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Harvest Festival Deuteronomy 8: 7-18; Luke 12: 16-30

Fr James Harris

 

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land… a land of vines… of olive trees and honey… [where] you shall eat your fill.’

Sound familiar?!

 

Just take a moment to look around you – at the sheer beauty, goodness, abundance of this place, this land which the Lord our God has given us, in which, for whatever reason, and for however long now, he has seen fit to have us live.

Ever since we arrived here as a family at the end of August, I have been reminded just how close to the terrain of the Holy Land we are here in Greece, how similar the landscape is in this land where east meets west. Those verses from Deuteronomy could’ve been written about this place as much as about the Promised Land. And, in one sense, of course, they are written about this land and about every piece of land – because as much as they are describing a specific geographical location to which the people of God were being led at that point in history, they are also describing in universal terms the type of relationship, the covenant God has made with his Creation as a whole.

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Healing Eucharist – 18 October 2018 (St Luke) Isaiah 35: 3-6; Luke 10: 1-9

Fr James Harris

 

We gather today with a particular intention to ask for God’s healing.

 The healing power of God is all at once complex to understand, multi-dimensional, wonderful, transformative and mysterious.

 Healing is primarily a work of God the Holy Spirit – the Spirit that brooded over the waters at the moment of Creation; the Spirit that alighted on Jesus at his baptism, that empowered his ministry and teaching and that raised him from the dead; the Spirit that emboldened the disciples and apostles of the early Church; and the same Spirit that enlivens the Church today, that makes Christ real and enables us to call God Father.

 

The healing work of the Spirit is about straightening out and making right; it is about unfolding and loosening; about unlocking, unblocking and setting free; regenerating, reviving; soothing and embalming.

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Anglican Church Athens Harvest Festival

St PAUL’s Harvest Festival Celebration

Sunday 21st  October at the Ktima Kokotou Winery.
Please note there will be NO service at St Paul’s on that day.

(Everyone – and not just members of the Chaplaincy – most welcome and gifts of dried or tinned goods for the Sisters of Mercy will be gratefully received)

Harvest Eucharist 11:00
Followed by Wine Tasting at approx 12:30
Harvest Lunch from 1:30,

Tickets: 15 euros per person (10 euros children 3—10 years, toddlers free).  (Family Ticket – 2 Adults + 2 Children 3 – 10 years –  40 Euros.)  All proceeds to the Greater Athens Anglican Chaplaincy. Athens area tickets available from Lynn Stavrou.

In memory of Janet Halvantzi, her family have paid for a bus (which will be free of charge) to pick people up OPPOSITE St. Paul’s, Filellinon Street, departing PROMPTLY at 09.45hrs on the Sunday morning. Please ensure you are there in good time to avoid missing the coach. We will be unable to wait due to time constraints. We will depart from Ktima Kokotou Winery at 3.45 p.m. to return to St. Paul’s.

If you /your family / friends would like to travel by bus, please could you add your name to the sign-up sheet at the back of Church. RESERVED SEATING WILL CLOSE ON SUNDAY, 14TH OCTOBER.

 

Les Voix de Nice Blog
Les Voix de Nice

French Choir – “Les Voix de Nice”

“Les Voix de Nice” – Sunday the 28th October 2018 at 21.00

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

The 75-member choir from France will perform songs from France and Nice as well as popular and classical songs.  A concert not to be missed!

Organized by: It’s Greece Single Member P.C.

FREE ENTRANCE

Information: Samer Boustanzi, e-mail:samer@itsgreece.gr

http://www.voixdenice.org/

Blog AD & Ortho

New Encouragements in Greece

Archdeacon Colin Williams was in Greece for the weekend of 11th-14th October for the Licensings of two new priests. On Friday 12th he was in Crete for the Licensing of the Revd. Canon Bruce Bryant-Scott as the Assistant Chaplain with responsibility for Crete (St. Thomas’s, Kefalas). On Sunday 14th The Revd. James Harris was Licensed as Asst. Chaplain at St. Paul’s Athens.

Fr. James will work in Athens and Greece for one year. In Crete, Fr. Leonard the Senior Chaplain preached  and Archdeacon Colin preached in Athens (see website for the text).

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Licensing of Canon Bruce Bryant-Scott – Crete Oct 12th 2018 (Acts 27, 13-26; John 20, 19-23)

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

I chose the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles for purely pragmatic reasons. It mentions Crete which connects the island to the journey of the great apostle St. Paul on his way to Rome which would his place of martyrdom.

The second reading tells of St. John’s version of what we would otherwise call Pentecost – it his powerful statement of the risen Jesus Christ outpouring the Holy Spirit on his disciples.

By the end of this sermon I hope to have joined up these two rather disparate readings.

If you were here for the liturgy on the Feast of Pentecost this last May, you would have heard a sermon from me about authentic witness. ‘If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, then it is a duck’. An authentic description.  I further added, just to complicate things, what sounded to be an octopus (χταποδι), but I was actually describing bag-pipes (γκαιδα). Try playing a Scottish reel on an octopus, or eating a little dish of marinated bagpipe!

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Mouse On Mars

“Mouse on Mars” at St Paul’s on Monday 22nd October 2018

Mouse on Mars are an electronic music duo formed in Germany in 1993, consisting of Jan St. Werner from Köln, and Andi Toma from Düsseldorf. Their music is a blend of electronic genres including but not limited to IDMdubkrautrockbreakbeat, and ambient, featuring heavy use of organic analog synth and cross-frequency modulation. Their music also features live instrumentation including stringshornsdrumsbass and guitar.

Mouse on Mars is recognised as one of Germany’s most defining and versatile electronic music projects.

On Monday the 22nd October 2018, the duo will present an audio-visual show where part of their recordings will be presented

Organized by Arte Atene and Groove Productions

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EVENSONG 19

XIX Choral Evensong at St Paul’s Anglican Church Athens

The 19th Choral Evensong with Scola Cantorum will take place on Sunday 28th October 2018 at 6.30pm.

Collegium & Cappella Sancti Pauli conducted by Iason Marmaras

Minister: The Reverend Canon Leonard Doolan

free admission, discretionary donation

 

The Renaissance Choral Evensong services at St Paul’s are organised by the Schola Cantorum Sancti Pauli, the Athens Centre for Early Music, and St Paul’s Anglican Church.

The choir Cappella Sancti Pauli, under the direction of Iason Marmaras, sing a series of Choral Evensong services that aim to revive the musical and liturgical practice at Cathedrals and Chapels during the Renaissance, but also the experience that musicians had of this music at those times, looking at the music as a functional part of the liturgy, rather than as a building-block for concerts.

 

More information at:  schola.gr/19,     www.scholacantorum.gr

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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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