese: Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Priest: Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Contact Details
Address: Bunoich Brae, Inverness-shire, Highlands, PH32 4DG United Kingdom
Phone: 01320-366 457
Priest: frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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Saints Joachim And Anna Romanian Orthodox Church, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Romanian Orthodox Church, Romanian Patriarchate
Diocese:
Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Western and Southern Europe
Head Priest:
Metropolitan Joseph
Priest:
Gabriel Hlade
Feast Day:
September 9 - Sts. Joachim and Anna
Contact Details
Address:
Mastrick Parish Church, Greenfern Road, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, AB16 6TR United Kingdom
Email:
aberdeen@mitropolia.eu
Url:
http://www.bisericaortodoxaromanascotia.org.uk
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The Orthodox Community Of Saint Matthew The Apostle, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Diocese:
Scottish Orthodox Community
Priest:
Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Contact Details
Address:
696 King Street, Aberdeenshire, Aberdeenshire, AB24 1SJ United Kingdom
Phone:
01224-315658
Url:
http://www.edinburgh-orthodox.org.uk
Priest:
frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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The Orthodox Community Of Dundee, Angus, Dundee, Scotland
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Diocese:
Scottish Orthodox Community
Priest:
Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Contact Details
Address:
Cross Row, Angus, Dundee, DD1 4HN United Kingdom
Phone:
01382-344157
Url:
http://www.edinburgh-orthodox.org.uk
Priest:
frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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The Orthodox Community Of Saint Andrews, Fife, Fife
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Diocese:
Scottish Orthodox Community
Priest:
Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Contact Details
Address:
The Pends, Fife, Fife, KY16 9RF United Kingdom
Phone:
01334 479 121
Priest:
frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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The Orthodox Community Of Stirling, Stirlingshire, Stirling
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Diocese:
Scottish Orthodox Community
Priest:
Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Contact Details
Address:
Keir Street, Stirlingshire, Stirling, FK9 4AT United Kingdom
Phone:
01786-479875
Priest:
frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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Presentation Of Our Lord Romanian Orthodox Church, Glasgow, Glasgow
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Romanian Orthodox Church, Romanian Patriarchate
Diocese:
Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of Western and Southern Europe
Head Priest:
Metropolitan Joseph
Priest:
Marcel Oprişan
Feast Day:
February 2 - Presentation of Our Lord
Contact Details
Address:
111 Killin Street, Glasgow, Glasgow, G32 9AH United Kingdom
Email:
marceloprisan@yahoo.com
Url:
http://www.bisericaortodoxaromanascotia.org.uk/
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The Orthodox Chapel Of Saint Andrew, Midlothian, Edinburgh
General Details
Type:
Chapel
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Diocese:
Scottish Orthodox Community
Priest:
Archimandrite John Maitland Moir
Contact Details
Address:
2 Meadow Lane, Midlothian, Edinburgh, EH8 9NR United Kingdom
Phone:
0131 336 4492
Url:
http://www.edinburgh-orthodox.org.uk
Priest:
frjohnedin@talktalk.net
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Saint Luke Orthodox Cathedral, Lanarkshire, Glasgow
General Details
Type:
Seminary
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Head Priest:
Archbishop Gregory
Priest:
Father Constantine Papageorgiou
Contact Details
Address:
27 Dundonald Road, Lanarkshire, Glasgow, G12 9LL United Kingdom
Email:
info@stluke.org.uk
Phone:
+44 (0)141-339 7368
Url:
http://www.stluke.org.uk
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The Greek School Of Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Glasgow
General Details
Type:
School
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain
Head Priest:
Mr Nondas Pitticas
Contact Details
Address:
27 Dundonald Road, Lanarkshire, Glasgow, G12 9LL United Kingdom
Email:
greekschoolglasgow@gmail.com
Url:
http://www.greekschoolglasgow.org.uk
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Orthodox Community Of Saint Nicholas, Perthshire, Stirling
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Diocese:
Diocese of Sourozh
Head Priest:
Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh
Priest:
Fr Alexander William
Feast Day:
December 6
Contact Details
Address:
Laighill Loan, Perthshire, Stirling, FK15 OBJ United Kingdom
Phone:
01786-822-750
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Orthodox Parish Church Of The Archangel Gabriel, Glasgow, Aberdeen
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe
Diocese:
UK Parishes
Priest:
Fr Augustine
Feast Day:
March 26 - The Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel
Second Feast Day:
November 7 - Feast of the Archangels and all Angelic Powers
Contact Details
Address:
Wellington Church 77 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow, Aberdeen, G12 8LE United Kingdom
Email:
archangelgabriel@glasgoworthodox.co.uk
Phone:
+447772184841
Url:
https://www.facebook.com/orthodoxcommunityofsaintgabriel/
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Orthodox Community Of Saint Kentigern, Lanarkshire, Glasgow
General Details
Type:
Church
Archdiocese:
Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
Diocese:
Diocese of Sourozh
Head Priest:
Archbishop Elisey of Sourozh
Priest:
Archpriest Gennadiy Andreev
Contact Details
Address:
866 Govan Road, Lanarkshire, Glasgow, G51 3UU United Kingdom
Phone:
0141-435-4889
Url:
http://kentigern.squarespace.com
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