Dear Friends
Many in our secularist world want to see existence as a series of causes and effects: “the world is explainable based on physical reality.” This materialism—the belief that all things are the result of physical interactions between material objects—seems to vary from ambivalence towards religion to outright hostility, from “you do that if it makes you happy,” to “religion is wrong and a force for evil.”
“I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and all things visible and invisible.” We reject any materialism because God has created a world containing both a visible (material) and an invisible (immaterial) reality: both are present within each person, within all Creation. The value in our Faith lies not in that it makes us feel good, not that it gives a sense of meaning or worth, not that it is an entertaining activity for a Sunday morning: our Faith, our Faithfulness, has value because it is True—not “true to me,” as in a poem or a piece of art, but True since Christ is risen.
And the materialistic and atheistic evangelists turn to us and say, “prove God exists.” And we easily fall into the trap of replying “prove He does not exist:” since they may rightly retort “you cannot prove a negative.” Because the instruction, “prove God exists,” presumes that there is such a “thing” in the universe called “God.” God fills all things but is not subject to the limitations of created beings. One could easily state “prove you are conscious,” and we start to recognise there are things inside creation—which we readily believe exist—that cannot be proved let alone proving the existence of God who created all which exists by His Word in His Spirit.
And so we turn to the evidence of the Resurrection, the central belief and reality of the Christian Life. That eye-witnesses would choose suffering and death rather than deny its Truth, that generations have been strengthened by God to continue His mission to
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
— Matthew 28:19–20
That His Church stands firm after all her history, especially the recent centuries of persecution against her, to proclaim fidelity to Him. This evidence does not prove God, Who is beyond the categories of proof, but based on the evidence it would seem to me to take more blind faith to believe the reality of the Resurrection a lie than to accept it as the central act in all human existence.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there is more to our existence than materiality, atoms and particles interacting with each other, but a spirit-filled reality. And the Church presents this reality to us. She is not here to make us feel better nor to give us meaning, she is here that we discover the Way, experience the Truth, live the Life by encountering Christ and being changed by Him: we no longer walk in darkness but have the Sun of Righteousness shining within us. Christ risen from the dead—the central fact of our Faith, the source of our Hope, the reason for our Love—Who brings us to knowledge of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us live this—drawing ever closer to Him through His Body, the Church—that we may be able to share this with the world that all the more may
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
— John 1:14
Come and see!
House blessings
I would be honoured to come and bless your home. We accept that sin has power but we bless our homes so that it no longer has power over us and where we live so that we are alive in Christ.
Please speak to me to arrange a convenient time for me to come.
If your home has never been blessed it needs blessing!
If there has been any sin in your home since it was last blessed it needs blessing!
Catechism & Catechumens
There are several members of our community who have expressed an interest in fully joining the Church, either through Baptism or Chrismation depending on circumstances.
I want you to, I think everyone should be a full member of the Church, but I am also keen not to put pressure on anyone. If you want to join you need to ask.
For me there are two key requirements.
- You are a member of our community. You participate in services as well as the rest of the life of the community.
- You understand The Symbol of Faith (also called the Creed) in the way the Church understands it. Alongside this, you will understand about the Orthodox Church, her history and traditions.
To help with 2., on Saturdays, after Vespers I will start to go through the Symbol of Faith. This will only last up until 7.40 pm (Vespers usually ends around 7.10–7.15 pm).
If you are interested in joining the Church (though there’s no commitment) or are already a member but would like to know more about our Faith, you’d be most welcome to join us.
If you’d like to join the Church, but can’t make it on Saturday evenings, then please speak to me and we can make alternative arrangements for you.
[For those who would like to come to Confession on Saturdays while this programme is happening, Confessions can happen from 7.40 pm: apologies for any inconvenience.]
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.
The Forerunner had been arrested. Herod the tetrarch had taken his brother’s wife, Herodias, for himself and the Prophet had said, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” (Matthew 14:4) So the Lord moves to the north, to Galilee of the Gentiles, to preach the same Gospel as His kinsman, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” He had waited for the Forerunner’s arrest so there would not be a division among the people—one saying “I am for John,” while another “I am for Jesus” (cf. First Corinthians 1:12)—but there is one Gospel of repentance.
And Christ comes to me and says to me, “Repent.” And I want to reply to Him, “Me⁈ Repent for what?” For I am sat in darkness and have become comfortable in my misery, I am sat in darkness and am fearful of the Light, I am sat in darkness and cannot even see the sin which I perpetrate and spread like a disease. The sin which I deposit and leave on me, on my surroundings and on my neighbours—coughing, spluttering, regurgitating—is invisible to me.
Yet Christ comes before me and the Great Light, brighter than the sun, illuminates me and my surroundings. And I see, perhaps for the first time, the effects of my actions on me, on my surroundings and on my neighbours. And it is disgusting. I want to hide, to return to the darkness, to revert to my former state: but if I do that I will do so with the vision I have seen haunting me, oppressing me, ridiculing me; it would be a regression to an existence not a life.
“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” He calls me to repentance but does not ask me to do it alone. The God of Heaven and of Earth, the Creator of the Cosmos, is there beside me, supports me in my turning towards Him, helps me clean up the sin which I have caused. And Christ calls others to do the same, to repent alongside me, that we may be a Church of Hope, a Church of Light, a Church of Repentance.
…
Read this Sermon, Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.
Archive of Past Sermons.
Services this week
Friday 17th January
Discussion on the Prophecy of Isaiah, 8 pm
Online only
Saturday 18th January
Great Vespers, 6.30 pm
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
Sunday 19th January
Matins and Divine Liturgy, 9 am
At 3rd URC Scout Hall, Chandlers Ford
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 3rd URC Scout HQ, Kings Rd, Chandlers Ford SO53 2EY. The Scout hall is behind and to the left of the URC Church. 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 parish?
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]