Giorgis Christ. blog

Giorgos Christodoulou presents “Attic in Paris and other stories”

Giorgos Christodoulou presents “Attic in Paris and other stories”

Wednesday 22nd May 2019, 21.00

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

On the occasion of the CD release “Attic in Paris” by Mikri Arktos, this performance was set up with the unknown “lost” songs of Attic based on the time he lived in Paris and his many successes in Greece. 
For who was written “Let’s come for a while,” in what “strange” way the songs were known before the radio, was there a light “revolutionary” song before Theodorakis?


These and so many other questions are found in Giorgos Christodoulou’s humorous and emotional performance that premiered at the Athens Festival 2016 and travelled all around  Greece and abroad with acclaimed critics.

Organized by : Action ESTI

ENTRANCE BY TICKETS 12 and 10 euros

Information and tickets presale: https://www.viva.gr/tickets/theater/agglikaniki-ekklisia/o-attik-sto-parisi-kai-alles-istories/

 

Anglican Story

The Anglican Story

Father James’ sessions, held at the Swedish Centre or at St. Paul’s after the Wednesday morning service and lasting for about an hour and a half, began prior to Lent with “The God we Worship” – How did we get here? Encountering God-Father, God-Son and God-Holy Spirit. The Lent sessions were based on “The Narrow Way – Marks of the Christian Life”, and included Forgiveness, Sacrifice & Generosity and Community & Mission. In May and June the focus is “Distinctively Anglican – story, ethos and practice”. At the first meeting of this final session, and the first I was able to attend, Father James provided cards giving information about major events in our history and asked participants to put them into date order. Not easy, as you will see from this brief list of examples:

 

200 – first written reference to Christianity in England (in the writings of Origen and Tertullian)

597 – Augustine (later St Augustine of Canterbury) sent by Pope Gregory on his mission to England

1534- the break with Rome

1611 – King James Version of the Bible published

1944 – first woman is ordained to the Priesthood in the Anglican Communion (Rev Florence Li Tim-Oi  in Hong Kong)

2000 – Common Worship is published

2015 – first female Bishop in the Church of England is appointed (Rt Rev Libby Lane, Suffragan Bishop of Stockport)

 

Those of us with memories of English history lessons from …. let’s be polite and say pre-1970 ….. were at home with some of the earlier ones but not too sure of the more recent and we learned a lot about what had happened in the 20th century. Our friend George Katsaris proved to be a mine of information and, I’m happy to say, now attends our quiz evenings!

Readings from Evelyn Waugh’s “Helena”, a beautifully written historical novel based on the life of Emperor Constantine’s mother, made us want to read the whole book; one has to hope it’s still available. Final sessions will focus on “St. Paul’s Creeds & Doctrine”, “Worship and Sacraments” and “The Anglican Communion”, with the last taking place on June 26th.

 

Jean Mertzanakis

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Dr Rowan Williams blog

The Rt. Revd. Dr. Rowan Williams will be visiting Athens

The Rt. Revd. Dr. Rowan Williams, (former Archbishop of Canterbury) is visiting the St. Paul’s Anglican Church and Chaplaincy in Athens in May.

 

Programme:

  • Sunday 26th  May: Preside and preach at the 10.15 Liturgy followed by garden brunch. Preaching at Choral Evensong 18.30hrs.  All welcome.
  • Monday 27th May – official engagements including and audience with the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.
  • Tuesday 28th May – day of visits to spiritual locations
  • Tuesday 28th May – open evening event at 20.00hrs at St. Philothea House, Adrianou, Plaka – a dialogue with Metropolitan Gabriel (all welcome to this- there will also be musical entertainment and light refreshments)
  • Wednesday 29th May 10.00hrs Liturgy at St. Paul’s (all welcome) then the rest of the day visiting arranged venues in Athens.
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St Paul’s Spring Bazaar

Our Spring Bazaar will take place in the gardens of St Paul’s on Saturday 18th May between 10.00hrs and 14.00 hrs.

Come along and enjoy yourself. Catch up on your reading at our extensive book stall, or find the latest blockbuster DVD. Find a hidden treasure at the Bric a Brac, treat yourself to a new piece of jewellery or stock up on English Tea and souvenirs. For those who like a flutter there is a Tombola and a Raffle with some lovely prizes.

After all that shopping take the weight off your feet at the Food Corner where there will be some delicious goodies to eat, home made jams and preserves to buy and a glass of wine, Sangria, or even a G&T to wash it all down with!

Bring your parasols, tell your friends and come and enjoy a day out at a little oasis in the heart of Athens.

Nearest Metro Syntagma, and Filellinon is well served by Trolley and Blue buses.

See you there!

 

 

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Thiel blog

Thiel College Gospel Choir, Band and Chamber Singers, Pennsylvania, USA

Thiel College Gospel Choir, Band and Chamber Singers, Pennsylvania, USA

Saturday 11th May 2019, 20.30

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

 

The group of fifty musicians will perform a various programme of sacred, classical, contemporary and pop music.

 

Organized by : Thiel College, Department of Music and Theatre, Pennsylvania, USA

ENTRANCE FREE- RETIRING COLLECTION

Marc Ribot blog

St Paul’s Sessions 3 – Marc Ribot

Marc Ribot/ St Paul’s Sessions 3

Thursday 9th May 2019, 20.30 and 22.00

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

 

Marc Ribot was born in 1954 in New Jersey, where he was educated by classical guitarist Frantz Casseus from Haiti. In 1978 he moved to New York and took part in the soul / punk band of Realtones, and later appeared with Brother Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Chuck Berry and others.

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Ronig blog

Radio Pepper Church Sessions – Christian Ronig & Alexandros Livitsanos

CHRISTIAN RONIG & ALEXANDROS LIVITSANOS- Radio Pepper Church Sessions

Monday 6th May 2019, 20.30

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

On the 4th Church Sessions organized by Radio Pepper 96.6 FM, CHRSITIAN RONIG and ALEXANDROS LIVITSANOS will perform folk songs accompanied by a brass quintet.

Organized by: Radio Pepper- 

 

ENTRANCE BY INVITATIONS ONLY

Information and invitations: Radio Pepper 96.6 FM, https://www.pepper966.gr/

Tel. 213 018 9066 | E-mail: pepper9660@gmail.com

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Easter 2 2019

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan in St Paul’s Athens

 

Being Easter Christians means not standing still. Any serious reading of the resurrection narratives in the gospels shows that we are to be people on the move – on the move for our risen Lord.

The last few chapters of each gospel are full of movement, of journeys, of personal change and development. ‘Go into Galilee’, ‘Go into all the nations and baptize’, ‘While they were walking to a place called Emmaus’, ‘Peace be with you, as the Father sent me, so I am sending you’, all of these imply a physical movement, travelling with the risen Christ and in the power of the risen Christ.

The journey can also be a journey in and of faith – an interior journey. ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe’.  Jesus said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands’. ‘Thomas answered him “My Lord and my God’.

Thomas makes a personal journey of faith a journey of doubt to belief.

 

St. John’s gospel begins with the Word of God being en-fleshed, of being incarnate, and the association is immediately that this Word made flesh is Jesus of Nazareth. St. John, through his gospel account, presents Jesus as the one who is sent by God, who performs signs and wonders, who says, ‘I am the way, the truth, the life’, ‘I am the bread of life’, ‘I am the vine’, I am the Good Shepherd’ and so on. In his final chapters St. John’s intentions are crystallized in the words of St. Thomas.

This is the highest point of St. John’s gospel. Not only is Jesus Lord – he is God!

 

There is a strong tendency towards Thomas’s doubt in all of us. The slightest small incident, or even a great tragedy can throw us off course. It might be as simple as a word mis-placed by someone else in the Christian household, or it might be a catastrophic tragedy like the pointless innocent deaths in Sri Lanka.

If I am to be certain about my belief in God how can I find my way through these terrible things, performed by twisted and distorted humans  in God’s name.

St. Thomas’s journey is not always an easy journey, it is not always a straight road into deeper faith. Without the evidence that was shown to Thomas we have to take a step of faith. The risen Lord prepares us for this. ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe’.

We believe without the certainty presented to Thomas and the first disciples. Yet we will do well to reflect on the words of a former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, who said this: the opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty.

 

So we journey on in faithful hope and hopeful faith in the life of the resurrection. It will always be challenging. ‘Put your finger here, and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side’. The risen Lord brought his wounds of crucifixion with him when walked from the tomb. He did not leave the marks of cruelty and injustice, pain and heartache behind him. Easter Christians don’t believe in a Lord who was never crucified. The Easter faith is about the mystery of the cross.

We may not be able to put our finger into the wounds, or see his hands ripped apart by nails, but when we put our hands forward to receive our Holy Communion, we are receiving the bread of the wounded Christ, and the cup of the wounded Christ, and as we receive with outstretched hands the sacraments of our Lord we receive in communion with our sisters and brothers, wounded and dead in Sri Lanka, and with all the martyrs and faithful down through the Christian epochs.

 

Flowers on the Altar

Holy Week and Easter Celebrations at St Paul’s

Jean Mertzanakis

 

Standing room only at St. Paul’s on Easter Sunday morning, with glorious sunshine streaming through our stained-glass windows and the altar awash with white lilies donated in memory of loved ones and beautifully arranged by Mary Pelidis and her sister Anna.  Rousing hymns, an anthem beautifully rendered by our choir and a sermon delivered by Canon Colin, ex-Archdeacon of Europe and a dear friend of the Chaplaincy, who was presented with an icon, thanking him for all his work on behalf of the Athens Chaplaincy. He spoke of the death and despair confronted by people every day in this frightening world and how, by reaching out and loving others as Jesus  loved us, we can transform this so-called ‘reality’ into another and truer reality based on love and freedom from fear.

Baptismal vows were renewed and the congregation were sprinkled with Holy Water. Three young members of our congregation made their first Communion and our Sunday School children decorated the Cross with Easter Eggs symbolising Christ’s rebirth.  Father Leonard conducted the singing of an Alleluia chorus, with parts sung by different sections of the congregation (great fun!) and the service closed with the traditional and rousing cry of “Christ is Risen … He is Risen Indeed!”

Father James then led prayers at the Easter Garden which had been prepared on Saturday morning – a beautiful addition to Holy Week at St. Paul’s and one that will continue. Easter breakfast was served in the sunshine. It was lovely to see friends old and new, especially Maro Angelopoulos and Margaret Liveris, both returning to good health, and a host of visitors from Greece and various parts of the world. A truly blessed and joyful Easter Sunday. A big Thank You to our clergy team and everyone who made it so memorable.

“ΧΡΙΣΤΌΣ ΑΝΈΣΤΗ … AΛΗΘΏΣ  ΑΝΕΣΤΗ! “CHRIST IS RISEN ……. HE IS RISEN INDEED!”

 

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Easter Sunday 2019 – Third of THREE SERMONS PREACHED BY THE REVD. CANON COLIN WILLIAMS – EX ARCHDEACON OF THE DIOCESE IN EUROPE

These last weeks have been a bit nostalgic for me.  I have stepped down from my role as Archdeacon within the Diocese in Europe.  At various points I’ve been asked what are the things I most remember about my time as Archdeacon here.  And each time I’ve been asked that I’ve looked back to a March Tuesday in 2016 when I headed from Frankfurt where I live to Brussels for the day.

 

I set out on the train from Frankfurt at around 6.30.  It was 9.40 on Tuesday morning when I first realised something was wrong.  I had got up early that morning to catch the 6.30 train from Frankfurt to Brussels.  I had been invited  to preach at the service which was takes place during Holy Week every year  at the Church of England’s cathedral in Brussels .  It’s a service  at which clergy renew their ordination promises and Holy Oils are blessed. Clergy and laity were coming from all over Northern Europe to be part of the service.

Before I set out , I had updated the status on my FB page to say that I was on my way to Brussels to preach the sermon at this service.  At 9.40 I checked FB on my Smartphone to see if there were any updates.  Someone had commented on my status that I was going to preach in Brussels to say that he was praying for the people of Brussels. Cheeky so and so I thought – praying for the people on whom I was going to inflict my sermon. But then I realised that there might be more to this than met the eye.  So I logged on to the BBC news site.  – where news was emerging of explosions at Brussels Airport – and it was already clear that my day in Brussels was going to look rather different than I had imagined.

 

I arrived at Brussels Midi station and took the decision that I would be best setting out on foot rather than getting on to the Metro as I normally did.  As well I did.   Because in fact, unknown to me, just as I was making that decision a bomb went off further along the Metro.  And so as I walked from the station to the Cathedral, the city began to close around me.  Entrances to the Metro were taped off.  The streets became increasingly empty of traffic.  Shops closed down.

As I arrived at the Cathedral messages were coming through to say that those coming from Helsinki, Copenhagen, London were being turned back. And the thought did go through our mind too that on a day of terrorist action it wasn’t inconceivable that the terrorist might have their eyes too on an English pro-Cathedral.

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