Our community is part of the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain. It is a vibrant faith community of people of all ages and backgrounds who are working out their faith together and raising their families in accordance with the commandments of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the sacred norms for spiritual life of the ancient Holy Eastern Orthodox Church.
Worship in the Orthodox Church is expressed in the Eucharist, the Mysteries, Special Services and Blessings and the Daily Office. The Eucharist is the most important worship experience of Orthodoxy. Eucharist means thanksgiving and is known in the Orthodox Church as the Divine Liturgy.
We have an active youth ministry with youth clubs and Sunday schools and youth camps. We have four adult education programmes from entry level to advanced. Our Philoptochos team leads the church philanthropic ministry. With two renouned iconographers our church has a rich liturgical arts ministry. We also have a growing liturgical chant ministry.
We have a regular schedule of services. The Orthodox Church uses a rhythm of divine services to bless and sanctify every hour of the day: Vespers, Matins, The hours. Learn more about them here.
We gather for fellowship after every Sunday and Major Feast throughout the year. We also have various festivals and celebrations when we invite our neighbours and neighbouring communities.
Protopresbyter Stephen Maxfield is our priest in charge. A large team of volunteers support the church’s many ministries: youth work, teaching, philanthropy, fundraising and church projects.
Archbishop Nikitas (Lulias) of Thyateira and Great Britain is the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, elected by the Sacred and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 12 June 2019.
Bishop Maximos (Pafilis) of Melitene is assistant bishop to his Eminence Archbishop Nikitas. He assists Archbishop Nikitas with episcopal duties in the Midlands.
The patrons of our community are the 318 Holy God-bearing Fathers of Nicaea, the First Ecumenical Council along with the Holy Forerunner and Baptist John and the Holy Princess and Abbess Milburga of Wenlock. We celebrate the feast of the community on the feast of the Holy Fathers; the sixth Sunday after the Feast of Holy Pascha.
Here in Shropshire – an early melting pot of Christian British (Welsh) and English cultures – we have a multitude of missionaries, martyrs and monastics who served Christ in their time and continue to pray for and inspire us today. Their holy wells are spread across the hills and valleys and their faith proclaimed in our Orthodox churches.
Our church is extremely old and is on a site that has been a place of worship for 4000 years. Three of the walls are medieval Early English style from about 1200 A.D. but they are on much older foundations. The West wall is modern dating from the early 1700s. Inside there are medieval wall paintings from about 1380 and a Tudor truss from the 1540s. The church has been adapted for Orthodox Byzantine worship with an oak icon screen, a stone holy table and a gallery. There are many excellent modern icons and wall paintings.
The Holy Mysteries affirm God’s presence and action in the important events of our Christian lives: Baptism, Chrismation, Marriage, etc. Special Services and Blessings also affirm God’s presence and action in all the events, needs and tasks of our life.
