Sermon for Zoom Service 14th February 2021: 2 Cor 4, 3-6; Mark 9, 2-9

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Masks have always been an inspiration for literature, film, and stage.

Jim Carey starred in the 1994 film, simply called ‘the Mask’. Michael Crawford made the half mask memorable in the Andrew Lloyd-Webber stage production of ‘Phantom’. In the 1840’s Alexandre Dumas wrote his novel about an enigmatic French aristocrat, called ‘Man in an Iron Mask’. The list goes on, and we will all be able to think of examples.

One of my favourite authors on themes of classical history is Mary Reanualt. In her novel ‘the Mask of Apollo’ the setting is the 4^th Century BC. The principal character of her historical novel is Nikeratos, an actor in Greek tragedies who tours with a travelling acting company. Renault offers great insights into the life of a stage actor.

Ancient Greece was famous for its theatre productions. These were normally linked in some way to religious festivals, and the touring groups of actors would move from city to city to coincide with celebrations of the local patron god.

In Greek theatre productions the acting group was small in number, maybe three maximum. There would be the principal actor, the prot-agonist, a second actor, the deuter-agonist, and possibly a trito-agonist. Each would play several roles, and would be enabled to do so by wearing different masks. For principal characters the mask was always very stylized and identifiable. Each actor would change mask on-stage, as it were at the skene, and it was considered shameful if the real face of the actor was revealed during the changing of the mask.

The word used for the mask is prosopeion, a derivative from the Greek word prosopon meaning a face, or countenance. This word is still in use today when a modern Greek refers to the face, prosopo, but it can also mean a person. In a cast list for a play we might be used to the heading dramatis personae. In classical Greek theatre the word would be prosopon, with this rather double meaning of person and literally ‘face’, because the mask identifies the character.

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Audio Sermon for Sunday 7th February 2021

Fr Leonard Doolan

Sermon for Zoom Service 7th February 2021: : Colossians 1, 15-20; John 1, 1-14

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

One of the daily walks taken by our dog Hektor, takes us past a statue of a great Philhellene President of America, Harry S. Truman. With fountains both sides of it, it is an impressive sight, but the lovely fountains and water features were hidden because the hedges had overgrown, and the trees were in need of a good trim.

One day we noticed that everything was being cut back, tidied up,  revealing the full impact of what had been hidden. Then one day, in another part of this little garden some workmen appeared and started to build a modest marble plinth. Day by day we have seen the work developing, and suddenly a statue appeared on the top of the plinth. I say a statue appeared – it hasn’t really because at the moment it is covered over by protective covering, so we await the day when it is uncovered.

As we await this revelation, this manifestation, we become more and more intrigued as to the identity of the hessian clad figure. It is a mystery waiting to be revealed; so much work over so many weeks, craftsmen working on their craft, so much unseen work by a sculptor in a workshop somewhere, then more cryptic weeks. The imagination is running riot – what sort of creation will be unveiled? In fact the statue is very close to the Indian Embassy, so we are speculating if it is connected to India – might it be Ghandi, or the saint, Mother Theresa, or who? We wait with baited breath for the final act, the birthing of the statue, the genesis when the covering is removed and we will all have an epiphany.

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Sermon for Candlemas Sunday 31st January 2021: MALCHI:3 1-5 , LUKE: 2 22-40.

SHINE BRIGHT CANDLEMAS – Deacon Christine Saccali St Paul’s Athens

May I speak in the name of the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Our Christian ancestors would have been very excited today, on this great feast of Candlemas. Imagine that we are a congregation of say 600 years ago- no zoom then. It is 40 days after Christmas and it is the last great feast of the Christmas cycle before we start to turn slowly this year from the crib to the cross. We have been fasting before this feast but we are looking forward to one of the great and elaborate processions of the year, a highlight, in fact. It is a day when every parishioner is obliged to carry a candle and to offer it to the priest along with a penny- a great sacrifice in those days and in winter. Afterwards though big parish feasts were held. Now don’t we long for those days of our parish breakfasts and look forward to enjoying our get togethers again as Fr Leonard mentioned in his sermon last week on the feast of St Paul, our patronal.

I love candles and my study and prayer desk, reflecting as they do the light of Christ. In our days of electricity we forget how precious candles were and still can be in a power cut. If you have a candle handy I suggest you light it now and that is a way of connecting us and we can extinguish them at the end of the service. But don’t go away – you can always do it later as an exercise of reflection on Candlemas and the close of the Christmas and Epiphany season. It is also the beginning of the days noticeably drawing out and retreating darkness which our prayers today echo on this great feast.

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