Tag Archives: Orthodox

Our patrons, the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea

The Sixth Sunday after the Great Feast of All-Holy Pascha is observed by the Orthodox Church as the Sunday of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. This day commemorates the 318 God-bearing Fathers who gathered in the city

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Melangell, Abbess of Pennant

On 27 May we celebrate the Feast of Saint Melangell. We will have vespers at 7pm on Friday, 26 May and a Divine Liturgy on Saturday, 27 May at 9am. In Ireland around the year 590 AD a young woman

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Feast of the 318 Godbearing Fathers

This weekend we celebrate our patronal feast. The feast of the 318 Godbearing Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. On Saturday we will have festal vespers at 6pm. We have invited members of the local churches in the

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Synaxarion of Saints Constantine and Helen, the Equals to the Apostles

On the twenty-first of this month we commemorate the holy, glorious, God-crowned andgreat sovereigns Constantine and Helen, the Equals to the Apostles. VersesAs the earthly Sovereigns had the earthly crown in common,So now they have in common the crown celestial.On

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2023 Giving appeal

Please help the Church of the 318 Holy Fathers to expand its ministries through your gifts of time, talent or money. Thanks to the considerable efforts, commitment and dedication of our members, 2022 was an excellent year for our church.

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Orthodox Crossing: Crowns and Clippings

Symbolic gestures are always going off all over the place, in parallel to ourselves, like the unseen realm itself. My right hand and entire arm was most certainly animated when I ripped the starter cord off of a lawn mower

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West Midlands branch of Christian Orthodox Thyateira Youth to be launched

The Archdiocese’s youth ministry organisation, Christian Orthodox Thyateira Youth (COTY), is establishing a “hub” in the West Midlands. With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain, Christian Orthodox Thyateira Youth is established as a Ministry for Young People

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Orthodox Crossing: A Christian Wisp…

On Sunday the 23rd of April Presvytera Catherine retired from thirty-seven years of devotion to our church and the wide reach of its parish. To be precise, that is only five years less than I have been alive, so when

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Thomas Didn’t Believe So That All May Believe (St. Gregory the Great)

Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. He was the only disciple absent; on his return, he heard what had happened but refused to believe it. The Lord came a second time;

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Archbishop Nikitas’s Homily for Pascha 2023

Beloved in the Lord, On the joyous occasion of this Feast of Feasts, allow me to share with you the final stanza from one of the kontakia on the Resurrection of our Lord, written in the sixth century by the

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The Panagia, the Life-Giving Spring

The feast of the Life-Giving Spring that we celebrate on the Friday of Renewal Week is a feast of our Panagia. The following is written in the Synaxarion of the day: “On the Friday of Renewal Week we celebrate the

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Homily on Holy Saturday: The Lord Descends into Hades

St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Cyprus (403 A.D.) Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is

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Why Did Christ Suffer Crucifixion?

By His Eminence Metropolitan Panteleimon of Koroneia “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our infirmities, but we have one who has been tempted in every way just as we are — yet

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Holy and Great Thursday

Thursday morning is marked by the service of the Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil the Great. Though we recall the Mystical Supper during every Divine Liturgy, now, in particular, we are reminded of the very first Eucharist served by our

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Holy Unction

14Are any among you sick? Let them call for the presbyters of the Church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the Name of the Lord.15The prayer of faith will heal those who are sick and the

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An Interpretation of the Hymnography of Matins on Holy Tuesday

By Dr. Michael Koutsos Plagal of the Fourth Tone Behold, the Bridegroom is coming in the middle of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He finds watching. And again unworthy is he whom he shall find careless. See to it, my

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Πρόγραμμα Ιερών Ακολουθιών Μεγάλης Εβδομάδας και Πάσχα

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The Akathistos Hymn 2023

On the evening of the 31 March the service of Compline with the Akathistos Hymn and canon of the Akathist was celebrated with great solemnity in at the church of the 318 Holy Fathers in Shrewsbury. The hymns were chanted

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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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The Epitaphios

The Epitaphios is an ornate embroidered icon depicting the body of Christ laying on the Tomb. The word Epitaphios comes from a Greek expression meaning “on the tomb” (= επί του τάφου).  On the Epitaphios, Christ can be alone, or

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