In this email
Message from Fr Alexander — Where is your home?
Anniversary of Enthronement
News …
Organising the Parish
Wednesdays at 7 pm on Zoom
WhatsApp Group
Twitter Feed
Names for prayer
Monastery of St John the Baptist talks
Archimandrite Philip: Ten at Ten
Lockdown Response
Live stream information
Resources
Saints and Feasts — 25th February–4th March
Offer of help
Dear Friends
We like, when we meet a new person, to find out where they live. It is natural to ask where someone lives so that we can feel that we are more connected. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading we hear of two places to live.
The Lord said this parable: “There was a man who had two sons; and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that falls to me.’ And he divided his living between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took his journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in loose living. And when he had spent everything, a great famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would gladly have filled his belly with the pods that the swine ate; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your hired servants.’ And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and make merry; for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to make merry. Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe and sound.’ But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, but he answered his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!’ And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. It was fitting to make merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.'”
— Luke 15:11–32
The prodigal lives in two different places, down in the pigsty or, rising up, in his Father’s House. The middle of the parable finds him in the pigsty—lamenting his lost fortune but still caught up by his sin. He was sorrowful but only of his condition, of his predicament.
We, too, are in the pigsty. And here we may wallow in our own self-pity. I am here and I am miserable, I can do nothing to get myself out of this filth, I will live with the pigs. Whole cultures have arisen in our world trying to make the pigsty in which we find ourselves liveable: self-help books promising health, wealth and happiness fill the shops, magazines offering diet and lifestyle advice stacked up on shelves, television programmes promise us the good life. But these all miss the point: we are stuck in a pigsty.
The Prodigal Son in this Gospel reading did not cultivate his life in the pigsty forever. “But when he came to himself,” (verse 17) he realised that the pigsty in which he was dwelling was not his home. We Christians know something which the self-help industry does not, we know that our life in the world—in the pigsty—is not our home. We may rise from the filth where we reside and return to the Father’s House.
My dear brothers and sisters, rise up from the pigsty and return to the Father’s House: he is on the lookout for your return. Today—now!—return to our heavenly Father’s embrace; you are always welcome, always at your true home.
Anniversary of Enthronement
It was a great joy that our bishop, Metropolitan Silouan, was able to join us this week for the Paraklesis and talk with us afterwards. Saturday 27th February marks 5 years since he was formally enthroned as our bishop. Many years, Master!
There follows a poem I wrote at the time.
Our Father and Master
We gathered and we waited for him
In expectation and joy,
With fear and apprehension,
Our Father and Master
to greet us.
Known to us and yet a stranger
Sojourner newly come,
To oversee our Church – his mission,
Our Father and Master,
to lead us.
Enthroned and staff bestowed
Amid the splendour of Byzantine Court,
Sayidna invokes the divine Trinity,
Our Father and Master,
to bless us.
“The grace of the Holy Spirit abiding in us
unites us and sanctifies our work,” he promises,
Offering us nothing save Christ our Lord,
Our Father and Master,
to guide us.
“O Lord, O Lord, look down from heaven and behold,
and visit this vine” – his Church, his people,
And receive too our prayers for him,
Our Father and Master,
to preserve us.
News
Organising the Parish
We are putting together a constitution for our new parish. This should, ultimately, allow us to open a bank account and allow us to make dealings with potential landlords and take out the insurance necessary to open a community.
We will need to organise a meeting, perhaps in our present situation this will be online, where we can formally come into being. Then we can start the process of getting a bank facility.
Keep a look out for news on this: we will need you. And please pray!
Wednesdays at 7 pm on Zoom
We are saying together the Paraklesis—the Canon written in honour of the Mother of God—asking her prayers before the Lord that the Coronavirus Pandemic may be lifted from our world. Would you like to join us?
Get in touch and I will send you the details: [email protected].
WhatsApp Group
A new WhatsApp group has been created for the Twelve Apostles community: would you like to be a part of this? Let me know!
Twitter Feed
I have also created a new Twitter account for the community: do follow us @12ApostlesHants.
Names for prayer
If you have not yet done so, please do send me a list of those whom you would like me to pray for at the Liturgy. Please separate them out into four groups:
Living who are Orthodox
Living who are not Orthodox
Departed who are Orthodox
Departed who are not Orthodox
Just their Christian (first) names are needed. Please include your own names at the top of the list.
Monastery of St John the Baptist talks
Each Sunday evening, 5.30–7pm, the Monastery in Essex, founded by St Sophrony, produces a talk on Zoom. Up until now these have been given either by Archimandrite* Peter, the abbot, or by Archimandrite Zacharias. You need to register for these in advance.
If you would be interested in joining the talks, please get in contact and I can send you the registration details. They are of great benefit.
[* Archimandrite is a title for a senior priest who is celibate.]
Archimandrite Philip: Ten at Ten
Also online, Archimandrite Philip of the monastery of our Archdiocese in Shropshire produces a Bible-study every weekday at 10 am from his YouTube channel—if you cannot watch live they are archived. Although called Ten at Ten, its length is somewhat a changeable feast.
You can reach his YouTube channel by clicking here or by searching “Archimandrite Philip” on YouTube.
Lockdown Response
We are in lockdown and our Metropolitan has given a clear directive that churches which cannot maintain enough social distancing in the Archdiocese are to be closed until mid-March. Our Archdiocese, without judging what others are doing, has taken the position that we do not want any transmission to take place in our churches and we want to keep everyone safe.
This is not what any Church wants to do: all want to welcome people for worship; yet our worship is not the totality of what we do as Christians and now is an opportunity to make even more use of other aspects of our Faith. Pray. Really pray. Make prayer a regular part of your life. Study. Read the Scriptures, read what the Fathers say about the Scriptures. Give. Give to the poor and needy. Give you time to a friends: call them and say hello.
I am here for you: get in contact if you would like help and support. Together, by the grace of God, we can emerge with a stronger Faith.
Live stream
The Monastery of Saints Antony and Cuthbert, Shropshire, is live-streaming its services for all who are unable to go to their own churches. These are over YouTube and can be accessed here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfWMaefJYqFEZkYiK2WmeEw
Usually Vespers on Saturday evenings at 5 pm and Matins and Liturgy on Sunday mornings from 7.30 am.
Resources
Have a look at our website — orthodoxeastleigh.uk
If you click on the “Blog” link, or directly here, you will see all past emails as well as sermons etc.
Our Facebook Page, facebook.com/orthodoxeastleigh, too, has daily additions during the week as well as on feast days. Please do like and share our page and content so we may reach a wider group of people.
Our community has a Twitter handle, @12ApostlesHants.
Do you receive the weekly (on Fridays) text message? If not, then let me know.
Saints and Feasts
Thursday 25th February — St Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople. St Ethelbert, High King of Kent (616).
Friday 26th —St Porphyrios the Confessor. St Photini, the Samaritan Woman.
Saturday 27th — St Procopios the Confessor. St Raphael, Bishop of Brooklyn (1915).
Sunday 28th — Sunday of the Prodigal Son. St John Cassian the Confessor (435). St Oswald, Archbishop of York (992).
Monday 1st March — St David, Archbishop of Wales (6th). St Swithbert the Elder of Northumbria, Bishop of the Frisians (713).
Tuesday 2nd — St Hesychius the Martyr. St Nicholas Planas of Athens (1932). St Chad of Litchfield (672).
Wednesday 3rd — Saints Eutropius, Cleanicus and Basiliscus the Martyrs. St Theodoretos the Holy Martyr of Antioch. St Nonnita, mother of St David (6th).
Thursday 4th — St Gerasimus of the Jordan.
Can I help you?
I am here for you, you need only ask. Is there a way I can support your life of faith? Get in touch.
Can you help the mission?
Yes, absolutely. Offer yourselves to the Lord: pray! Make available to him all your talents and ask him how he would like you to use them — listen for his reply.
Your prayers!
With love in Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]