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20/08/2018 In Sermons & Services

Trinity 11: 1 Kings 19, 4-8; Eph 4, 25-5,2; John 6, 35; Preached in St. Paul’s Athens.

The Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan.

 

We note that in tragedies, as well as loss and suffering, there are great acts of bravery. Such bravery is not just among members of the emergency services, but in normal human beings. These are times when human nobility shines through the darkness. We should rejoice that we as humans can be transformed from our everyday lives, to actions of heroism – humanity at its best.

Sadly, of course, we don’t always see humanity at its best, and we can ourselves be the culprits. We can be examples of the very antithesis of the nobility I have referred to. We can so easily be attracted to the baser instincts of behaviour and attitude, and we can often say the wrong things. A deep reason for this is often boredom and complacency. In boredom we are not well motivated; in complacency we don’t seem to think it matters how we speak to someone else, or about someone else.

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30/07/2018 In Blog News, Sermons & Services

Sermon preached after the devastating fires of East Attica

Trinity 9 (29th July 2018)  2 Kings 4, 42-44; Ephesians 3, 14-21; John 6, 1-21   (Preached in St. Paul’s Athens)

 

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan, Senior Chaplain, Greece.

 

When a priest asks an elderly man why he comes into church for a time each day, the elderly man  says, ‘Sometimes I sit and pray. Sometimes I just sit.  ’Sometimes I sit and pray. Sometimes I just sit.’

The three readings set for our liturgy today have a common theme, namely the abundance of God. God is the great and generous provider, offering to humanity more than we could ever ask or deserve.

A  hymn so wonderfully says, Finest bread I will provide, till their hearts are satisfied.

In the first reading Elisha is faced with a dilemma. How can he feed a hundred people with insufficient grain to make the bread? God says,’ Let them eat. They shall eat and have some left.’

God is indeed a God of bounty and of endless generosity.

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Queens Photo Gallery
26/07/2018 In Blog News

QUEENS’ COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE CHOIR SING AT ST PAUL’S

Janet and Harry Anathassopoulou

 

On Friday July 20th the choir of Queens’ College Cambridge University visited Athens and gave a concert at St. Paul’s Anglican Church. For all us who were lucky enough to be there it was a beautiful and uplifting evening. The choir of male and female voices was conducted by Ralph Allwood MBE. His introduction to each piece was always amusing and informative and heightened our anticipation.

 

The programme included music from the 16th to the 20th Century. The composers ranged from Italian, Spanish, French, German, English and Australian to Irish. The concert began with four 16th Century Latin Chants. The type of music that can transport one to another plane. Perfect pitch and perfect harmony. As the choirmaster had said at the start, although such music is often sad, it is this very sadness that lifts our soul! One well known piece, that most of us knew, was “Song for Athene” by John Tavener. Even if not known by name, it was the song sung at Diana Princess of Wales’ funeral. Sad and beautiful it drew a “bravo” from the audience.

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07/07/2018 In Sermons & Services

Feast of SS Peter & Paul 1 July 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

I have taken the liberty of moving the Feast of St. Peter and Paul from their calendar date of June 29th, to today, so that we could honour these two great ‘apostles of Christ.

They belong together in so many ways but chiefly as foundations for the building up of the Christian Church.

Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall; one named Peter, one named Paul. Fly away Peter, fly away Paul, come back Peter come back Paul.

I have often pondered whether this little rhyme has any connection with the Peter and Paul that we honour today. These two saints are very different, and yet have much in common.

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02/07/2018 In Sermons & Services

Trinity 3 17th June 2018

Reader  Sherry Angelis

 

I can imagine that the majority of us have, at some time,  planted a seed or two,  and then waited and watched for the outcome.  I remember doing exactly this with my  4-year-old daughter.   We had space for a tiny garden on the balcony and spread around seeds for lettuce,  carrots,  and green onions.  Every morning,  Sofia would rush outside to check on our crops.  Slowly but surely the results began to appear.  I will never forget the look on her face when the green poked through the dark brown soil.  Her excitement and joy were immeasurable!  Even though we never planted a mustard seed, still the fact remains that what went under the soil grew into something much bigger!

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Girls Choir
01/07/2018 In Announcements

Partners in Praise Girls Choir

The Partners in Praise Girls Choir will be performing at St Paul’s on Monday 2 July 2018.

 

Performance starts at 20.00 hrs, Entrance is free.

 

We hope to see many of you there to support these young people.

 

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25/06/2018 In Blog News

“Ad Clerum” – Bishop Robert writes to the Congregations of the Diocese in Europe

Trinity Season 2018

AD CLERUM

 

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As a choirboy in the 1960s, I used to amuse myself during what felt like interminable sermons by flicking through the pages of the Book of Common Prayer. I quickly formed the view that, after the exciting events of Christmas, Epiphany, Easter and Whitsun the author’s imagination had run out when it came to the Trinity season. So we had a succession of Sundays ‘after Trinity’ from the first, the second, the third…right up to the twenty-fifth until things restart in Advent. All very dull and boring.

These days, I see it differently. The celebration of Trinity Sunday draws together the divine activity in creation and redemption made known through the threefold action of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Human beings are incorporated into this life through faith and baptism in the name of the Trinity. Our lives are to be patterned individually and corporately upon a God who makes himself known as a diverse unity. And so all human life is lived as a series of events ‘after Trinity’ until the last great day when God in his Advent makes all things new.

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19/06/2018 In Announcements, Blog News

The Choir of Queens’ College Cambridge University 20th July 2018

The Choir of the Chapel of Queens’ College Cambridge will be performing at St Paul’s on Friday 20th July 2018 at 20.30 hrs.  Admission free.

Queens’ College Choir

Queens’ College Choir is one of the leading mixed-voice choirs in Cambridge. While twentieth-century music forms the core of the choir’s repertoire, the choir increasingly performs Baroque and contemporary music, reflecting the specialisms of the Director of Music. The choir is regularly joined by a group of student instrumentalists, the Queens’ Chapel Players, enabling the liturgical performance of concerted music. The Choir’s CD recordings have attracted widespread critical acclaim. Their most recent disc, ‘For the Wings of a Dove: Music of Supplication and Hope’, is based on settings of the psalms and includes Mendelssohn’s famous setting of Psalm 51, ‘Hear my prayer’. In recent years the Choir has performed in Hong Kong, Switzerland, France, Germany, Southern Italy, Belgium, Hungary and the USA.

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14/06/2018 In Sermons & Services

Trinity 2 10th June 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

 

One of the paintings of the western artist Lucas Cranach the Elder famously shows Adam and Eve in the garden of paradise. The painting dates from 1528 and is now housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, but originally it was an altar panel.

The picture shows an apple tree, Adam to one side Eve to the other. Around them are animals and birds all contentedly mingling about, even though there are deer, a wild boar, birds, and maybe not surprisingly a lion and a lamb; A scene of blissful co-existence and interdependence.

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