Service for Sunday 2nd Before Lent – 3 February 2024

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here

for the first time or visiting Athens.  After the Liturgy we all gather in the church garden for coffee and refreshments. 

Presiding Priest:         Fr. Bjorn Kling 

Deacon:  Revd. Deacon Christine Saccali                     

Preacher:  Licensed Reader Nelly Paraskevopoulou

Entrance Hymn:   Introit: 349 (Nativity) Come, let us join our cheerful songs

Priest:    Blessed be the kingdom of God

     All:         Now and for ever

Priest:    The Lord be with you

     All:         And also with you

The priest then informally welcomes the people of God and leads us into Confession.

(A short period of stillness and silence)

All:  Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen.

Absolution: Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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Service for Candlemass Sunday – 28th January 2024

Welcome to St. Paul’s Church. All are invited to come forward to receive bread and wine at the table of Christ. This Feast is properly kept on Feb 2^nd.

Please join us for refreshments after the service.

Presiding Priest:         Fr. Bjorn Kling                               

Deacon & Preacher:  Revd Deacon Christine Saccali

Introit: 156 (Diva Servatrix) Sing how the age-long promise of a Saviour

Priest:       In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit

All:            Amen

Priest:       The Lord be with you

All:            and also with you

Introduction

Priest:            Dear friends, some 40 days ago we celebrated the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we recall the day on which he was presented in the Temple, when he was offered to the Fatherand shown to his people. As a sign of his coming among us, his mother was purified, and we now come to him for cleansing. In their old age Simeon and Anna recognized him as their Lord, as we today sing of his glory. In this eucharist, we celebrate both the joy of his coming and his searching judgement, looking back to the day of his birth and forward to the coming days of his passion.

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Service for the Third Sunday of Epiphany – 21st January 2024

Welcome to St Paul’s Athens,   especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. Please join us after the service for refreshments in the garden.

The worship is led by Licensed Reader Nelly Paraskevopoulou, who is also preaching.

Entrance  Hymn:  Introit: 415 (Lyngham) O for a thousand tongues to sing

Minister:  Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

              All:            and also with you.

Minister:  O Lord, open our lips

              All:            and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Minister: Give us the joy of your saving help

             All:            and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.

Prayers of Penitence

Minister:   Jesus says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. So let us turn away from our sin and turn to Christ, confessing our sins in penitence and faith.

All: Lord God, we have sinned against you;

       we have done evil in your sight.

       We are sorry and repent.

       Have mercy on us according to your love.

       Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.

       Renew a right spirit within us and restore us to the joy of your salvation;

       through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Minister:  May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us

in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All:            Amen

 Psalm       Congregational Psalm: 366 (Heathlands) God of mercy, God of grace (Psalm 67)

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Service for the Second Sunday of Epiphany – 14th January 2024

Welcome to St Paul’s Athens,   especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. Deacon Christine Saccali leads our worship today, and Revd Dimitris Boukis is the preacher.

To make a donation by card to St. Paul’s we have a POS. Please come to coffee in the garden after the Liturgy.

Introit: 234 (Ratisbon) Christ, whose glory fills the skies

Minister:  Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

All:            and also with you.

Minister:  O Lord, open our lips

All:            and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Minister: Give us the joy of your saving help

All:            and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.

The minister then welcomes people informally.

Prayers of Penitence

Minister:   As we come to the Lord at the start of this New Year, let us seek his grace to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom as we confess our sins in penitence and faith.

All: Lord God, we have sinned against you;

       we have done evil in your sight.

       We are sorry and repent.

       Have mercy on us according to your love.

       Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.

       Renew a right spirit within us and restore us to the joy of your salvation;

       through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Minister:  May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us

in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ

our Lord.

All:            Amen

Congregational Psalm: 334 (Old Hundredth) All people that on earth do dwell (Psalm 100)

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Sermon for Epiphany Sunday – 7th January 2024

Fr Terry Hemming – St Paul’s Athens

Did you see the pictures from the James
Webb telescope at the start of the year? 30
years in building at a cost of $10bn – it is
certainly colossal but the hope and so far the
results are that it will change our view of the
universe and our experience of it. On a more
mundane note I think in my lifetime of the use
of Velcro patented in 1955 and marketed in
the late 50’s– wonderful invention – so
obvious but never occurred to people before –
discoveries and inventions are like that. To go
back to the Webb telescope- it is possible
because of a thought in the mind of Albert
Einstein in the first part of the C20th – did not
change what is, but changed our relationship
to what is. Our knowledge changed and our
abilities to inhabit the universe changed. True
also of our knowledge of God. – God shows
himself – to Abraham, one God for all the
world, Moses as I Am Jehovah/Yahweh, to the
prophets as a God of moral values and not
just religious ritual. In the NT as we have been
thinking about at Christmas in the baby at
Bethlehem. Shock –no one had expected the
Messiah to come as a baby in Bethlehem.
Now a new thing. New understanding is the
theme of today.
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Service for Epiphany Sunday – 6th January 2024

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  God’s blessings for you in 2024. Happy New Year!

The presiding priest and preacher is Fr. Terry Hemming, assisted by Deacon Christine Saccali

Entrance Hymn  

Introit: 48 (Stuttgart) Bethlehem of noblest cities

Priest:  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

The Lord be with you.

 All:      and also with you

The priest then welcomes the people of God and then the deacon leads us into Confession.

Silence

Deacon: God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us:

Kyrie eleison

All:          Kyrie eleison

Deacon: May your ways be known on earth, your saving power among the nations:

Christe eleison

All:          Christe eleison

Deacon: Lord, you have made known your salvation, and reveal your justice in the sight of the

nations:

Kyrie eleison

All:          Kyrie eleison

Absolution we hear the words of God’s forgiveness to those who are truly penitent

Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Gloria:   Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us; you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God, the glory of God the Father. Amen. AMEN

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Sermon for the First Sunday of Christmas – 31st December 2023

Fr Terry Hemming – St Paul’s Athens

If you live in Athens you must be aware of a number of cross cultural marriages. When I ran marriage preparation classes I pointed out nearly all marriages are cross cultural because we bring our differing family traditions and my test used to be to get them to ask each other what they expected at Christmas.

One big difference we know about is the giving of gifts; should it be on December 6th when we remember the generosity of St Nicholas? Should it be on December 25th when we celebrate the birthday of our Lord? Should it be on January 1st when we think of St Basil and his wonderful idea of hiding the treasure/tax in the pie? Should it be on January 6th when we remember the magi arriving with their significant gifts? Should it be on January 7th in keeping with the old calendar? I am sure children would agree with me that the safe thing is to do it on all these occasions!

Did you notice in our Gospel the eagerness of the shepherds? They were in a hurry. They couldn’t wait. Just like children finding their presents.

Christmas is about generosity.

God’s generosity to us.

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Service for the First Sunday of Christmas – 31st December 2023

The Anglican Church in Greece – St Paul’s Athens

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. The presiding priest and preacher is Fr. Terry Hemming. The deacon is Deacon Christine Saccali

Hymn: 39 (Puer Nobis) Unto us a boy is born

Priest:  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

The Lord be with you.

All:       and also with you

Priest:  Hark! the herald angels sing

All:       Glory to the newborn King.

Priest:   As we come to the Lord at the start of this New Year

Let us seek his grace to number our days

That we may apply our hearts to wisdom

As we confess our sines in penitence and faith

A period of silent stillness follows

Deacon:  God our Father, you sent your Son, full of grace and truth: forgive our failure to receive him.

Kyrie eleison.

All:           Kyrie eleison.

Deacon:  Jesus our Saviour, you were born in poverty and laid in a manger: forgive our greed and rejection of your ways.

Christe eleison.

All:           Christe eleison

Deacon:  Spirit of love, your servant Mary responded joyfully to your call: forgive our hardness of heart.

Kyrie eleison.

All:           Kyrie eleison

Absolution we hear the words of God’s forgiveness to those who are truly penitent

Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

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Sermon for Christmas Morning – 25th December 2023

St Paul’s Athens

Do you know who said,  it is better to light candle than curse the darkness? Well rather than John F Kennedy to whom it is often attributed it was first said by Peter Benenson, the English lawyer, who is famous for

founding Amnesty International.

I think that could well be our Christmas motto. The darkness is seen in the oppression of the Roman

Empire No one likes to be taxed by a foreign power and that was what was happening. No one likes the problems of gossip. That was what was happening. No one likes the problems of homelessness. There was no room for him in the inn. No one likes being afraid. The shepherds were

terrified. Not a promising start to the story of Christmas. Christmas doesn’t come to the good and the

comfortable. It is found at a time when all was dark. BUT in the midst of this is found a multitude of the

heavenly host with the volume turned up Glory to God

Peace on earth. It starts with the light shining in the darkness. We have had our lights here in St Paul’s. We see them all around Athens. Our task is to bring this light.

That is our task today and in the coming year.

To bring glory to God = to show that he is indeed the loving Father he says he is. To live under his rule and

show he is king in our lives. To bring peace on earth – to remove the suspicions and fear which cause the violence both verbal and physical which damage other people. What is light in this context? Not something which travels at 186,000 miles per second. Not something which is both a wave and a stream of photons. No, it is about bringing reality and hope to a world of darkness. Christmas has told us that a Saviour was born. The light is to show us we need to be rescued from our present condition. The light is to show us the right way. Yet the light is not only to be for us but from us. As we get ready to start again how are we going to be light? There is a lot of darkness around. Places where there is no hope, no peace, no joy. We are asked to bring light by our attitudes and by our actions. Are we those known to be grumpy and despondent? Or do we bring light with our knowledge that God has not left us alone? Do we bemoan the present problems of the world or do we work with those who are seeking to bring changes and to make things better? Not all are called to be Mother Theresas going out to live with the poor (though we need more), but all can support. Later on when the message of this Jesus was being preached throughout the Roman Empire Paul wrote to the church at Rome, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” Will you curse the darkness or will you try to shine a light to the world around you?