Services for August 2011

Monday 1st beginning of the Dormition Fast.

Sat. 6th 11am Divine Liturgy; picnic; Blessing of the Spring and Great Vespers at Saint Bertram’s Shrine in Ilam, Derbyshire.
Sun.7th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy;

Sat.13th 6pm Great Vespers.
Sun.14th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy.
Mon.15th 10.30am Matins followed by Divine Liturgy.

Sat.20th 4pm Parish Meeting; 6pm Great Vespers.
Sun.21st 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy.

Sat.27th 6pm Great Vespers.
Sun.28th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy.

Name Days in August.
NB 1st is not Jonathan’s Name day, but the Sunday before Christmas with the OT Righteous
16th Radu.
20th Father Samuel.

Deanery Parish Patronals.
9th Lincoln, Saint Matthias.
31st Levenshulme, Saint Aidan.

Future Dates.
3rd September Lastingham Pilgrimage.
1st October Holywell Pilgrimage.

Saints of Britain

St Aidan of Lindisfarne— 1st August

St Aidan was an Irish bishop of the 7th century and was based at Lindisfarne after St Oswald the king called for help to evangelise his lands. From here Aidan travelled on foot around his diocese and many churches and monasteries were founded in the area. St Aidan shunned worldly riches and things of the world. He was often invited to feasts as a friend of the king’s. These he rarely attended and when he did he would always bring other monks with him and always left as soon as he could to return to his work. St Aidan was a very approachable person and whenever he met another traveller on the road would always stop to talk to him. St Bede describes him as being, “a man of remarkable gentleness, goodness,


St Oswald Martyr King of Northumbria—5th August

A very righteous man, St Oswald did much work for the furthering of the Christian faith. He raised a wooden cross as his standard in a great bat-tle against pagan Britons, a battle in which he won a great victory against an old enemy. He established churches and monasteries throughout his kingdom with the help of many missionaries and monks including St Aidan of Lindisfarne. He was martyred in a battle against a pagan army in the year 642.
One Easter, when St Aidan was dining with St Oswald, a servant en-tered to say that there were many poor outside the gate seeking alms, Oswald took up a great silver dish and filled it with all sorts of foods from the royal table, and gave it to the steward. He told him to give out the food and then break the silver plate into pieces to hand out to the crowd as well. Aidan took the king’s right hand and said, “May this hand never decay”, his blessing was fulfilled, for after St Oswald’s death, his incorrupt hand was kept as a sacred relic.

Saints of Britain: St Hilda of Whitby— August 25th

St Hilda lived the life of a noblewomen until she joined her sister (Saint Hereswitha ) as a nun in the Chelles Monastery in France. At St Aidan of Lindisfarne’s request, she went to the double monastery in Hartlepool by the River Wear where there were both monks and nuns in separate areas. Here she became the abbess for a few years before becoming the abbess of the monastery of Whitby at Streaneshalch. There she had amongst her subject monks the Bishop Saint John of Beverly, the herdsman Caedmon (the first English religious poet), Bishop St Wilfrid of York, and three other bishops. It was her influence that was a decisive factor in se-curing the unity of the English church.
In 664 she convened a conference at Whitby abbey to decide whether the Roman or Celtic ecclesiastical customs should be observed. The decision was that the Roman rule would be-come the norm. Though St Hilda and her followers were adherents of the Celtic tradition, they followed the decision of the conference.
St Bede speaks highly of St Hilda, saying among other things that “all who knew her called her Mother, such were her wonderful godliness and grace”. St Hilda died at Whitby in the year 680.

Three Auxiliary Bishops Elected for Antiochian Archdiocese of Europe

During the 47th session of the Holy Antiochian Synod held in June, it was decided to elect twelve auxiliary bishops, three of these to serve in the Arch-diocese of Europe. Those elected were:

Archimandrite Ignatius Al Houshi
Born in Damasucus in 1970, he entered the St George’s monastery as a nov-ice in 1994 and became a monk in 1995. In 2001 he moved to Greece where he acquired a Diploma in Byzantine music from the National institute in Athens, and in 2006, the Bachelor’s Degree in Theology from the Theological College in Athens. He was ordained deacon in 2007 and was ordained priest in 2010 at the holy monastery of Penteli, Athens. Pres-ently he is preparing his doctoral thesis on Byzantine Music. He is skilled in Ancient and Modern Greek as well as French. He has been very active in translating liturgical services, teach-ing of ecclesiastical chant, and in the Orthodox Youth Move-ment in Damascus. His induction will be in Paris.

Archimandrite Hanna (Shafic) Haikal
Born in Jouret Arsoun in Mount Lebanon in 1967, Archimandrite Hanna finished secondary school education in Balamnd in 1986 and then continued his study of Theology at the Aristotle Univer-sity in Thessalonica gaining a Bachelor Degree in Theology in 1993. He was ordained deacon in 1995 and a priest in 1997. In 2001 he gained a Doctoral Degree in Theology from the Aristotle University. He is well versed in Greek and German, and he also speaks French. He is skilled in many ecclesiastical and pastoral matters. His induction will be in Berlin where he was entrusted with the service of Saint George’s parish in 1999.

Archimandrite Ephraim (Abdouh) Maalouli
Born in the Damascus countryside in 1978, he finished his secondry school edu-cation and 1996 and joined the college of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering at Damascus University in 1997. He entered St George’s Patriachal Monastery as a novice and became a monk in 2001. He then moved to Greece where he acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Theology from the Theological Col-lege in Athens in 2006. In 2007 he was ordained a deacon and then a priest in the Al Hosn diocese. In 2009 he gained a Masters degree from the faculty of Greek Literature at Athens University and a Masters degree in Patristic studies at the College of Theolo-gy in Athen’s University. He is skilled in Ancient and Modern Greek as well as English. His induction will be in Cologne.

Services for July 2011

Sat 2nd 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 3rd 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Mon 4th 7.30pm Meeting of the Trustees

Sat 9th 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 10th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy

Sat 16th 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 17th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy

Sat 23rd 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 24th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy

Sat 30th 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 31st 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Mon 1st August - Beginning of the Dormition Fast

Name Days in July
10th Alexander Joy; Alex Meek (Warden)
11th Matushka Olga
12th Veronica Irene Dobson; Veronica Warden
18th Dara Elizabeth Davidchack; Elizabeth Nash
20th Fr. Elia; Ghassan Ayoub
22nd Magdalen
24th Anca Bostan

Reposed
26th James Arthur Carter (2008)
31st Tsinara (Nino’s mother)

Deanery Parish Patronal Feasts
17th Saint Marina Grimsby and Longton

Future Dates
2nd July Pilgrimage to Crowland (Baptism at Audley)
16th July 9am Archbishop Mark to visit Saint Elizabeth, Wallasey to serve the
Liturgy and bless the Iconostasis
30th July 11am Liturgy at Saint Martin’s Stony Middleton (see p3)
6th August Pilgrimage to Ilam
20th August 4pm Parish Meeting with Accounts and Reports

On the kitchen bookstall:
Kim has asked that your attention be drawn to an excellent new book translated by
our own John Warden and published in the US. Copies are available for purchase

Orthodox Divine Liturgy and Blessing of the Spring At Stoney Middleton

Come and join us again for the popular and much talked about Orthodox
Liturgy and blessing of the warm water spring during Stoney Middleton’s Well Dressing week. Refreshments available
Come and enjoy the delights of this village.
St. Martin’s Church, The Nook, Stoney Middleton S32 4TT
Date: 30th July 2011 Time: 11:00am Chris: 07912 361440

Saints of Britain: Saint Swithun of Winchester (15th July)

Saint Swithun was born in the reign of Egbert of Wessex, and was ordained priest
by Helmstan, bishop of Winchester (838-c. 852). His fame reached the king's ears, and heappointed him tutor of his son, Æthelwulf (alias Adulphus), and considered him one of hischief friends.

Under Æthelwulf, Swithun was appointed bishop of Winchester, to which see he was
consecrated by Archbishop Ceolnoth. In his new office he was known for his piety and his zeal in building new churches or restoring old ones. At his request
Æthelwulf gave the tenth of his royal lands to the Church. Swithun made his diocesan journeys on foot; when he gave a banquet he invited the poor and not the rich. William of Malmesbury adds that, if Bishop Ealhstan of Sherborne was Æthelwulf's minister for temporal matters, Swithun was the minister for spiritual matters.
Swithun's best known miracle was his restoration on a bridge of a basket of eggs that workmen had maliciously broken. Of other stories connected with Swithun the two most famous are those of the Winchester egg-woman and Queen Emma's ordeal. The former is to be found in Goscelin's Life (c. 1100), the latter in Thomas
Rudborne's Historia major (15th century), a work which is also responsible for the not improbable legend that Swithun accompanied Alfred on his visit to Rome in 856. He died on 2 July 862, and gave orders that he was not to be buried within the church, but outside in a vile and unworthy place.

Pastoral Letter from Metropolitan John 28/06/2011

Our beloved sons in the Lord,
The Reverend Clergy and the God-beloved people,
In our Orthodox Antiochian Archdiocese in Europe,
Christ’s peace be with you.

After invoking God’s grace richly upon you…
We inform you that our Holy Antiochian Synod in its 47th session held in the
Patriarchal Holy Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, on 21st of June 2001, has
elected twelve auxiliary bishops (not diocesan Bishops) for the Patriarchate
and for some dioceses. Three of them are for our Archdiocese and these are the
Most Reverend:

- The elected Bishop Ignatius Al Houshi
- The elected Bishop Hanna Haikal
- The elected Bishop Ephraim Maalouli

The induction of Bishop Ignatius will be for the time being in Paris, of Bishop
Hanna in Berlin, and of Bishop Ephraim in Cologne.
They will be helping us in every task that is assigned to them in pastoral work,
teaching and administration all around the Archdiocese.
We inform you that they will receive episcopal ordination by the hand of His
Beatitude, Patriarch Ignatius IV in the Patriarchate in Damascus and we will
inform you about the ordination arrangements after agreeing them with the
Patriarch.
In this unique occasion which brings happiness to our hearts, we send you this
message so that this joy may be for the whole family. We rejoice in your love,
the assurance of our unity, as side by side we carry each other in prayer so that
together we may carry out the service entrusted to us in these lands in Jesus’
love and peace.

May Christ’s peace be with you
Your fervent supplicant before God,
Metropolitan John