Monthly Archives: April 2024

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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Holy and Great Monday

By Archimandrite Epiphanios Theodoropoulos On Great Monday, we commemorate the virtuous Joseph (son of the patriarch Jacob and grandson of Abraham), a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph, the beloved son of his father, was at first thrown into

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Our Duties for Holy and Great Week

By Metropolitan Augoustinos Kantiotes of Florina This very day is clothed with the bright robes of the first-fruits of the Lord’s passion. Come, then, all feast lovers, let us welcome it with songs. (Kathisma, Great Monday). We have arrived, my beloved, at the saving

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Synaxarion for Palm Sunday

On this day, the Sunday of Palms, we celebrate the radiant and glorious Feast of the Entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. Verses Sitting on a foal, He Who stretched out the Heavens By a word seeketh to

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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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Philoptochos Sale

Philoptochos Sale There will be a sale of cakes and savoury fasting foods after the Divine Liturgy on 14th April to raise funds to support people in financial hardship.

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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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Orthodox Crossing: Labours of…

My Dad can build anything, but if you left him to it without direction, he’d build the sweetest shed or greenhouse that you ever saw. No working plans to go by, just God-given instinct and experience. An intimidating ability to

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