Dear brothers and sisters – Christ is Risen! Христос воскресе!

Thanks to all who contributed to the weekend’s joyful services, keeping the triumph and joy of Pascha alive.

Saturday saw a joyful Thomas Saturday in Cheltenham, with the Liturgy celebrated according to the joyful Paschal order of Bright Week.

The service ended with the breaking of the artos, which has now been cut into slices for distribution to parishioners, who should cut it into small portions for drying, to eat on Sundays and festive days when it’s not possible to attend Liturgy – as a blessing and connection with Pascha, and a symbol of the risen Lord in the midst of his disciples.

With various parishioners away or unwell, Sunday saw a quiet celebration in St Philip’s, where we are slowly settling in and getting used to the building.

It was a joy to have an extra teenage server join Stefan in the altar, and we would like to see some of the gentlemen the parish join the boys on Sundays, as well as encouraging parishioners to consider joining our choir.

Masha raised the possibility the regent from the parish in Chipping Sodbury giving some day-courses in Church singing, including learning the traditional Kievan melodies which were a firm foundation of parish singing in the Russian Orthodox Church before the revolution. I very much hope that we may support this, and take advantage of the vast expertise and knowledge available to us.

On coming Sundays Father Mark and I would greatly appreciate more help with set-up at 08:30 to ensure a timely start for the Hours, and especially for confessions.

With the vestry being the only private space, I am unable to commence confessions until everything needed has been removed, and I do not wish to miss the beginning of Liturgy every week.

Please note that if the vestry doors are closed, confessions are being heard, so do NOT enter. If something is needed from the vestry, please take what is needed between the confessions.

After celebrating the joy of Bright Week and its special orders of service, the Sunday of Thomas sees the resumption of the commemorations of the departed with the chanting of panakhida and litia services. However, these still retain a distinctly Paschal form, resounding with the hymns of Pascha as we celebrate Radonitsa, centred on the Paschal Canon interspersed with the usual litanies for the departed.

Having chanted a litia at the end of Liturgy, I have brought the commemoration lists away with me and will celebrate memorial services throughout the week: at our end-of-the-month gather in Bradford-on-Avon this evening; in Glastonbury with Father Luke, tomorrow; in Swansea with Father Marks and matushka on Wednesday; then in Cardiff on Thursday and Friday, before my monthly Saturday visit to Lazarica.

Please post, message or email any names for commemoration.

Anyone wishing to pray a reader’s Radonitsa. service at home will find a full service on our parish web page, though the Paschal Canon is often reduced to simply praying the Irmos.

We will celebrate a panikhida in Nazareth House at 18:00 on Thursday, at noon in the Oratory on Friday.

If anyone would like to join me for Liturgy in Lazarica on Saturday, the Hours commence at 09:00.

Further to Father Mark’s words before communion, at Liturgy, we should remember that once the Holy Gifts have been brought out, we do not venerate icons. Icons should be venerated before lining up. Once the Holy Gifts have been brought out, Christ is in our midst, and all honour is for His Presence alone.

A reminder, as announced by Fr Mark, that I will be on Walsingham duty in the week commencing 12th May, and though I will be away on Sunday 18th, Fr Luke will assist Fr Mark and hear confessions.

May God bless you.

In Christ – Hieromonk Mark

Dear brothers and sisters, Христос воскресе!

The last week or so has been a rollercoaster for us, having only received the keys for St Philip’s a little over a week ago, and not having our first service until Palm Sunday, with the unnerving bareness and utility of the building as a literally stark challenge for us.

Having started the journey to St Philip’s on 21 January, it has been a long haul, and we are now only just beginning as we see how we can use the building, and can make it spiritually conducive to Orthodox worship. It will be a challenge, but the evolution of our worshipping space in a single week shows us that there is much we can do. As we have said, all ideas are welcome, and some parishioners have already come up with ways to create an Orthodox environment.

Holy Week and Pascha proved to be a concrete sign of what the community can achieve when we all work together, and the blessing of such beautiful services are a testimony to our parishioners’ dedication to serving the Lord and labouring for his local flock.

From Holy Wednesday’s Unction service to the Agape services of Pascha, it was a great joy to gather, with a stream of new people from various traditional Orthodox homelands. It was wonderful to welcome them and chat, and a comfort to know that even in the first week of relocation people were able to find us.

The clergy are extremely grateful for the labours of those who chanted, read, served, provided and arranged flowers, took photographs, cleaned and tidied, moved furniture and showed such kindness and care to clergy, brothers and sisters of the parish and visitors. And… personally, I am extremely grateful to Father Mark the Younger and Father Hierodeacon Avraamy, whose contributions to Holy Week and Pascha, and indeed every celebration, make such a difference and make my own ministrations so much easier. Thank you, Fathers.

One of the greatest joys of this year’s celebration was the flowers, whether the miniature floral halo for the Lord’s icon on the plashchanitsa, the cental stands, the vases of scented blooms or the adornments for the icons. The great island of flowers around the plashchanitsa and the Resurrection icon, was a wonderful offering to the Lord, and it was wonderful to smell the scent of the flowers as well as that of beeswax and incense in our beautiful services.

On the morning of Pascha, we repeated last year’s practice of chanting the Paschal Hours, and communing those were unable to come during the night between this first service and vespers, after which our sisters made tea and coffee to enjoy with kulich.

Having had a correspondence and telephone-call day, yesterday, sending greetings and catching up with people, I remain in Cardiff and will celebrate a 15:00 service in the Oratory tomorrow – Wednesday – chanting the Paschal Hours and moleben, and on Thursday, vespers for the feast of the Life-Giving Spring will be celebrated at 15:00, I will hear confessions after our services. 

I will head to Nazareth House, for 18:00 on Thursday, whwere will will chant the canon to the Mother of God, the Life-Giving Spring, and ask that if anyone would like confession before the service to contact me by tomorrow evening, otherwise I will arrive in time to unlock the church at 18:00. 

The Lesser-Blessing of Waters for the feast of the Life-Giving Spring will be performed in the Oratory Church at noon on Friday, and will also be performed for our Wessex parishioners in Jessica Anne’s home on Monday.

This coming Saturday 26 April, we will have the joy of celebrating the Saturday of Thomas in Cheltenham, with the breaking and distribution of the loaves of Thomas Bread (artos), blessed on the night of Pascha, with artos being brought back to Cardiff for distribution on Sunday.

If we had our own temple, the artos would stand on a table before the open Holy Doors of the ikonostas, and would be censed in every service and carried in a daily procession – “participating” in every service of Bright Week, as a sign of the Lord’s presence in the midst of the disciples.

At the end of Bright Week, these blessed loaves are broken and divided, to be kept as a Paschal blessing, akin to Great Holy Water at Theophany. 

Having been cut up into small pieces and dried, artos may be prayerfully consumed on Sundays and feasts when we are unable to be in church to commune.

Our Cheltenham Hours and Liturgy will commence at 10:00, and we look forward to a shared Paschal meal after our service. 

The address is Prestbury United Reformed Church, Deep Street, Cheltenham Gloucestershire, GL52 3AW.

It would be a great joy to welcome Cardiff parishioners to our little mission within sight of the Cotswold Hills.

Next Sunday, Antipascha, or “Thomas Sunday” will see the Octave of the Resurrection, and as the name suggests, we will commemorate the appearance of the Lord to the disciples and His encounter with Thomas, whose hands encounter the reality of the physicality of the Risen Saviour. The variables may be found at orthodoxaustin:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DQwxP9AkuX0RBIpQYxS3kyx2VULiiEg7/view

I will travel to Wessex on Sunday afternoon, where a memorial service for Radonitsa will be chanted on Monday evening. Having made a Somerset pastoral visit on Tuesday, I will return to Cardiff on Wednesday and we will offer a Radonitsa panikhida in Nazareth House on Thursday evening (1 May), so please submit commemoration lists for commemoration throughout the week, as well as at the Serbian Orthodox on Saturday, when I will go to Lazarica for the Liturgy on Saturday 3 May, to greet our Birmingham friends with the Resurrection and to celebrate a Paschal Liturgy with Father Nenad. It would be lovely if some of our Cardiff parishioners were able to make a pilgrimage to Bournville that day.

In the meantime, as suggested on WhatsApp, I encourage everyone to try to chant the Paschal canon every day in this glorious season.

May God bless you!

Christ is Risen!

Hieromonk Mark

Dear brothers and sisters,

How wonderful it has been to be blessed with such a buoyant and joyful festive weekend, showing us the glory, divine authority and power of the Saviour before His voluntary passion.

Friday saw us mark the last day of Great Lent with the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts in the Oratory Church, in the very place where we had celebrated the first day of the Fast, which seems to have passed at an unbelievable pace, and the verses on Lord I have cried reminded us that in our service we were beginning the feast of the raising of Lazarus – a day very special to some of us, especially with the wonderful paraliturgical hymn to which we look forward, and which I share in full!

“Rejoice, rejoice, O Bethany! On this day God came to thee, God came to thee; and in Him the dead are made alive, as is right for He is the Life! He is the Life! He is the Life! And in Him the dead are made alive, as is right for He is the Life!

When Martha went to receive Him, grieving loudly with bitter tears, bitter tears, she poured out the sorrow of her heart to Him, with great sadness, wailing her lament. Wailing her lament, wailing her lament. She poured out the sorrow of her heart to Him, with great sadness, wailing her lament.

She at once cried out unto Him, “My most compassionate Lord! My Lord! At the great loss of my brother Lazarus my heart is broken, help me! Help me! Help me! At the great loss of my brother Lazarus my heart is broken, help me!

Jesus said to her, “Cease thy weeping, cease thy grieving and sad lament, sad lament; for thy brother, My most beloved friend Lazarus, very soon will live again! He will live again! He will live again! For thy brother, My most beloved friend Lazarus, very soon will live again!”

Then He, the faithful Redeemer, made His way unto the tomb, unto the tomb, where He cried unto him who was buried four days, calling him forth, saying, “Lazarus, arise! Lazarus, arise! Lazarus, arise!” Where He cried unto him who was buried four days, calling him forth, saying, “Lazarus, arise!

Come with haste, ye two sisters, and behold a wondrous thing, wondrous thing, for thy brother from the tomb has returned to life. To the beloved Redeemer now give thanks! Now give thanks! Now give thanks! For thy brother from the tomb has returned to life. To the beloved Redeemer now give thanks!

To Thee, O Lord of creation, we kneel down in reverence profound, reverence profound; for all we who are dead in sin; in Thee, O Jesus, are made alive! We are made alive! We are made alive! For all we who are dead in sin; in Thee, O Jesus, are made alive!

Rejoice, rejoice, O Bethany! On this day God came to thee, God came to thee; and in Him the dead are made alive, as is right for He is the Life! He is the Life! He is the Life! And in Him the dead are made alive, as is right for He is the Life!”

In our joyful celebration of the raising of Lazarus in Warminster, and our first service for the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem in Tremorfa, we have celebrated the Divine Sovereignty of the Lord, the Creator and Life-Giver, before His self-emptying and self-effacing love is embodied in His suffering and death, and before the Life-Giving Resurrection to which Lazarus’s own arising points.

Our Warminster Liturgy saw Cardiff parishioners join their brothers and sisters in Wessex, and we were glad to congratulate Lazarus on what we have come to treat as has nameday, as well as George on his baptismal anniversary, singing many years for them, as well as for Isaiah and Seraphim, who also celebrated their baptismal anniversaries.

Arriving in Tremorfa on Palm Sunday was far from ideal, but it was, nevertheless, a blessing to celebrate our entrance to St Philip’s on the feast of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem.

It was good that so many people confessed and communed on Palm Sunday, and lovely to be able to gather the children before the icons at the end of Liturgy and talk about the joy of the raising of Lazarus, the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem, and how the events of the coming week will not only show His love for us, but will all be done to open heaven to God’s children, through the Saviour’s own glorious resurrection.

The layout of St Philip’s brought us all closer together and allowed for a more intimate celebration of the Liturgy, and though rather bare, it remains a setting in which to create an Orthodox place of prayer and worship, hence our encouraging everyone to share ideas of ways to do this.

This evening saw the mood of the Church change as we entered the solemnity of Holy Week, with the bringing out of the icon of Christ, the Bridegroom, arrayed in the purple robe of mockery and humiliation for our salvation and heavenly-calling, as we chanted in the praises,

As the Lord went to His voluntary Passion, He said to His apostles on the way: “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed, as it is written of Him.” Come, then, and let us also journey with Him, purified in mind; let us be crucified with Him and die for His sake to the pleasures of this life, that we may also live with Him and hear Him say:  “No longer do I ascend to the earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but I ascend to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God; and I shall raise you up to the Jerusalem on High in the Kingdom of heaven.”

Bride-Groom Matins will also be chanted in Father Luke’s chapel at 19:00 tonight and tomorrow.

We will celebrate the Lord’s Passion and resurrection in St Philip’s, and for convenience will repeat our schedule.

• Wednesday 16/04/25 at 18:30 – The Service of the Oil (Holy Unction) / ПоследованиеСвятаго Елея. Those who are to be anointed with Holy Unction should be of confessing age and have made a recent confession. Please be aware that we are only to be anointed once a year.
• Thursday 17/04/25 – Holy Thursday at 18:30 – Matins : The Service of the Twelve Passion Gospels / Утреня 12 чтений из Св Евангелия
• Friday 18/04/25 – Holy Friday at 15:00 – Vespers (the taking out of the Shroud) / Вечерня (вынос Плащаницы). 18:30 – Matins (the burial rite) / Утреня (чин погребения).
• Saturday 19/04/25 Pascha Night (Saturday into Sunday) 23:30 – Midnight Office, Matins, Paschal Liturgy / Полунощница, Утреня, Божественная Литургия. Following Liturgy we will bless Paschal eggs and food.
• Sunday 20/04/25 – Pascha – NO LITURGY at 09:00, but the Paschal Hours with Holy Communion for parishioners who cannot attend the night service. In a change of schedule. Paschal Agape Vespers will now be chanted in St Philip’s, at 11:00. As I will already be communing parishioners after the Paschal Hours, we will take the opportunity to sit down for a cup of tea and something to eat after the Hours, and then chant vespers before we pack our things away.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the additional collection for the Holy Land. Our Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russian has had a special place in the Holy Land since the revolution, continuing the legacy of the Imperial period. Despite the forced-seizure of some of the key holy places by the then separate Moscow Patriarchate in the 1990’s, our clergy and monastics still maintain a prayerful presence at places central to the events of our celebrations this week. Every penny will make a difference, not only for the holy places, but also for the suffering and marginalised local Christians who are supported by our presence. If anyone else wishes to contribute, please pass offerings to Father Mark the Younger. May God bless you all!

Asking your forgiveness for Christ’s sake.

May God bless you in this solemn week.

Hieromonk Mark

Dear brothers and sisters,

Here we are at the end of another week of peripatetic parish life, spread between Cathays, Splott and Llanishen, and hoping that tomorrow will bring some clarity regarding Holy Week, Pascha, and St Philip’s.

Additional to our Cardiff wanderings, yesterday saw seventeen of us participate in the rite of Holy Unction in the cathedral, with six priests concelebrating with our bishop in the blessing of oil and anointing the faithful – of which there were hundreds of people, many of them young. 

As Father Mark the Younger enthused at the end of today’s Liturgy, it was a wonderful image of the Church: young and old, cradle Orthodox and convert, those on their feet and those helped by a friend or support worker in their additional needs, reminding us that disabilities are not a limitation on God’s grace and power. 

The fact that people with various physical and cognitive challenges were part of our celebration was a visible sign of the loving and supportive character of our ROCOR community in our God-preserved diocese.

We will celebrate Holy Unction according to the parish rite in Cardiff during Holy Week, so that those unable to attend in London may partake of this Holy Mystery.

Perhaps Mothering Sunday dented our congregation a little today, plus the absence of some of those who had a long day in London yesterday, but it was lovely to return to St Faith’s on the Sunday of St John of the Ladder and the feast of St Patrick, Apostle of Ireland.

It was good that parishioners experienced the rite of the blessing of vestments after the Hours, and I was very pleased to be able to wear the vestments that Fr Mark blessed.

We will return to St Faith’s to celebrate the Sunday of St Mary of Egypt, next weekend, though we hope that we will then be able to be in St Philip’s for Palm Sunday.

As already posted on WhatsApp, due to our present circumstances, there will be no Cardiff evening service for the Great Canon next Wednesday. However, the Great Canon will be chanted in Llanelli at 19:00, and it would be lovely to welcome Cardiff parishioners.

In Cardiff, we will chant the entire Great Canon and read the life of St Mary of Egypt in the Oratory Church at 14:00 on Thursday afternoon (St Mary’s Standing / Мариино стояние). 

There will also be the usual early evening service in Nazareth House at 18:00.

Confessions will be heard before the Thursday afternoon service and after the evening service.

The Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts will be celebrated at 14:00 in the Oratory Church on Friday afternoon, and I will be available to hear confessions before and after the service.

It is important that all who are able to make their confessions during the week avail themselves of the opportunity to ease the situation on Sunday. We will start ending confessions during the hours on the alternate Sundays on which I should be the main celebrant, as I continually miss the first part of the Liturgy.

Saturday is the Laudation of the Mother of God, and some of parishioners will get enjoying a pilgrimage and walk around Oldbury on Severn – honouring St Arilda. I will be heading to Lazarica in Bournville, and would be very happy to be joined by any parishioners. The service begins at 09:00.

Address:  92 Griffins Brook Lane, Bournville, Birmingham B30 1QG.

Your prayers are requested for Lyudmila (sick); Piran, Svetlana, Stefan (travelling); and for our students. Prayers are also asked for Nicholas, Daniel, Nikolaos and his family. 

We ask your prayers for the repose of the soul of matushka’s newly-departed cousin, Aleksey, and for his elderly mother Raisa, and for all of the family at this sorrowful time. Memory Eternal! Lord, have mercy!

Asking your forgiveness for Christ’s sake.

May God bless you.

Hieromonk Mark

Dear brothers and sisters,

Sunday’s celebration of the Adoration of the Life-Giving Cross came at the end of a blessed four days of services with three different Liturgies: the Liturgy of St Gregory the Dialogist on Friday; of St John Chrysostom on Saturday; and of St Basil on Sunday.

It has been a joy to celebrate the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste and the Sunday of the Cross in conjunction, with the life and martyrdom of the Holy Great Martyrs showing us the Cross bearing fruit in the life of the Church, calling us to selflessness and attachment to the things of heaven, rather than the transitory things of the earth. “Rejoice, and be exceedingly glad; for great is your reward IN HEAVEN!”

The Liturgies of the past few days have been a blessing and a joy, with our relatively quiet celebration in the Oratory Church, ending with the blessing of larks, and our Llanishen Cross-celebration ending with the blessing of more larks, and of Serbian Mladenci.

It has been good to see the faithful enjoy time together in fellowship and conversation over shared refreshments and meals, with the shared-table a continuation of the Liturgy!

Thanks to all who contributed to our celebrations, particularly our singers and bakers, our young brothers who were such a great help moving furniture, and our “myrrh-bearing” women who quietly and devotedly look after our clergy do well and generously!

Thanks to matushka for decorating the frame for the Godenovo Cross.

Thanks also to the Oratorian Fathers for their ongoing support, especially in the hiatus in our move to Tremorfa.

In the week ahead we will have our usual Thursday akathist in Nazareth House at 18:00 on Thursday, and devotions before the Cross in the Oratory at 14:00 on Friday. 

I will be available for confessions before and after services on those days.

There will be no Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified in Cardiff this week, though there will be one in Llanelli at 18:30 on Wednesday.

Soborovanie / Hierarchical Holy Unction will be celebrated in the cathedral at 14:00 on Saturday, and we hope to have a handful of parishioners in attendance. Those being anointed should prepare with confession, and those unable to make the journey will have the opportunity to be anointed at a local celebration of the Service of the Oil during Holy Week.

Sunday will see us return to St Faith’s for 11 o’clock Liturgy and trapéza.

In your prayers we ask you to remember Liudmila amongst the sick; Margarita, Piran and Stefan on their the travels; our students with their demanding academic work; and our catechumens – Chris, Adam, Serwaa and Lloyd.

Wishing you a renewed and blessed struggle for the second half of the Great Fast, through the power of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross and through the prayers of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste.

Parishioners seeking English language spiritual reading are encouraged to look at the soul-profiting, traditional books sold by the St Edward Brotherhood (also a source of good quality incense and candles): 

https://shop.saintedwardbrotherhood.org/collections/books

May God bless you!

Asking your forgiveness for Christ’s sake.

Hieromonk Mark