The Church of the 318 Godbearing Fathers is keen to compile services (akolouthia) for our local Saints. We want to give our local saints proper honour when their feast days occur during the year.

We currently have very few services written to our local saints.

Father David Somalis from the Church of Saint Haralambos in Luton is working with us on this project. In 2021 Father David wrote the akolouthia for Saint Milburga, Saint Alchmund and Saint Chad. In 2022 he wrote akolouthia for Saint Winifred, Saint Cuthbert, Saint Oswald and Saint Eata. Father David has also written a Paraklesis for Saint Milburga. We had the joy of being able to give these saints the honour due on their feast days. This has been a great blessing, and we thank Father David for his tremendous efforts.

We want to continue this work and have set up a special fund so that the faithful can contribute towards this important ministry.

The next phase of composition could include a paraklesis for the 318 Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council and Akolouthia for Saint Werburga. If there is a particular service for a Saint that you would like to contribute to, then, please contact Fr Panteleimon using the email address on the Contact Us page.

To give towards this important ministry, please use the form below or visit our giving page for other ways to give:

Your gift will be a legacy that will contribute to the growth of the Orthodox Church in these lands.

Ikos of Saint Milburga

The kingdom of Mercia reveres your infancy, and the Abbey of the Theotokos in Chelles honours your beginning in monastic life; the monastery of Wenlock extols you, having been the arena of your ascetic struggles; Stoke Saint Milborough boasts in your well, the water of which heals soring eyes; Wixford in Warwickshire, Offenham in Worcestershire, and Llanfillo in the Welsh county of Powys, they all hold you dear, enclosing churches dedicated to you; but above all, the humble Manor of Sutton, in Shrewsbury, the first city of Shropshire, rejoices in you, splendidly arraying itself, namely the church of the three hundred and eighteen Godbearing Fathers, a sacred and triumphant assembly of Orthodox believers occurs today, and the memory of your repose is fittingly honoured by those professing the faith you also confessed. Therefore, we cry out wholeheartedly to you: Be mindful of us, your little flock, who have acquired you as a protector ever ready to receive our supplications and who possess your Icon as an inviolable treasure; go before us and rescue us from every need and peril, Mother Milburga, the glory of all Shropshire!

Downloads to the Akolouthia