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Harvest Sermon – St. Andrews Patras 7th October 2018

Revd Canon Leonard Doolan

 

The words of so many of our harvest hymns are great. They express the beauty of God’s glory in creation, but also there is something very comforting about them.

The seasons come and go, not with relentless monotony, but each season with its own distinctiveness . καλο  φθινοπορο. The evenings begin to change, and even in Greece there is a crispness at times in the early mornings and late evenings.

For the beauty of the earth,  For the glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth, Over and around us lies.

Yet despite the beauty that God reveals in his creation as his handiwork, there is much that distorts it, which is our handiwork.

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Trinity 19: Genesis 2, 18-24, Mark 10, 20-16

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

We have just all witnessed Sarah and Luke saying their marriage vows to each other in the sight of God. The reason they asked for this is that they were married in a Registry Office when their faith did not mean the same to them.  We rejoice that they are making a journey of faith together and we pray that renewing their marriage vows here will bring a rich blessing to their marriage.

The vows are lovely – of course they are, and the vows when they were first married represent the legal commitment to each other. I rather like the words we all said together for they represent the spirit of marriage, and most importantly that marriage should bring joy and be life-giving.

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Trinity 18: Numbers 11: 4-6, 10-16, 24-29; James 5: 13-20; Mark 9: 38-50

Fr. James Harris

 

You could’ve heard the yelp in Piraeus.

 

There was I, wandering along to Bazaar with the two girls in tow to pick up some groceries; when, at the sound of the said yelp, I turned round to observe Rosa, our youngest, sticking out of a manhole in the pavement, one leg in, one leg out, her flip flop dangling precariously into the void below, eyes wide with the shock of it (understandably) and totally unable to extract herself from her predicament.  The cover of the manhole was missing; she had not ben looking where she was going as she toddled along behind me and had stepped straight into it, her momentum carrying the rest of her forward.   She escaped with only a grazed shin and it’s the sort of thing I’m sure we will laugh about in the future – do you remember the time Rosa disappeared into the pavement? – but I recount it this morning because of what happened afterwards, which I think speaks into our Bible readings this morning.

Nearby on the pavement that afternoon was a Greek family – Mum, Dad and a toddler safely in a pushchair. Seeing the incident unfold, the Dad leaped into action, helping to extract Rosa, delving into his bag for antiseptic wipes, stuffing some waste cardboard into the hole to prevent further mishaps and even going into the shop to remonstrate with the staff as to why they hadn’t reported the hole or done something about it themselves. (I must admit that made it slightly awkward when we then had to limp in there to get our shopping!)

Our relative respective Greek and English were not good enough to have a long conversation but I could tell that he was deeply embarrassed that such an accident should happen to a visitor to his country, perhaps ashamed that money is so tight that the pavements could be left to fall into such disrepair in the first place, and most of all, deeply concerned for Rosa and her wellbeing. She could have been his child. And I think his reaction expressed an understanding of community that meant that, in a way, she was his child – in the sense that all of us belong to one another in some way, we are all each other’s responsibility, each other’s delight, each other’s concern. We are all, after all, children of the same heavenly Father.

 

I have seen this particularly with children in Greece – they are public property are they not? – and it is endearing and hugely affirming to experience. It’s not something that one experiences in quite the same way in the UK where, for all sorts of reasons, life is more ‘privatised’.

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St Lamberti

Kantorei St Lamberti, Hildesheim, Germany

An ensemble from Germany with a choir of 30 persons and an orchestra of 10
One hour programme entitled “Dona Nobis Pacem” (Peace on earth)
Programme:
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, Messe di Minuit, H.9
J. S. Bach, Double violin concerto, BWV 1043
W.A.Mozart, Laudate Dominum for Choir and Orchestra, K.339
Time: 19.00 hrs
Admission:  Free but donation required

 

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Trinity 16 2018: Isaiah 50, 4-9a; James 3, 1-12; Mark 8, 27-end.

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

In my previous parish in England every year we had a big town centre celebration for the switching on of the town Christmas lights. In fact it always happened on the Saturday that was the day before Advent Sunday. I managed to get them to rename the event from Christmas Market to Advent Market – it made no difference to the fun that we all had, but it meant that Advent got a look in, and we held off the name of Christmas for a few more days.

It was the custom of the Town Council to bring in what they call a ‘big name’ to turn on the lights. What that usually meant was a minor celebrity who had no work except the pantomime at Swindon.

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Trinity 15 2018 : Isaiah 35, 4-7; James 2, 1-10, 14-17; Mark 7 (passim)

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

On Friday afternoon I went with Fr. James to introduce him to the work of Apostoli . We were shown a video of their work. I already knew about many of the projects, but it was really impressive to note all the good works that the Archdiocese is doing throughout Greece as it seeks not only to support refugees and migrants, but also Greeks who have been affected by times of austerity, or whose needs cannot be filled by a government in chaos, strapped for cash.

We saw a facility for elderly people with alzheimers; a safe haven for children and young people with Downs Syndrome; projects to protect and nurture unaccompanied minors stranded in Greece because of the tragic situations in their own countries; tens of thousands of meals being produced every year to feed the hungry – and I noted how many of those who were thankful are Athenians. There are projects to ensure that medicines  and medical operations are made available for those who have no medical insurance.

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Trinity 14 2018:   Deut 4, 1-2, 6-9; James 1, 17-27; Mark 7 1-8, 14-16, 21-23   

The Revd.  Canon Leonard Doolan

 

Athens has been full of tourists during this last month – sufficient I hope to help sustain the essential tourist economy.  Inevitably if you walk around the Plaka district you will see the usual signs of tourism. Little necklaces with names spelled in Greek, made of wire; I love Greece T shirts, gold coloured laurel leafed crowns, and in particular for females those sandals with leather work that you tie up to the knees. Such is Athens in the tourism season.

I contrast this with what you would see if you went to Jerusalem, and in particular to the Western or ‘Wailing’ Wall. Not sandals with leather straps up to the knees, but men with leatherwork bound around their hands and lower arm and a leather box strapped to their foreheads. This is not a sign that they are tourists in Jerusalem, but that they are faithful Jews. They do this to keep faith with the command we have heard in today’s reading from Deuteronomy.

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Report of the Anglican Church in Athens to the Archdeaconry Synod

Our Archdeacon, Colin Williams, has asked all members of the Archdeaconry Synod, to write a report on the activities of the Chaplaincy over the past year.

Here is our report – and what a busy year it has been! We hope you enjoy reading it and that it will encourage you to come and join us for a service, or one of our bazaars or a concert.

 

Report from the Anglican Church in Greece

 

(St. Andrew’s Corfu and St. Thomas’s Crete will present their own reports as they have Synod Members)

Note:  The  legalization of the Church in Greece was completed towards the time of Synod 2017. The new procedures required of us have been put to the test with the appointment of a new Assistant Chaplain to Crete, further complicated by the fact that he is from outside the EU. The Board of the Anglican Church in Greece is due to meet later in the Autumn for its required annual meeting.

The order in which the following are placed has no bearing on their relative importance!

St. Paul’s Athens

  1. We continue to have a Sunday Liturgy at 10.15am every Sunday. As there is only one priest available, occasionally this service has to be a Liturgy of the Word, conducted either by Deacon Christine Saccali, or Reader Sherry Angelis. Our attendances at the 10.15am Liturgy are gradually increasing, which is very pleasing. The congregation is a mix of British women married to Greeks, individuals or families in Athens for short periods of work or teaching/study time, Africans (currently from South Africa, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya) and their families, occasional refugees (from Iran, Syria, China, and political refugees from Turkey), some Greeks who are generally disaffected with the Greek Orthodox Church, and a constant stream of tourists, pilgrims and visitors. Apart from holiday times the congregation numbers are often in the 90’s.

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Trinity 12 (Prov 9, 1-6; Eph 5, 1-6; John 6, 51-58) Preached at St Paul’s Athens

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever;  and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh’. (John 6, 51)

So many situations in the gospel revolve around food, eating and sitting at table together. We have such a hospitable God who invites us just to come and sit with him. One bishop once said, ‘God doesn’t need a church to live in, but he needs somewhere to show his hospitality’. That’s a challenge to us. What do you think a church is for?

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