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Holy Week & Pascha in Shrewsbury 2024

Orthodox Christian Holy Week and Pascha will be celebrated with great solemnity once again in Shrewsbury in 2024 from 27 April to 5 May. This year, we enter Holy Week with the reception of eight catechumens on Lazarus Saturday. Below

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Schedule of Services for Holy Week and Pascha in Shrewsbury 2024

You will find below the schedule of services for Holy Week and Pascha in English, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian and Russian

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Ordination of Stephen Edwards to the Holy Diaconate

On Saturday, 20 April 2024, Mr Stephen Edwards was ordained to the Holy Diaconate at the Church of the 318 Holy Fathers. His Grace Bishop Maximos of Melitene celebrated the Divine Liturgy. Protopresbyter Stephen Maxfield, Oeconomos Timothy Pearce and Presbyter

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The Matins of the Bridegroom Services

The services for Holy and Great Week begin on Sunday evening. The Matins services read during the first three days of Holy and Great Week are known as the Bridegroom Matins services. We begin each Bridegroom Matins service in the

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Synaxarion for Saturday of the Akathistos Hymn

On the fifth Saturday of the Great Fast, we celebrate the praise of our Most-holy Lady, theTheotokos and Ever-virgin Mary, during which “it is not permitted to sit.” VersesThe city in thanksgiving and watchfulness doth praiseHer who upholdeth and constantly

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Saturday of the Akathist Hymn

By Elder Epiphanios Theodoropoulos [On the Fifth] Saturday [of the fast] we chant the Akathist Hymn during Matins. In our days however this does not happen except in the holy monasteries, since in the parishes it is chanted the evening before, on Friday

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That this Pascha is a type of the future and eternal Pascha

That this Pascha is a type of the future and eternal Pascha;and about endurance and courage. St Theodore the Studite: Catchesis 66 Brethren and fathers, Lent is already galloping past and the soul rejoices at the imminence of Pascha, because

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Visit of His Grace Bishop Maximos to Shrewsbury

On Sunday of St John Climacus, 14 April 2024, His Grace Bishop Maximos of Melitene presided over Matins and celebrated the Divine Liturgy at St Julian’s Church in Shrewsbury. The service was concelebrated by the Revd Protopresbyter Stephen Maxfield, Priest-in-charge

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Bishop Maximos to visit Shrewsbury on 14 April.

On Sunday, 14 April, His Grace, Bishop Maximos, will make a pastoral visit to the Church in Shrewsbury. He will preside at the Divine Liturgy for the Fourth Sunday of the Fast: St John Climacus, at St. Julian’s Church, Shrewsbury,

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First Homily for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross (St. Luke of Simferopol)

 By St. Luke, Archbishop of Simferopol and Crimea “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly

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Why go to church?

The simple answer to this question is “To meet God and share in His Life”. But how does this happen? Let us start by asking some fundamental questions. What is the Church here for? What is the distinctive and unique

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Life of our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt

Life of our Holy Mother Mary of Egypt (St. Sophronios of Jerusalem) By St. Sophronios of Jerusalem “It is good to hide the secret of a king, but it is glorious to reveal and preach the works of God” (Tobit

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Catechism for the Great Fast

Starting 31 March, there will be short catechism sessions after the Divine Liturgy during the period of the Great Fast. The theme of the catechism is living the Orthodox Christian life. Everyone is welcome to attend. After a ten-minute introduction,

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Homily on the Annunciation by Saint Photios the Great

Gay is today’s festival, and splendid is the joy it conveys to the ends of the earth. The joy it yields scatters old sorrow; the joy it yields banishes the curse of the world, inaugurates the raising of him who

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Forgiveness Sunday at St. Julian’s Church

On 17 March, our community held its first Sunday service at Saint Julian’s Church in Shrewsbury at the kind invitation of the owner, Mr Andrew Wright and his wife Lexie. Andrew and Lexie are well-known in Shrewsbury and well-loved by

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Feast of Saint Alkmund of Derby

Today we commemorate Saint Alchmund of Derby. Saint Alchmund’s church in Shrewsbury is dedicated to the saint possibly because his relics were brought here by Queen Aethelflaed’s to save them from the invading Danes. Continue reading

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St. Cuthbert Wonderworker of Britain

If I were to say to you that you are not a human (ἄνθρωπος), you might take it as an insult. I will say it, nevertheless. We are not humans, neither you nor I; we are merely in the process

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First Divine Liturgy at St Julian’s Church, Shrewsbury

With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas, and as announced last Sunday, we will be celebrating our first Divine Liturgy at St. Julian’s Church, Shrewsbury, SY1 1UH, this Sunday, 17 March.  Matins will start at 9.30am.  The Divine Liturgy

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Chad, Bishop of Lichfield

Saint Chad was one of three brothers born in Northumbria, and was educated at the monastery on Lindisfarne under Saint Aidan. In 664 he succeeded his brother, Cedd as Abbot of Lastingham.  In 669 that Chad became Bishop of Lichfield

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Werburgh, Abbess of Mercia

Werburgh, a princess of Mercia, exchanged her coronet for a veil early in life and became a great foundress and leader of monastic communities in East Anglia and Mercia.  Her greatness in life is reflected in her veneration in death. 

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