Trinity Sunday 27th May 2018

James Hadley – Ordinand, and Philip Usher Scholar.

If you have been to Salonika you have probably visited the ancient Roman imperial complex of Galerius, and its Rotunda. You can’t help be struck by is cavernous interior, which in the ancient world was second only to the Pantheon in Rome. Probably when Constantine converted the rotunda into a church in 326 it was the largest church in Greek-speaking Christianity, and later under Theodosius, in it one of the great miracles of mosaics in the ancient world. Some parts of the mosaic remain, the brilliant gold and silver architectural fantasies with martyrs standing before them. The most intriguing parts are barely discernible, but with your camera lens you can begin to count them, one, two, three, four, five, once upon a time some 36 human sandaled feet. These feet are turned in all directions, on tip toes, or foot outstretched; they are in fact dancing feet. It seems that these earliest of Greek-Christians had dancing in their blood!  ♪♪♫ (Hummed) Dance, dance, wherever you may be…

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Pentecost 2018 (St. Thomas, Crete)

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, the likelihood is that it is a duck. We know things by their identity and associated features.

If it is an oval bag shape, and has many tentacles hanging from it, we might think it is a chtapodi an octopus. However it is not an octopus I have in mind but bapgpipes; that very ancient instrument that comes from the Mediterranean area, but is largely associated with Scotland.

You may as well put an octopus under your arm because when it is in a deflated state the bagpipe is as useless as an octopus as a musical instrument. However when you blow into it and fill it with air then it is transformed from being an octopus looking object to an instrument that can make a fair old noise.

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Easter 6 (John 15) 6th May 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

In today’s gospel we hear again the word ‘abide’. Christ invites us to abide in him, to inhabit him, by keeping the law of love – love for God and love for one another. Last week the same word was used, when Christ offers us the image of the vine. It is a glorious image, so I would like to ‘abide’ with this week also.

Just after we celebrated the Orthodox Easter Lynne and I had a few day’s holiday in Santorini. It is, as you will know, a spectacular geological phenomenon, being formed into what is referred to as the Kaldera, and it is the result of a volcanic eruption. As the volcano erupted the earth imploded, creating a vast new area for the waters of the Aegean to flow into and fill. It is thought that the tsunami that followed was enough to wipe out the Minoan civilization in Crete, and there is some suggestion that the water as it was pulled into filling this new vast area may have caused the waters to recess in the Red Sea, thus allowing dry land for a short time that allowed Moses and the Hebrew people to cross. The story of the undersea city of Atlantis which was destroyed  by the volcanic eruption also comes from here.

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