Dear Friends
Christ is risen!
I go to Church, I receive communion, I go to confession, I pray, I read the Scriptures, I give to charity—I do everything I can think of to be a Christian. And still there is something lacking. Despite my efforts I have failed to appreciate that our Faith is not about God and me alone. To be a Christian requires that I live in a community.
And this is something difficult, something challenging, something requiring effort. It is easy to have a sanitised Christianity, a safe Christianity, where I keep it just to God and to me. Other people can make things messy, we can fall out and create tensions, they can let us down, they can make us feel inferior, they can hurt us. I can feel safe in my own individual religion, letting in others is dangerous.
so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
Romans 12:5
It would not make sense if, as the Apostle states, we are one body in Christ together, yet the only thing we share together is at the Chalice. So St Paul continues,
Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another;
Romans 12:10–13
not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;
distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
An ancient Christian saying says, “one Christian is no Christian.” We need each other—and this is risky. Yet if we are to be true followers of Christ we must risk this because we cannot remain alone, God and me at the expense of all others.
So to be a Christian we must all live as a community. We must share with each other, rejoice and lament with each other, work with each other, support each other, encourage each other—pray with, and for, and on behalf of, each other.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God is calling us each to a deeper relationship with him through our fellowship with each other. Let us take up this calling more fully so that it is no long God and me but is transformed into God and us.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
Hebrews 10:23–25
And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
We serve a meal following the Liturgy on Sundays. All are welcome.
Do you, or someone you know, want to join our mailing list and receive our weekly email? Then let me know.
Sermon
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
Christ is risen!
I know as an Orthodox Christian I am right. I am on the winning side, the right path. And from my vantage point, looking down upon all others, I can see and point out their errors, I can shout the truth at them. The Orthodox Faith is the true Faith, and I may receive glory from it.
We hear today how Christ has come into contact with the Samaritan Woman, and he acts nothing like how I do. He sits calmly and addresses her with dignity—showing her neither the contempt nor the disdain which I use when I aggressively argue at my neighbour. “You are wrong and I am right,” I would start, yet the Lord opens with a simple request, “Give me a drink.” And where I would use a gap in the conversation to explain my greatness, a clever point I have stolen from another, the Lord listens—really listens—to the woman and points to her the deeper understanding, the spiritual understanding, the life-giving understanding.
And I, if I am to be a true servant of the Lord, must learn to do the same. For our Faith is not about being right but rather about bringing others into a greater relationship with the Lord. Even if I speak true words, if I fail to speak the Truth in love (cf. Ephesians 4:15), I bring condemnation upon myself.
…
Read last Sunday’s Sermon, I am right.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 19th May
Discussion on the Book of Numbers, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 20th May
Vespers, 6.30 pm
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Sunday 21th May
Matins & Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At St Francis’ Hall, Eastleigh
Online session is via Google Meet: please get in contact for the details.
Please join us: all are welcome, come and see.
Attending Church
We meet at St Francis’ Hall, Nightingale Avenue, Eastleigh, SO50 9JA. Come and See.
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 community?
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 the risen Christ
Fr Alexander
[email protected]