Dear brothers and sisters.
Greetings for the feast of St Phanourios the Newly-Revealed, of Rhodes!
As the children settle into new classes and a new term, and our students prepare to for the new academic year, we enter the last week of the Church year, with the beheading of the Forerunner on Wednesday being its last greater feast.
This year a Cheltenham Liturgy will mark the Church New Year, though we will celebrate vespers for the eve in the Oratory Church on Friday afternoon, as listed below.
Our last Cardiff Liturgy of the Church year, was a busy and well attended one, with parishioners having returned from their travels, a good complement of singers on the kliros, and many people confessing and communing.
This has been an interesting summer of sustained numbers, and quite different to past years, when congregations were much reduced during the summer months.
We are grateful to Father Mark “the Younger” for a homily, from which I’m sure the children (and not so young) benefited and gained a fundamental understanding of forgiveness and letting go of grudges and ill-feeling. Thank you, Father!
At the end of Liturgy, it was good to be able to celebrate a litia for the soul of Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose) of Platina – of thrice-blessed memory – especially, given his place in the bringing of so many of us to REAL Orthodoxy, and exposing the modernist, revisionist, liberal imitations of Faith. Many of our British parishioners, as well as Hierodeacon Avraamy and I, and countless people in the Balkans and Eastern Europe have been taught, shaped and greatly influenced by the life, labours and writings of Father Seraphim, and await – with hope – the day when he will be officially numbered among the choir of the saints. Memory Eternal!
After José’s baptism, and his and Germaine’s wedding a week and a half ago, in the cathedral, we were very happy to have them with us before life on the Spain-Portugal border, with their departure mirrored by Lazarus, Liz and Piran moving to Wales at the end of the week. We hold them all in our prayers, as well as the parishioners who will be travelling in the next few weeks: Peter, Petr, Joanna, Masha, Natalia, as well as Allan and Olga currently on their Italian travels.
This remainder of the month is a very busy one, hence my taking a short break last week. As well as the mission Liturgies, and cathedral altar-feast, the return of our students and young people who have been away will bring added busyness to parish life, and I hope that as well as services listed below, there will be more parish activities, including the book-club, face-to-face catechesis, and time spent developing church reading and chanting – as I would very much like to develop men’s chant, whether Slavic or Byzantine within the parish.
We have a number of people who are very happy to read in church, and who wish to learn more about liturgics and the practices of reading in our tradition. This also opens the possibility of confident and competent reader services across the wide geographical breadth of the parish, and would be a good thing to do in Advent.
I would be very happy for us to mirror the Wessex end-of-month gathering for occasional home services in Cardiff, knowing that in the past parishioners have raised the idea of compline with a canon or akathist and spiritual talks in parish homes. This was how the Llanelli parish started, with a weekly home service. Such occasions could be used for the monthly lesser blessing of Holy Water, with a house blessing at the same time. Please share any ideas with the clergy.
As it is so busy, there will be no Saturday pilgrimage this month, and our next one will be to Lazarica in Birmingham to honour the Mother of God and venerate her Trojeručica-Hilandarska icon on Saturday 26 October.
Please see the September dates below.
Asking your forgiveness for Christ’s sake.
Hieromonk Mark
Tuesday 10 September: Great Vespers for the Eve of the Beheading of the Forerunner – The Oratory Church (Swinton Street, Cardiff CF24 2NT) at 15:00.
Thursday 12 September: Moleben to Venerable Alexander of Svir (1533) – The Oratory Church at 15:00. Confessions after the service.
Friday 13 September: Vespers for the New Church-Year – The Oratory Church at 15:00. Confessions after the service.
Saturday 14 September: Hours and Liturgy for the New Church Year – Prestbury United Reformed Church, Cheltenham, at 10:30. Confessions before the service.
Sunday 15 September: Hours and Liturgy – St Johns, Canton, at 11:00. Confessions before the service from 10:15.
Tuesday 17 September: Moleben to the Holy Passion-Bearer King Edward the Martyr – The Oratory Church at 15:00.
Thursday 19 September: Vespers for the commemoration of the Holy Great-Martyr Eustathius and his companions -The Oratory Church at 15:00.
Saturday 21 September: Nativity of the Mother of God: Hierarchical Liturgy in the London Cathedral at 09:00.
Sunday 22 September: Hours and Liturgy – St Johns, Canton, at 11:00. Confessions before the service from 10:15.
Monday 23 September: Wessex evening service and end of month meet up. Details from Porphyrios.
Tuesday 24 September: Vespers for the feast of St Sergius of Radonezh. The Oratory Church at 15:00.
Thursday 26 September: Great Vespers for the Exultation of the Cross – The Oratory Church at 15:00. Confessions after the service.
Friday 29 September: Hours and Liturgy for the Exultation of the Cross – The Oratory Church at 10:30. Confessions before the service.
Saturday 28 September: Hours and Liturgy for the After-feast of the Exultation of the Cross – Chapel of St Lawrence, Warminster, at 10:30. Confessions before the service.
Sunday 29 September: Hours and Liturgy for the Sunday after the Exultation of the Cross – St Johns, Canton, at 11:00. Confessions before the service from 10:15.