Palm Sunday

Zoom Service for Palm Sunday- 25th April 2021

We have permission from our bishop to follow the Greek calendar date for Easter (this year only) so today is Palm Sunday. Every day this Holy Week (Monday- Good Friday) there is a form of worship at 10.00hrs. There is a Zoom link. Please join at least 5 minutes before 10.00am if you can. Deacon Chris has a meditation on FB daily at 09.00hrs

 Easter Sunday: 10.00hrs Holy Liturgy in St. Paul’s (pre-register your attendance)

                               12.00 noon  Zoom Worship  (new Zoom link)

 Fr. Leonard is leading the worship and preaching this morning, assisted by Deacon Christine. Christina Antoniadou is playing the keyboard. Please see ‘Chat’ on the day, to see the pieces Christina is playing.

 

Deacon:     Blessed be the Kingdom of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All:              Now and for ever.

Deacon:     Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

All:              and also with you.

 

All glory, laud, and honour
To Thee, Redeemer, King!
To Whom the lips of children
Made sweet Hosannas ring,

Thou art the King of Israel
Thou David’s Royal Son,
Who in the LORD’S name comest,
The King and Blessèd One.
All glory, &c.

The company of Angels
Is praising Thee on high,
And mortal men, and all things
Created make reply.
All glory, &c.

The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went
Our praise and prayers and anthems
Before Thee we present.
All glory, &c.

To Thee before Thy Passion
They sang their hymns of praise;
To Thee now high exalted
Our melody we raise.
All glory, &c.

Thou didst accept their praises;
Accept the praise we bring,
Who in all good delightest,
Thou good and gracious King.
All glory, &c.

 

Fr. Leonard will welcome the congregation.

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Lent 1 Blog

Zoom service for the 5th Sunday in Lent – Passion Sunday : 18th April 2021

St Paul’s Athens

 

We have permission from our bishop to follow the Greek calendar date for Easter (this year only) so today is Lent 5. Next Sunday is Palm SundayAfter the worship we can have a short chat together.

 

FUTURE WEEKS ARRANGEMENTS. Next Sunday (25th April) will be the same Zoom link.  There will be a NEW LINK for May 2nd (Easter Sunday) right through until Pentecost (June 20th). Zoom worship will continue to be at 12 Noon.  Always double check for information on our website.

 

Fr. Leonard will lead the worship today, and assisted by Josh Barley and Shirley Poulakis. Angelos Pouliadakis is the preacher.  Christina Antoniadou is playing the keyboard. Please see ‘Chat’ on the day, to see the pieces Christina is playing.

 

Priest:         Blessed be the Kingdom of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All:              Now and for ever.

Priest:         Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

All:              and also with you.

1 We sing the praise of him who died,                                             (tune  Bow Brickhill)
of him who died upon the cross;
the sinner’s hope let men deride,
for this we count the world but loss.

 

2 Inscribed upon the cross we see
in shining letters, ‘God is love’;
he bears our sins upon the tree;
he brings us mercy from above.

 

3 The cross! It takes our guilt away:
it holds the fainting spirit up;
it cheers with hope the gloomy day,
and sweetens every bitter cup.

 

4 It makes the coward spirit brave,
and nerves the feeble arm for fight;
it takes its terror from the grave,
and gilds the bed of death with light:

 

5 The balm of life, the cure of woe,
the measure and the pledge of love,
the sinner’s refuge here below,
the angels’ theme in heaven above.

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basket 17

Easter Eggs

This Easter we are launching our Easter Egg Appeal!

Thank you Jane for our 17th Egg!

Help us fill the basket with brightly coloured eggs for Easter.  You can help by sending a donation to St Paul’s.  Each donation, of whatever size, will add an egg to the basket and a new picture will appear.

Donations can be made in several ways:

Bank Transfer – THE ANGLICAN CHURCH IN GREECE, ST PAUL’S,  ATHENS
BANK: Bank of Piraeus
IBAN: GR82 0172 0500 0050 5008 6327 479
SWIFT CODE: PIRB GRAA

(Reference “Easter Eggs)

(including fee except for inter-Piraeus Bank)

PAYPALwww.paypal.me/StPaulsathens

(reference “Easter Eggs”)

Please let us know if you do not wish your name to be published.

Let’s fill the basket and rejoice this Easter!

sermon news

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday in Lent -11th April 2021: Ephesians 2, 1-10; John 3, 14-21

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

In the year 1894 Rudyard Kipling introduced us to Baloo the Bear – in fact he introduced us to Baloo, because Baloo the Bear, rather like Koala Bear is tautologous – Baloo is the Hindi word for ‘bear’.

Baloo is one of the central characters of Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ and is the chief ward of the man-cub Mowgli. Walt Disney created one of his cartoon masterpieces when in 1967 he introduced this Kipling story to a far wider audience of both children and adults. It is not only the original story that is so gripping, but Disney employed some very talented song-writers, and the songs from that film are memorable, enduring, and highly repeatable.

Once before I have used a song from the film, but that time is was the one sung by the wily serpent with hypnotic eyes, Kaa.

Baloo’s song is one of the most favourite – ‘Look for the bare necessities’ – a play on the two spellings in English of the word ‘bear’ and ‘bare’ – ‘the simple bare necessities, forget about your trouble and your strife.’

The song continues,

So just try and relax, yeah, cool it
Fall apart in my backyard
‘Cause let me tell you something, little britches
If you act like that bee acts, uh-uh
You’re working too hard
And don’t spend your time lookin’ around
For something you want that can’t be found
When you find out you can live without it
And go along not thinkin’ about it
I’ll tell you something true
The bare necessities of life will come to you.

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Lent 1 Blog

Zoom Service for the Fourth Sunday in Lent – 11th April 2021

St Paul’s Athens

 

We have permission from our bishop to follow the Greek calendar date for Easter (this year only) so today is Lent 3. Καλή ΣαρακοστήAfter the worship we can have a short chat together.

 

The Sunday worship login is the same for April 18th, THEN IT WILL CHANGE. There will be a NEW link including Palm Sunday through Holy Week and Easter Sunday. This will be for 10.00hrs.  Always double check for information on our website.

 

Fr. Leonard will lead the worship today, and preach. Deacon Christine will assist.  Christina Antoniadou is playing the keyboard. Please see ‘Chat’ on the day, to see the pieces Christina is playing.

 

Priest:         Blessed be the Kingdom of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All:              Now and forever.

Priest:         Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

All:              and also with you.

 

There will now be a minute’s silence to remember HRH the Duke of Edinburgh.  After this we will sing a verseof the National Anthem.

 

God save our gracious Queen

Long live our noble Queen,

God save the Queen:

Send her victorious

Happy and glorious

Long to reign over us:

God save the Queen.

 

1 Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;                                       (tune  Slane)
naught be all else to me, save that thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

 

2 Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word;
I ever with thee, and thou with me, Lord.
Born of thy love, thy child may I be,
thou in me dwelling and I one with thee.

 

3 Be thou my buckler, my sword for the fight.
Be thou my dignity, thou my delight,
thou my soul’s shelter, thou my high tow’r.
Raise thou me heav’nward, O Pow’r of my pow’r.

 

4 Riches I heed not, nor vain empty praise;
thou mine inheritance, now and always.
Thou and thou only, first in my heart,
Ruler of heaven, my treasure thou art.

 

5 High King of heaven, when vict’ry is won
may I reach to heaven’s joys, O bright heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my heart, whatever befall,
still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

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sermon news

Sermon for Third Sunday of Lent – 4th April 2021: John 2, 13-22

Nelly Paraskevopoulou – St Paul’s Athens

 

May God be on my lips and in all our hearts

 

The story from the Gospel of John about Jesus clearing the Temple is one of my favorite moments in the Bible, describing the life of Jesus Christ. The image we are given about Jesus is very different from other events.  Jesus is angry. He is very angry and rightfully so. Many people feel they can identify with this very human expression of emotion and this might make them feel closer to the Son of God but also Son of Man. It is easier to identify with this emotional Jesus, than with Jesus performing miracles, Jesus teaching and even more Jesus on the cross. By identifying with the person of Jesus Christ, maybe the rest of His life can become easier to understand and hopefully follow, as much as our limited human condition permits.

But why is Jesus so angry? Jesus is angry because the temple of Jerusalem, His Father’s house, is being misused. Instead of being a house of prayer it had become a market place.  The priests had found a way to make money from their fellow Jews, by selling animals to be sacrificed.

As readers of the Bible have noted, events in the New Testament often have their counterparts in the Old Testament. In Psalm 2 the Son’s wrath is warned against, predicting in a sense the event of Jesus’s divine wrath.

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Lent 1 Blog

Zoom service for the Third Sunday in Lent – 4th April 2021

Western Easter is celebrated today. We have permission from our bishop to follow the Greek calendar date for Easter (this year only) so today is Lent 3. Καλή ΣαρακοστήAfter the worship we can have a short chat together.

 

The Sunday worship login remains the same until the end of April. Always double check for information on our website.

 

Deacon Christine will lead the worship today and Nelly Paraskevopoulou will preach. Melissa Dixon will ‘respond’ on our behalf.  Christina Antoniadou is playing the keyboard. Please see ‘Chat’ on the day, to see the pieces Christina is playing.

 

Deacon:     Blessed be the Kingdom of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

All:              Now and for ever.

Deacon:     Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

All:              and also with you.

 

1 The God of Abraham praise,                                  (Tune: Leoni)
who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of Everlasting Days,
and God of Love;
Jehovah, great I AM!
by earth and heaven confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred name
forever blest.

 

2 The great I AM has sworn;
I on this oath depend.
I shall, on eagle wings upborne,
to heaven ascend.
I shall behold God’s face;
I shall God’s power adore,
and sing the wonders of God’s grace
forevermore.

 

3 The heavenly land I see,
with peace and plenty blest;
a land of sacred liberty,
and endless rest.
There milk and honey flow,
and oil and wine abound,
and trees of life forever grow
with mercy crowned.

 

4 The God who reigns on high
the great archangels sing,
and “Holy, holy, holy!” cry
“Almighty King!
Who was, and is, the same,
and evermore shall be:
Jehovah, Lord, the great I AM,
we worship thee!”

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sermon news

Sermon for the second Sunday in Lent – 28th Marach 2021: Romans 4, 13 – end; Mark 8, 31 – end

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

Lent 2021.  Readings: Romans 4, 13-end; Mark 8, 31-end

We begin by recognizing a few current factors. First of all, congratulations to the Greek nation and people on the 200th Anniversary of Independence from Ottoman rule. Καλή Επανάσταση – Happy Revolution. I notice that part of that second word ‘epanastasi’ incorporates the word Greek uses for  resurrection.

We note also that in the Latin, or Western Calendar, today is Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week – even though Anglicans in Greece are observing the Orthodox date for this year only, so our Holy Week is some time off yet.

Thirdly we offer our prayerful solidarity with our Jewish friends, in particular the Jewish Community here in Athens. This week is the Passover Week. The Chief Rabbi, Gabriel Negron, preached in St. Paul’s Church in January 2020, and he preached so well, and was so popular that I will make sure he does NOT get a second invitation! I spoke with him last week, and he reminded me that we have an outstanding invitation for me to preach at the Athens Synagogue, and that we agreed our congregation would have a visit to the Synagogue when the lifting of restrictions will permit it.  Kosher and joyous Passover.

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