VOR FUES KANTORI Blog

VOR FUES KANTORI (Our Lady’s Choir)

The VOR FUES KANTORI (Our Lady’s Choir) from Svendborg, Denmark, initiated in 2002,  have become known for their beautiful and intense concerts. The 16-members choir is characterised by an unusual homogeneous tone and both a classical and non-traditional repertoire.

The aim of Our Lady’s Choir is to perform and spread the vocal polyphonic music as well as to perform past and contemporary repertoire, rhythmic and classic vocal music with religious or existential content.

The choir has performed in the south of Spain, Germany, Italy and Canary Islands. The conductor Povl Christian Balslev has given concerts as a soloist, accompanist, chamber musician and carillon player around the world.

Conducted by Povl Christian Balsley

Thursday 17th October 2019, 20.30

ENTRANCE FREE – RETIRING COLLECTION

whereswilder Blog

WHERESWILDER Taste the Music 2

Thursday 10th October 2019, 21.00

“I was trying to find my way but no one said it was that hard

 

The Greek band Whereswilder from Athens, who drew their name from the popular American game “Where is Waldo?, have no difficulty in finding their way. There’s something slick about their wistful melodies and their fuzzy energy that evokes the heartfelt music of the 60s, the boom of 70s and its genuine raw emotion; and Whereswilder is delving into the past in order to drag them into the future.

Organized by: United We Fly IKE

https://www.unitedwefly.com/

Empowered by Skouras Domaine

ENTRANCE BY 2 ZONES TICKETS: 12 and 10 Euros

12 € [Sale 10 € on Erechtheion Engine 22 Koukaki, Tel .: 2109248328]
Reservations: 6976228271, 6978705491 (10am to 12pm & 18am to 8pm)

Information: United We Fly: Tel: 2106985340, info@unitedwefly.com,

Tickets pre-sale: Viva.gr

Tel. 13855, 211 7700 000 and 211760 3000

https://www.europavox.com/bands/whereswilder/

https://www.facebook.com/whereswildergr

Lithi Oblivion Blog

“LITHI- OBLIVION” By Dimitris Dimitriadis

The greatest joy is not to be afraid”

One play- Five theatrical monologues “Loss-Memory-Repentance-Art-Oblivion” by Dimitris Dimitriadis
“The body is the representative of the body. There is no other God”. How many industries have, been founded on man’s refusal to accept the “end”? How different would the world be if we (sub) accepted mortality? Five performers convey the five voices of the play, passing from body to text, from laughter to sensuality and from organ music to song.”

Wednesday 2nd October 2019, Friday 4th October 2019, Saturday 5th October 2019, 21.15

at St Paul’s Anglican Church, 27 Filellinon, Syntagma, Athens

Organized by: LAD theatre company

ENTRANCE BY TICKETS: 12 and (Only 10 Euros at Erechtheion Engine 22 Koukaki, Tel .: 2109248328)

Information/ Reservations: Mob. 6976228271, 6978705491 (10am to 12pm & 18am to 8pm)

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Trinity 13 – 15 September 2019 – Gospel reading: Luke 15, 1-10.

St. Paul’s Athens  (Canon Leonard Doolan)

 

There is an idiom in English that goes like this: ‘Finders keepers, losers weepers. ‘

You find a €20,00 note on the pavement. Maybe you look around to see if anyone has a prior claim to it, then you bend down, pick up the note and pop it into your pocket. The feeling is good, but then you think, if only it was a €50,00…..

‘Finders keepers, losers weepers’.

Today’s gospel is all about being found. ‘There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’ (Lk 15, 7)

‘There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents’. (Lk 15, 10)

Each one of us has lost something important or precious. We know what that sinking feeling is like. It is not the same as having something stolen – that is a harrowing feeling; we feel helpless because someone else has committed an unsolicited act against us, so we feel personally violated. However, when we lose something the reaction is different, because we also feel angry with ourselves for not being careful enough. ‘How on earth could I have been stupid enough to have done that?’ We all know that feeling.

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Archdeaconry Synod 2019 Report from Athens.

The Athens chaplaincy has been richly blessed since September last year with the presence of the Revd. James Harris, his wife, May, and children Grace and Rose. Fr. James had come to the end of his English curacy, and before exploring where he might wish to be a parish priest, he took the bold step of coming to Athens to work in the ministry team. This was all entirely at the family’s own expense, so it was a very sacrificial year for them. Sadly, in the middle of July we said our farewells and they are now back in Bristol.

 

Fr. James adds:

“Our year in Greece has been a formative adventure for us as a whole family: we have learned much, enjoyed much, and received much. A connection has been established with this country, and with St Paul’s Church in particular, which we are sure will last long into the future and shape the rest of our lives and ministry. As a priest, this year has opened my eyes to the challenges and opportunities of the world Church (both within and beyond Anglicanism) and helped me reassess the privileges of, and priorities for, Anglicanism in England. Although it was hard to say goodbye to many people who had become an important part of our lives, we feel we are called now to bring back our learning and experiences to the UK and invest them into what we hope will be a long term season ‘at home’.”

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Trinity 11 – 1 September 2019 – Proverbs 25, 6-7; Hebrews 13, 1-8, 15-16; Luke 14, 1, 7-14.

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan  – St Paul’s Athens

 

We don’t often have such a brief reading from the Old Testament. It may be brief, but the words set the tone for our gospel reading this morning, which I am reducing, in a sense to two main themes: personal humility and a gracious church. Since coming to Greece I have had a good number of encounters with the Orthodox Church. It is easy to make generalizations about the church that dominates in any country. Indeed, generalizations are easy about the Church of England and her clergy, back in England, where even the smallest village has a parish church. It is easy to knock any established church, in any country.

 

There are good priests and there are poor priests in every church in every land. There are open and encouraging congregations and there are closed and discouraging congregations. There are congregations open to change, and there are congregations bitterly opposed to the slightest change. There are congregations that are growing in number, and there are congregations that are declining rapidly. The reason for this is usually because being open and encouraging, being open to change, is more likely to be a community of faith that has the intention of being welcoming, loving, responsive to individuals and the needs of the local community, and therefore growing.

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Candle stand blog

ST Paul’s has a new Prayer Candle Stand

A new prayer candle stand has been generously donated to us by Metropolitan Gabriel, Bishop of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia (here in Athens).  We are very grateful for his continued support to us.   When it is in place please feel encouraged to come and light a candle before or after the Holy Liturgy or during the week when the church is open.

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Trinity 10 – 25th August 2019 – Luke 13, 10 – 17

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan,  St Paul’s Athens

 

‘Walk carefully as you come here for God is here before you

Walk humbly as you come here for two or three are gathered

Walk softly as you come here for the spirit may speak in the silence of this place’

(A Celtic prayer)

 

The Scottish poet Robert Burns was a great observer of everyday life and many of his poems concentrate of a fine detail or small item.

 

While sitting in his church in Alloway, Ayrshire, one Sunday morning, no doubt bored from listening to some great long-winded  sermon, his roving eye suddenly spots Jenny.

 

I wonder how many of us have allowed our minds to wander during a sermon and looked around to see who else is present. ‘She was wearing that dress last week’, ‘what has she done to her hair’ he’s showing his age’ did his wife not tell him that colours don’t go together’ ‘who does she think she is, coming to church when last week she was so unchristian to me’ ‘his words don’t match his actions’ and so the list will go on and on.

 

He spots on Jenny’s rather flamboyant hat, no doubt her Sunday best, an insect, a louse, crawling over the netting of her bonnet.

 

‘Oh Jenny, dinnae toss your heid,

An’ set your beauties a’ a breed

Ye little ken what dreadfu’ speed the blastie’s makin,

They winks and finger ends I dread,

Are notice takin’.

 

I suspect that any Greeks here this morning will struggle a bit with the poet’s regional dialect. In fact even English speakers struggle with it.

 

The point is that it is not just the poet who has spotted the insect. Others in the church have seen it too and are beginning to wink at each other and point, no doubt in a judgemental fashion. ‘You see, she comes in that big fancy hat to show off in church, but look at that thing crawling all over it’.

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Trinity 8 – 11th August 2019 – Treasure Trail

Deacon Christine Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

 

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

It is often remarked that living in Greece is learning to live with the unpredictable and certainly over my 40, yes four zero years, here I have found that to be true and am still finding it. Take the earthquake, or heartquake as an Italian fellow deacon called it endearingly by mistake, which we lived through in Athens last month and which to some of us brought back memories of 1999 or 1981 here in Athens. It suddenly jolts the heart just as the heart stopping fires last year did.

Earthquakes are notoriously difficult to predict even though we know we live in a seismic country, there is an app to record the latest global shocks but nothing to foretell them. We put it to the back of our minds until another tremor shocks us. It is good to be aware and take precautions in case of fire, winds or quakes but we cannot live in constant expectation of them not carrying out our normal lives. This can be applied to living with political upheaval. War,  knife or gun crime or terrorism as well.

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Trinity 6 – 28th July 2019 (Luke 11, 1-13)

Canon Leonard Doolan, St. Paul’s Athens.

 

On the top of the Mount of Olives Empress St. Helena built one of her basilica churches when she visited Jerusalem in the 320’s AD. With her son being the Emperor Constantine she had some real cash and clout behind her. She was a faithful woman, and wished to see the places where the most important and holy things happened in the life of our Lord. Jerusalem at the time was a bit of a slum, so with the arrival of the Dowager Empress, Jerusalem went through one of the largest real estate developments it had seen in centuries.

This basilica, one of several built by St. Helena, was visited by a pilgrim called Egeria in the AD380’s. The journal of her pilgrimage is still in existence, and she records the liturgical events in the holy city. The great doctor of the church, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, was the bishop at the time.

Her journal describes what is done on Holy Thursday, during the Great Week, or Holy Week as we call it. On a busy liturgical day she gives us this information:

‘… after they have all eaten, all go to the Eleona to the church wherein is the cave where the Lord was with his Apostles on this very day. There, then until about the fifth hour of the night, hymns and antiphons suitable to the day and the place are said, lessons too, are read in like manner, with prayers interspersed, and the passages from the gospel are read where the Lord addressed his disciples on that same day as he sat in the same cave which is in that church’.

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