Dear brothers and sisters,
Having posted service times on WhatsApp and Facebook, the news email is late this week.
Thanks to everyone for such a lovely Sunday Liturgy, following our Saturday celebration in Cheltenham, and the Pre-Sanctified Liturgy in the Cardiff Oratory.
Our Cheltenham Liturgy was blessed with a profound sense of peace and joy, and – as we will not be returning until the Saturday of Pascha – we blessed zhavoronki (sky-larks), the traditional celebratory offerings for the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste, which we will celebrate in the Cardiff Oratory this coming weekend (see below). We will be happy to bless any baked offerings in honour of the holy-martyrs on Sunday, as well as Saturday, and will have the icon of the martyrs at our Sunday Liturgy.
It was good to have a well supported kliros on Sunday, especially for the anaphora for the Liturgy of St Basil. Thanks to all of our singers.
We would be very happy to see more singers on the kliros, and also for more servers in the oltar. It has been lovely to have our younger servers over the last few weeks, and it would be very good to get back to having four or five servers on a Sunday. Perhaps our forthcoming baptisms may help on this front!
St Faith’s is proving to be a bright and cheery place to celebrate, and everyone seems very happy there. However, we know that it is a challenge for some parishioners without their own means of transport, and that public transport is somewhat unpredictable, which perhaps accounts for Sunday’s slightly reduced numbers.
At the time of writing, the rector of Gabalfa-Tremorfa is conferring with other stakeholders in St Philip’s, getting everyone on board and aware of our forthcoming presence, and we look forward to hopefully moving to Tremorfa in the next few weeks. In the meantime, we are very happy to be able to worship in St Faith’s and have the warm support of Elaine and Ruth, the clergy, and Marilyn the church warden.
Next Sunday is the mid-point of Great Lent, being the Sunday of the Adoration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross, and though I know we will have a number of active parishioners away, I do hope that we will see those parishioners who have not been to Liturgy during the Fast. Pascha is fast approaching, and we need to show our readiness for the Lord’s Life-Bestowing Passion and Resurrection.
This week’s services will start with the Akathist to the Passion in Nazareth House at 18:00 in Thursday. On Friday we will celebrate the Liturgy of the Pre-Sanctified Gifts in the Oratory at 14:00, returning on Saturday to celebrate the feast of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste with the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom at 10:30.
Sunday’s Divine Liturgy of St Basil for the Sunday of the Holy Cross will be celebrated in St Faith’s, Llanishen at 11:00.
With regard to Holy Unction / Елеосвящения during Lent we would like to clarify that:
- The rite of Soborovanie / Concelebrated Holy Unction will be celebrated in the cathedral at 14:00 on Saturday 29 March, with the parish clergy concelebrating with the bishop.
- There will not be a bus, as very few parishioners indicated their interest in this option, making it prohibitively expensive. So, we hope that parishioners will organise car-shares to maximise the number of those able to attend.
- Additionally, we will be celebrating the Rite of the Mystery of Holy Unction (Чин последование таинства Елеосвящения) in the parish, hopefully on the Wednesday of Holy Week. However, until we move to St Philip’s and know the availability of the building for Holy Week, we are unable to arrange or announce anything.
- This local celebration will be with the bishop’s special blessing, as the Lenten ‘Soborovanie’ is only usually celebrated by a bishop and six concelebrating priests in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
- The baptised and confessed faithful may receive anointing at ONE of these services, and NOT multiple times.
- Confession is a requisite and not an option, as this is a Holy Mystery. Therefore, children whose age means they are not yet going to confession do not yet partake of this anointing.
It has been a great blessing to have the Psalter group reading the whole Psalter each day during the Fast, and I hope that this brings a greater understanding of the Psalms and their spiritual meaning for the Church, far removed from ancient Israelite society.
As several of our young people have commented, the Old Testament can be extremely challenging for us as Christians and the Church of the New Israel, but beyond the literal imagery of war and violence, the Psalms now teach us the importance of spiritual warfare, bear great moral truths, call us to prayer, admonish us to repent and call us to worship the Lord, falling down before His greatness, glory and majesty, as well as bearing prophetic images of the Saviour, His saving Passion, Resurrection and Ascension.
For those for whom this reading has been a beginning, I very much hope that the Psalter will continue to be a valuable resource in their spiritual lives after the Fast.
May we ask your prayers for the sick / unwell in our community and among the friends and families of our faithful, as well as those with more long term health issues: Liudmila, Brigid, Maria, Valery, Galina, Irina, and Marina.
As we have been informed of developments regarding the former Serbian Church property in Ely, we ask your prayers as we consider its possibilities and viability as a permanent ROCOR base in the city. We especially ask your prayers to St Nikolaj (Velimirović). It was on his feast, yesterday, that we received news via London.
Hierarch of Christ, Nikolaj, pray to God for us!
Troparion, Tone 8: O golden-tongued preacher proclaiming the risen Christ, / everlasting guide of the cross-bearing Serbian people, / resounding harp of the Holy Spirit, and dear to monastics who rejoice in thee, / pride and boast of the priesthood, teacher of repentance, master for all nations, / guide of those in the army of Christ as they pray to God, / Holy Nikolaj teacher in America and pride of the Serbian people, / with all the saints, implore the only Lover of mankind / to grant us peace and joy in his heavenly kingdom!
Asking your forgiveness, for Christ’s sake.
May God bless you.
Hieromonk Mark
