Services in December 2013 at Audley and Dresden

Sun 1st 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Wed 4th 11am Divine Liturgy or Akathist

Sat 7th 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 8th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Wed 11th 11am Divine Liturgy or Akathist

Sat 14th 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 15th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Wed 18th 11am Divine Liturgy or Akathist

Sat 21st 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 22nd 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Tue 24th 10am Royal Hours; 12noon Vesperal Liturgy of Saint Basil
Wed 25th 9am Matins; 10am Divine Liturgy

Sat 28th 6pm Great Vespers
Sun 29th 10am Matins; 11am Divine Liturgy
Carols and mince pies around the tree after the Liturgy

Name Days
22nd (Sunday before the Nativity) Jonathan Bartholomew; Sarah Griffiths
27th Stephanie Giselle; Stefan Ron
28th Simon Stone
29th (Sunday after the Nativity) Joseph Clive

Reposed
5th Patriarch Ignatios 2012
7th Deacon John Mark 2007

Parish Feasts
20th St. Ignatios of Antioch, Belfast



Visit of the Precious and Life-giving Cross to the United Kingdom
28th November 2013 ~ 12th December 2013

November
Thu 28th Arrival of the Precious Cross
Fri 29th Cathedral of All Saints, Camden Town
Sat 30th Cathedral of St Andrew, Kentish Town
Sat 30th (from 3pm) Russian Cathedral of the Dormition and All Saints, Ennismore Gardens

December
Sun 1st Russian Cathedral of the Dormition and All Saints, Ennismore Gardens
Mon 2nd Russian Cathedral of the Dormition and All Saints, Ennismore Gardens
Tue 3rd Cathedral of the Dormition, Birmingham
Wed 4th Cathedral of the Divine Wisdom, Bayswater
Thu 5th Church of St Panteleimon, Harrow
Fri 6th Cathedral of St Nicholas, Shepherds Bush
Sat 7th Morning Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, Manchester
Sat 7th Afternoon Russian Orthodox Church, Manchester
Sun 8th Church of St Nicholas, Liverpool
Mon 9th Morning Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, Camberwell
Mon 9th Afternoon Church of St Nectarios, Battersea (afternoon)
Tue 10th Morning Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, Oxford
Tue 10th Afternoon Russian Orthodox Church of St Nicholas, Oxford
Wed 11th Morning Cathedral of the Dormition, Community of St Barnabas, Wood Green
Wed 11th Afternoon Church of St John the Baptist, Haringey
Thu 12th Departure of the Precious Cross

Further information has now come to hand from Father Demetrios, the priest of the Annunciation Church in Manchester that the Holy Cross will be present on Sat. 7^th Dec. from 8am to 3pm with Matins at 9.30am and Divine Liturgy at 11am. We are all invited to be present at this blessed occasion. It is expected that the same pattern will be followed at Saint Nicholas Church in Liverpool.

Relic of the True Cross to visit Britain

Dearly Beloved in the Lord,
I take great joy in informing you of some wonderful news. Following the request of our holy
Archdiocese, and that of the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain, His Beatitude the Patriarch
of Jerusalem, Theophilos, and the Synod of the Holy Sepulchre, have agreed to bless the
visit of the Precious and Life-giving Cross to the United Kingdom for our people to venerate.
Attached you will find the programme for the Holy Cross’ visit to our churches.
I invite all Orthodox Christians to come to church to venerate the Cross, to be blessed and
edified by it, and to find through the grace of the Precious and Life-giving Cross health,
happiness, forgiveness and remission of sins, the guidance and protection of their children,
the strengthening of their family, and divine enlightenment of young and old.
Needless-to-say this relic is a piece of the Cross upon
which our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on
Golgotha and upon which He shed His most holy
Blood for the salvation of the human race. Rightly
does the hymnographer sing:
“Rejoice, O life-bearing Cross, invincible triumph of
true worship; O gate of paradise, constancy of
believers, and wall of the Church, through which...
we have ascended from earth to heaven.”
With profound theological poetry, the Church invites
the people of God to venerate and pray before the
Precious and Life-giving Cross:
“Come, all ye nations, let us adore the blessed Tree,
through which everlasting justice hath come to
pass… And by the blood of God the venom of the
serpent was washed away; and the curse was undone
by the righteous sentence when the just One was
condemned unjustly… But glory to Thy fearful
dispensation towards us, O Christ, wherewith Thou
hast saved all, since Thou art good and the lover of
mankind.”
With great joy we expect to see you come to our
churches with devotion and holy humility to pray and bow down before the Holy Cross,
which will be here in the United Kingdom for the first time to bless our churches, their
leaders and congregations, and all who come with faith and the desire to find redemption and
the salvation of their souls from Him who was crucified and suffered for us, our Lord Jesus
Christ. To Him be dominion, glory and boundless mercy for ever and ever. Amen.
London, 1st November 2013
Gregorios, Archbishop of
Thyateira & Great Britain

The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold a

virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call

his name Immanuel, which translated is,

God with us (Is 7:14-15)

The Nativity according to the flesh of our Lord, God and Saviour Jesus Christ, also
called Christmas, is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated
on December 25.
In the fullness of time our Lord Jesus Christ was born to the Holy Theotokos and ever Virgin

Mary, thus entering into
the world as a man and
revealing Himself to
mankind.
According to
the Bible and to Holy
Tradition, Jesus was
born in the city of
Bethlehem in a cave,
surrounded by farm
animals and shepherds.
The baby Jesus was born
into a manger from
the Virgin Mary, assisted
by her husband
St. Joseph. St. Joseph and the Theotokos were forced to travel due to a Roman census; the odd location of the birth was the result of the refusal of a nearby inn to accommodate the expecting couple (Luke 2:1-20). It is known historically that dwellings were built directly over such caves housing livestock in order to make use of the heat.
Though three magi from the East are commonly depicted as visiting during the event itself
(or, in Roman Catholic tradition, twelve days thereafter), the Bible records the coming of an
unspecified number of wise men as being a few years after Jesus' birth (see Matthew 2). In
either case, these magi came bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh (Matt 2:11). In
the hymnography for the feast, these gifts are interpreted to signify Christ's royalty,
divinity, and suffering.
Though Jesus' birth is celebrated on December 25, most scholars agree that it is unlikely he
was actually born on this date. The choice of December 25 for the Church's celebration of
the Nativity is most
likely to have been in
order to counter
attendance at pagan
solstice festivals
falling on the same
day.
At least, this is the
urban myth
promulgated by both
heterodox Christians
and unbelievers for
centuries.
However, the
solstice festival fell
on the 21st of
December. To suggest that the Church chose a day of sacred observance defensively instead of pro-actively is to devalue and disregard the sacred and authoritative action of the Church in establishing a proper
date for the observance of The Nativity of Christ the Lord.
Others within The Orthodox Church have observed that, under Hebrew law, male infants
were both circumcised and received their name eight days after their birth.
Also, within The Orthodox Church, January 1st is celebrated as the "name day" of The Lord
Christ Jesus. Thus, the selection of December 25th to celebrate the nativity of The Christ
(who would not be named for eight more days) would appear to have been a conscious
counting backward from the first day of the calendar year--the day of his being proclaimed
Son of Man--to the date of His birth, the day of his being proclaimed Son of God.