Services for August 2009

Beginning of the Dormition fast.
Sat 1st 10am Divine Liturgy and veneration of the relics of St. Elizabeth and St. Barbara at Wallasey
6pm Great Vespers (in Audley)
Sun 2nd 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Wed 5th 6.30pm Great Vespers of the Holy Transfiguration
Thu 6th 11am Divine Liturgy of the Transfiguration and Blessing of First Fruits

Sat 8th Pilgrimage to Ilam (No services today at Audley.)
11am Divine Liturgy (Preacher: Archpriest Daniel) followed by picnic lunch
2pm Ascent to the spring and Blessing of the Waters
4pm Great Vespers
Sun 9th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy

Fri 14th 6.30pm Great Vespers of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Sat 15th 11am Divine Liturgy of the Dormition and blessing of herbs
After a break AGM with election of church council
6pm Great Vespers
Sun 16th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy.

Sat 22nd 1pm Holy Baptism of Edward and Alexandra Elena Bendo.
6pm Great Vespers.
Sun 23rd 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy.

Sat 29th 6pm Great Vespers.
Sun 30th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy.

Namedays in August.
1st Jonathan
16th Radu
20th Fr. Samuel

Reposed
1st Tsinara (mother of Nino)

Patronal Feasts
9th Lincoln: St. Matthias
31st Levenshulme: St. Aidan

Burial Ground

Martin is doing an excellent job of keeping our parish burial ground at Sandon in very good order, taking a most arduous task from Fr. Samuel who now only needs to go there to pray.
The graves of Jean Grace and Arthur James Carter have now had their grave crosses erected and blessed. This beautiful white marble trefoil cross is the pattern for all future gravestones in our burial ground. Jean's children have also installed a wooden seat in her memory.

Three-day meeting with Metropolitan John

Metropolitan Gabriel, of blessed memory, unable to give us much guidance and training due to his ill health, nevertheless kept us deep in his heart and prayers. We have prayed over the years for a bishop who would be in good health and who would give the priests much needed training and encouragement.
Our good God has answered our prayers in the person of Metropolitan John.
For three days in mid-July, Martin Shorthose, Matthew Carson and I went to Whirlow Grange near Sheffield, along with around forty others from our Antiochian Deanery. Sayedna John was joined by Metropolitan Saba of Bosra-Hauran in Syria and Monk Parthenios to give clear and definitive guidance on how we should serve the liturgies of the Church.

Metropolitan Saba presides over Vespers with Metropolitan John

We have, over the last fifteen years, been helped greatly by Orthodox priests from other jurisdictions. Now our archbishop has given us his guidance so that the whole archdiocese will be serving the liturgies in the same way.
We belong to the Antiochian Orthodox Church and our way of serving the liturgies will reflect this.
This does not say "this is the only right way" but rather this is our way, as Antiochians.
For us, at St. Michael's, the changes are very few and obedience to our archbishop will be easy. Let us pray for all our churches that the Holy Spirit will bring to us the blessing of unity and love as we obey our beloved archbishop, to whom may God grant Many Years.