27/06/2020
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Sermons & Services
Sermon preached for the Third Sunday after Trinity – 28th June 2020: SS Peter & Paul (Anticipated!)
Revd Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens
June is a month of what we might call ‘big hitters’. St. Barnabas, St. John the Baptist, St. Peter and St. Paul. All of these apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ – sent out to preach, share and live the new life as followers of the risen Jesus Christ – inspiring for their courage, their energy, and their faith despite hardship, persecution, imprisonment, and even death itself.
Our Lord tells us, as we heard in last week’s holy gospel, ‘whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’ (Matthew 10, 37-39).
These are deeply challenging words to us, and unless we study them deeply and understand them in our own context in our own generation, we would be tempted to give up and just stick with the comfort of our own family life. But we are called directly to be more than just this – called to be the family that gathers around the cross, the family that is called to be dispersed and to live the gospel life within our families and communities.
Among the June ‘big hitters’ of those who took up the challenge of living the life of the cross, we celebrate SS. Peter and Paul. Their feast day in our calendar is tomorrow, 29th June, but we are ‘anticipating’ this by one day, so that we can be infected by their outstanding witness to the Church of Christ. These two martyr saints are truly twin foundations of the Church of Christ.
24/06/2020
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Announcements, Blog News
Third Sunday after Trinity – 28th June 2020
Welcome to our Sunday worship brought to our homes by Zoom. Today we are ‘anticipating’ the Feast of St. Pater and Paul (29th).After the worship we can have a short chat together.
This is the last Zoom service before the Summer. We hope that from the beginning of September we will live Zoom the service from St. Paul’s. The Wednesday Evening Prayer, and the Friday Bible Study will resume in September.
The preacher this morning is Fr. Leonard.
Priest: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: and also with you.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see.
T’ was Grace that taught my heart to fear
And Grace, my fears relieved
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed
Through many dangers, toils and snares
We have already come
T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far
And Grace will lead us home
Deacon: Our Lord Jesus Christ said; the first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the
only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all
your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There
is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets.
All: Amen. Lord have mercy.
There is a short period of silence, followed by Confession.
All: Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves. In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen.
Priest: May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord. Amen.
21/06/2020
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Sermons & Services
Sermon preached for the Second Sunday after Trinity, 21st June 2020: Jeremiah 20, 7-13; Matthew 10, 24-39
Revd Canon Leonard Doolan
‘How shall we sing the Lord’s song: in a strange land?’
Across the world the year 2020 will be remembered for the devastating effect of the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost, over a million people affected. Those near to death have had to pass from this life without the nearby comfort of family and loved ones; health services have had to deal with unimaginable numbers of sick people. From global companies to small corner shops businesses have been brought to the very brink of financial viability. For some countries, such as Greece, the reliance on tourism has been shown to be too fragile a dependency for a national economy. Let’s pray that the need to kick start tourism is not done at the expense of human health.
As the pandemic is global, so are its consequences in every aspect of life. St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Athens has not escaped the devastating consequences of the virus.
The income from our core congregation alone is nowhere near enough to maintain our church and ministry year by year, though we are grateful for continued generosity from our membership.
We have a dependency on income from hiring out the church for concerts and cultural events. Our monthly patterns of Coffee Mornings and Quiz Nights provide lovely opportunities for social gathering for church members and friends but are also essential sources of income. Our Spring and Christmas Bazaars are fundamental to our financial health every year. Our dependency on income from all of these has proved to be our highest risk, our greatest liability. Longer term, radical changes will be needed to ensure we survive and thrive.
2020 will be a financial catastrophe for us. 2020 will be a catastrophe for so many millions of people – but also for us. We will remember 2020 as a disaster at so many levels.
19/06/2020
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Sermons & Services
Audio Sermon preached for the Zoom service on the Second Sunday after Trinity: Jeremiah 20, 7-13, Matthew 10, 24-39
Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan
19/06/2020
In
Announcements, Blog News
Second Sunday after Trinity – 21st June 2020
Welcome to our Sunday worship brought to our homes by Zoom. After the worship we can have a short chat together. There will be a Zoom service until the last Sunday of June. There is a new zoom log in address on the website for the Sundays of June 14th-28th.
Until the end of June there is a Zoom weekly Bible Study and a mid-week evening quiet reflection service. Both of these will resume at the start of September. The login address for the quiet evening service is on the website. To join the bible study please contact Fr. Leonard first on his own email. The Sunday worship login address remains the same throughout June. St. Paul’s is open again for its regular visiting times.
From July 5th the principal worship will be back in St. Paul’s Church. We are exploring the possibility of providing Zoom participation in the Sunday service from September onwards. Watch this space!
The preacher this morning is Fr. Leonard.
Priest: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: and also with you.
1 Morning has broken
Like the first morning,
Blackbird has spoken
Like the first bird.
Praise for the singing!
Praise for the morning!
Praise for them, springing
Fresh from the Word!
2 Sweet the rain’s new fall
Sunlit from Heaven,
Like the first dewfall
On the first grass.
Praise for the sweetness
Of the wet garden,
Sprung in completeness
Where his feet pass
Mine is the sunlight
Mine is the morning
born of the one light
Eden saw play
Praise with elation
Praise every morning
God’s re-creation
Of the new day!
Deacon: Our Lord Jesus Christ said; the first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the
only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all
your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There
is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and
the prophets.
All: Amen. Lord have mercy.
14/06/2020
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Sermons & Services
Sermon preached at the Zoom Service for the First Sunday after Trinity – 14th June 2020: Exodus 19, 2-8; Matthew 9, 35-10, 8
Revd Canon Leonard Doolan
Who would have thought we would be making a link between the death of a black African American and the statue of Winston Churchill being clad in protective boarding. Who would have thought we would be making a link between the death of a black African American and the dumping of a statue of an 18th century slave trader into a Bristol river, Edward Colston.
The death of George Floyd at the hands of an America policeman is sickening. ‘I can’t breathe, officer’. How many tens of thousands of times will such a death have happened down through history. How many more? As we look on shocked at this ugly scene, it did not take long for the recorded action of some rogue policemen to ripple into a torrent of consequences.
His death touches on a sense of guilt that we harbour for things that have happened in history; things, events, people that are now being remembered in public art, but for whose actions in life we have formed a convenient forgetfulness. We are making all sorts of connections with the uncomfortable side of our national histories. We can now live in comparative comfort on the prosperity that some of these people created in time past.
George Floyd’s life matters. Black lives matter. All lives matter. Certainly no one formed in the Christian tradition can take any other view than this, because human life is a sacred creation of God, and each life is created to reflect the light and truth of God – no matter whether we each make a good or a bad job of it.
14/06/2020
In
Sermons & Services
Audio Sermon for the First Sunday after Trinity – 14th June 2020
Revd Canon Leonard Doolan
11/06/2020
In
Announcements, Blog News
First Sunday after Trinity – 14th June 2020
Welcome to our Sunday worship brought to our homes by Zoom. After the worship we can have a short chat together. There will be a Zoom service until the last Sunday of June. There is a new login address on the website for the Sundays of June 14th-28th.
Until the end of June there is a Zoom weekly Bible Study and a mid-week evening quiet reflection service. Both of these will resume at the start of September. The login address for the quiet evening worship is on the website. To join the bible study please contact Fr. Leonard first on his own email. The Sunday worship login address remains the same throughout June. St. Paul’s is open again for its regular visiting times.
From July 5th the principal worship will be back in St. Paul’s Church. We are exploring the possibility of providing Zoom participation in the Sunday service from September onwards. Watch this space!
The preacher this morning is Fr. Leonard.
Priest: Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
All: and also with you.
1 Awake, my soul, and with the sun
thy daily stage of duty run;
shake off dull sloth, and early rise
to pay thy morning sacrifice.
2 Lord, I my vows to Thee renew.
Disperse my sins as morning dew;
guard my first springs of thought and will,
and with Thyself my spirit fill.
3 Direct, control, suggest, this day,
all I design or do or say,
that all my pow’rs, with all their might,
in Thy sole glory may unite.
4 Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise Him all creatures here below;
praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Deacon: Our Lord Jesus Christ said; the first commandment is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is the only Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
All: Amen. Lord have mercy.
08/06/2020
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Announcements, Blog News
June Zoom Worship
Leonard Doolan is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: June Worship
Time: Jun 14, 2020 10:00 AM Athens
Every week on Sun, until Jun 28, 2020, 3 occurrence(s)
Jun 14, 2020 10:00 AM
Jun 21, 2020 10:00 AM
Jun 28, 2020 10:00 AM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84742777004?pwd=aEErZzJPcEpLT29tVTR5Slk2d1p4QT09
Meeting ID: 847 4277 7004
Password: 6JGWWE
One tap mobile
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