Jerusalem blog
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land
22/01/2020 In Blog News

A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land 7 – 16 September 2020

Led by Fr Leonard Doolan, Senior Chaplain Athens

10 Days based in Jerusalem and Galilee

 

“It is always very moving to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, there is so much to see and experience and learn together. St Jerome said: ‘Five gospels record the life of Jesus. Four you will find in books and the one you will find in the land they call Holy. Read the fifth gospel and the world of the four will open to you”

Organised by McCabe Pilgrimages, an organisation who has been running these tours for many years, the trip will entail a 6 night stay at the Golden Walls hotel in Jerusalem visiting many Biblical and Historical sights such as The Mt of Olives, Bethlehem, The Via Dolorosa and the Dead Sea.

Thereafter a Three night stay at the Ron BeachHotel by the Sea of Galilee with visits to places associated with Jesus’ early life and ministry.

For more information and full details of the programme please click here

John Kittmer Blog
20/01/2020 In Announcements

Former British Ambassador Dr John Kittmer to lecture on Anglo-Hellenism

We are delighted to promote this lecture on Anglo-Hellenism by Dr John Kittmer.  Dr Kittmer was a staunch supporter of St Paul’s during his tenure as the British Ambassador to Greece.  A fervent Hellenist, since returning to the UK  he has completed his PhD at the Centre for Hellenic Studies, Kings College London.

2nd Annual Niki Marangou Memorial Lecture, 7 Feb. 2020, 7:00pm, Cotsen Hall (adjacent to the Gennadius Library; entry from 9, Anapiron Polemou Street, Kolonaki, Athens)

 

Please join us for the 2nd Niki Marangou Lecture, to be held in Athens. Our speaker will be Dr John Kittmer, Chair of The Anglo-Hellenic League, former British Ambassador to Greece, and recent PhD King’s College London. The title of his presentation (in Greek) is: ‘Anglo-Hellenism: Adventures in Cultural Exchange’. He elaborates on the topic as follows: ‘British involvement in Greece was strong throughout the nineteenth century. “Anglo-Hellenism” became an institutionalised concept in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars. The decline of British power and the Cyprus crisis of the 1950s ended its political role. This lecture examines the extent to which culture has become a substitute means of exchange between the two countries, through illustrated exploration of emblematic figures and ideas. And it speculates about the role of culture in the post-Brexit future.’

 

This lecture is made possible through the sponsorship of Mr Constantis Candounas in collaboration with the Centre for Hellenic Studies, King’s College London.

 

Kalogerakis Blog
17/01/2020 In Announcements

“Rimbautika and other stories” MICHALIS & PANTELIS KALOGERAKIS

Saturday 25th January 2020 at 21.00 hrs

Michalis and Pantelis Kalogerakis welcome the new decade at St Paul’s Anglican Church and present for the first time their recent recording “Rimbautika”. The Kalogerakis brothers present the stormy relationship of the poet Arthur Rimbaud with Paul Verlaine through the exchanged love letters while performing “rebetika” songs. The musical narration attempts to highlight the invisible threads that link Rimbaud’s “rebetiko” lifestyle to the intense poetic world of rebetika songs by giving the title “Rebetiko” .

 

Organized by: Mikri Arktos

ENTRANCE BY TICKETS 15 and 13 euros

Information and tickets pre-sale: Ticketservices, 39 Panepistimiou Avenue,

Tel. 210 7234567 and Public stores

sermons_featured_image
17/01/2020 In Sermons & Services

Sunday after Christmas – 29 December 2020

Reader Sherry Angelis  – St Paul’s Athens

 

What a glorious week this is, as we celebrate the miraculous birth of the Messiah  –  our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  We come to realize that because of this new born Infant in Bethlehem, Heaven and Earth have been brought to overlap once and for all.  The place where God’s space and our space intersect and interlock is in Jesus.

Keeping this most precious Child with us awhile longer, let’s take a deeper look at the Infancy narrative in the Gospel according to the Apostle Matthew.  The Evangelist is writing for his fellow Jews in order to present Jesus  as the long-awaited Messiah – the Son of David.

In his Gospel,  more than any other, is found the link between the Old Testament and the New, the old Israel and the new world-wide Church of people.

So true are the words, “Novum in Vetere latet, Vetus in Novo patet.”   “The New Testament is hidden in the Old, and the Old becomes visible in the New.”

We soon discover how insightful Matthew is as he illustrates the way God has prepared for the arrival of His own Son within the history of Israel.  The author continually appropriates the Old Testament language in the interest of amplifying the New.  He is proving, step by step that Jesus fulfills the prophetic messianic hopes and expectations of the people of God.

Writing in this manner, Matthew also helps relate the story of Israel to the Gentiles,     thus familiarizing them with the background of Jesus the Christ.  They learn that this is not the first time the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has acted in the world for His people.

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13/01/2020 In Sermons & Services

Baptism of Christ 12th January 2020 – Isaiah 42, 1-9; Acts 10, 34-43; Matthew 3 13-end.

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

The feast that we celebrate today is the Baptism of Christ. This event in the life of Christ, the initiation of his earthly ministry, is what the Orthodox celebrated on January 6th, and is known as the theophania.  While in the western tradition the 6th is when we celebrate the epiphany of Christ to the Magi, in the eastern tradition the epiphany of God in Christ’s baptism is the dominant event. (Those who follow the old Orthodox calendar, of course, celebrate Christmas on this date, but this cannot concern us today).

All four of the sacred gospels record the baptism of Christ in the river Jordan. The physical act of the baptism was performed by St. John the Baptist, also known as the Prodromos, the Forerunner. This was his normal practice for those whom he called into a new life after repentance. We know that hundreds, if not thousands, went to John to be washed of their sins in the waters of this river. The Orthodox church celebrate St. John the Baptist the day after the Baptism of Christ.

Our Lord goes to John for baptism, and we know that John is humbled by the approach of the one he points to as ‘The Lamb of God’. However, in this act of baptism, something far more significant occurs, and it is this that gives this event such a place of honour in our faith and celebrated in our liturgical calendars. As our Lord is baptized, there occurs a full revelation of God in Jesus. In the Hebrew biblical tradition this might be called a manifestation of shekinah – the invisible God made visible and real, the transcendent God made immanent.

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04/01/2020 In Sermons & Services

Epiphany Sunday 5th January 2020 – Matthew 2, 1-12

Revd Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

Most of the well-known Christmas narratives come from St. Luke’s gospel, but for the Feast we call Epiphany, Christ being revealed to the Magi, or Wise Men, we look to St. Matthew for the sharing of the details.

These visitors to the crib are a stark contrast to the shepherds, not only in wealth and background, but also in the slow astronomical calculations that lead them to the place where Christ is born. The shepherds heard the message of the angels in the sky and ran; the Magi spotted a significant star and plotted their course. There is, if you like, a message to each of us in the response of these two groups. Some people find the pathway to faith quite natural and trouble free; others are slower for faith to mature, and the intellectual processes create an arduous, even tortured, journey into belief.

 

So it is. What matters is that we are journeying towards the same Christ who is the Word of God who comes among us, and the same Christ whose cross is the point of our reconciliation with God our Creator. There is no harm in a mystery being exciting; there is no harm in a mystery demanding much thoughtful debate. Quite the opposite, there is only joy waiting to be discovered

 

St. Matthew shares information about the gifts that are brought by the Magi; gold, frankincense and myrrh. This is quite a ‘baby shower’ as Americans might refer to it. Each gift is calculated to be symbolic – it seems they are not chosen at random. Majesty, sacrifice and death seem to be the message foretold in the gifts. The child in the manger is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords – for him the majesty of the minerals of kings. Sacrifice – incense is the smell of the temple where the sacrifices of the priests take place. This child is destined to be the new Temple, and his priesthood and sacrifice removes the need for any further sacrifice. Death – from the moment of his birth, death is in the air. Myrrh is for the embalming of a body. Mary is told that a sword will pierce her own heart because her child will suffer and will transform the suffering of the world.

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02/01/2020 In Sermons & Services

Christmas Sermon December 25th 2019

Revd Canon Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

 

There is a well -known Christmas song. The singer is Perry Como, though most people won’t remember that. We hear the song in shops, shopping malls, and at Christmas parties in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day.

The first line of the song is this: ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas.’

It is no longer beginning to look like Christmas – because the reality is now with us. The Christmas images of decorated trees, twinkling lights, and commercial tunes have been replaced with the wood of a stable and a crib, the bright shining of a star, and the first cry of a new born baby.

It is an amazing thought, isn’t it? The God who created the world, who is full of majesty and glory, who is beyond all our descriptions

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