Service for the Baptism of Christ 1st Sunday after Epiphany – 9th January 2022

St Paul’s Athens

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. Please stay and have coffee after the liturgy. Masks are required at all times – and social distancing.

The presiding priest and preacher is Fr. Leonard, assisted by Nelly Paraskevopoulou.

[Minister:  We will go unto the altar of God

All:            Even unto the God of our Joy and gladness

Minister:  Our help is in the name of the Lord

All:            Who has made heaven and earth.

Minister:  O Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness

All:            Let the whole earth stand in awe of him]

Entrance Hymn    55  Hail to the Lord’s Anointed

Priest:     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

All:          And also with you

Priest:     The Lord be with you

 All:          and also with you

The priest then welcomes the people of God.

Silence   (Then a Minister leads us in the words of the Confession)

All:   Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done, through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past; and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light.  Amen.

Absolution: May almighty God have mercy on you, forgive you your sins, and bring you to everlasting life.

All:   Amen.

Gloria:   Glory to God in the highest, peace to his people on earth.

               Glory to God in the highest, peace to his people on earth.

1. Lord God heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.
2. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God,

you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us, have mercy on us,

You are seated at the right hand of the Father, receive, receive our prayers.

3. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen

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Service for the 2nd Sunday of Christmas – 2nd January 2022

St Paul’s Athens

Welcome to St Paul’s Athens,   especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. Happy New Year! Deacon Christine leads our worship today, and is the preacher. Please remember that masks are mandatory in church and when you are in groups in the garden. We are required to be 1.5m apart for worship.

Opening Hymn:  36 The first Nowell

Minister:  Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

All:            and also with you.

Minister:  O Lord, open our lips

All:            and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Minister: Give us the joy of your saving help

All:            and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.

The minister then welcomes people informally.

Prayers of Penitence

Minister:   As we come to the Lord at the start of this New Year, let us seek his grace to number our days, that we may apply our hearts to wisdom as we confess our sins in penitence and faith.

All: Lord God, we have sinned against you;

       we have done evil in your sight.

       We are sorry and repent.

       Have mercy on us according to your love.

       Wash away our wrongdoing and cleanse us from our sin.

       Renew a right spirit within us and restore us to the joy of your salvation;

       through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Minister:  May the Father of all mercies cleanse us from our sins, and restore us

in his image to the praise and glory of his name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

All:            Amen

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Service for December 26th St. Stephen, Deacon, First Martyr

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens for Christmas. Happy Christmas! The presiding priest is Fr. Leonard and Deacon Christine is the preacher.

Entrance Hymn  

Good King Wenceslas looked out
On the Feast of Stephen
When the snow lay round about
Deep and crisp and even
Brightly shone the moon that night
Though the frost was cruel
When a poor man came in sight
Gathering winter fuel

Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou knowst it, telling
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?
Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain
Right against the forest fence
By Saint Agnes fountain.

Bring me flesh and bring me wine
Bring me pine logs hither
Thou and I shall see him dine
When we bear them thither.
Page and monarch, forth they went
Forth they went together
Through the rude winds wild lament
And the bitter weather

Sire, the night is darker now
And the wind blows stronger
Fails my heart, I know not how
I can go no longer.
Mark my footsteps, good my page
Tread thou in them boldly
Thou shall find the winters rage
Freeze thy blood less coldly.

In his masters step he trod
Where the snow lay dinted
Heat was in the very sod
Which the Saint had printed
Therefore, Christian men, be sure
Wealth or rank possessing
Ye, who now will bless the poor
Shall yourselves find blessing.

Priest:  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

The Lord be with you.

All:       and also with you

Priest:  Hark! the herald angels sing

All:       Glory to the newborn King.

 Priest:   St. Stephen and the martyr saints were faithful unto death and now dwell in the heavenly kingdom for ever. As we celebrate their joy, let us bring to the Lord our sins and weaknesses, and ask for his mercy.

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Service for the 3rd Sunday in Advent – 12th December 2021

Welcome to St Paul’s Athens,   especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  Deacon Christine leads our worship today, and is the preacher.  Fr. Leonard is in Thessaloniki today. Please remember that masks are mandatory in church and when you are in groups in the garden. We are required to be 1.5m apart for worship.

Opening Hymn:

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of Him
Who brings good news, good news
Proclaiming peace, announcing news of happiness
Our God reigns, our God reigns

Chorus:
Our God reigns, our God reigns
Our God reigns, our God reigns

You watchmen lift your voices joyfully as one
Shout for your King, your King,
See face to face the Lord restoring Zion
Your God reigns, your God reigns!

Waste places of Jerusalem break forth with joy
We are redeemed, redeemed
The Lord has saved and comforted His people
Our God reigns, our God reigns!

Ends of the earth, see the salvation of your God
Jesus is Lord, is Lord.
Before the nations He has bared His holy arm
Our God reigns, our God reigns!

Lighting of the 3^rd Advent Candle

Minister: People of God, return! You are called to be God’s own. From the mountains announce good news. God comes in justice and peace, to all who follow in his ways. You are God’s Children.

All: Lord make us one in the peace of Christ today and forever. Amen.

 Minister:  Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father

and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you

All:            and also with you.

Minister:  O Lord, open our lips

All:            and our mouth shall proclaim your praise.

Minister: Give us the joy of your saving help

All:            and sustain us with your life-giving Spirit.

The minister then welcomes people informally.

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Zoom Log-in for the eve of the Nativity of Christ 2021

Topic: Carol Service

Time: Dec 24, 2021 06:00 PM Athens

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88473908653?pwd=UDN5SFY0a0ZrWURzUkJQUXBkcmlDQT09

Meeting ID: 884 7390 8653

Passcode: 19F9nqZ

Zoom Carol Service for the Eve of the Nativity of Christ 2021

YouTube link to the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols held at St Paul’s on 19th December 2021 with the help of the Athens Singers

(Zoom 18.00 – try to join around 17.45hrs)

At 17.50  Christina Antoniadou will play some Christmas music before we worship.

Welcome           Father Leonard

Introduction     Deacon Christine

Lord’s Prayer:   Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;

                             Thy kingdom come, thy will be done; in earth as it is in heaven.

                             Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our

                             trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

                             And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil;

                             For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,

                             For ever and ever.  Amen.

Carol 

1 It came upon the midnight clear,
that glorious song of old,
from angels bending near the earth
to touch their harps of gold:
“Peace on the earth, good will to men,
from heaven’s all-gracious King.”
The world in solemn stillness lay,
to hear the angels sing. 

2 Still through the cloven skies they come
with peaceful wings unfurled,
and still their heavenly music floats
o’er all the weary world;
above its sad and lowly plains,
they bend on hovering wing,
and ever o’er its Babel sounds
the blessed angels sing. 

3 And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,
whose forms are bending low,
who toil along the climbing way
with painful steps and slow,
look now! for glad and golden hours
come swiftly on the wing.
O rest beside the weary road,
and hear the angels sing! 

4 For lo! the days are hastening on,
by prophet seen of old,
when with the ever-circling years
shall come the time foretold
when peace shall over all the earth
its ancient splendors fling,
and the whole world send back the song
which now the angels sing.

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Bible Study 2 for Advent Season

The Living Stone and a Chosen People

2 Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. ² Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

⁴ Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵ like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For it stands in scripture:

“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”

⁷ To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,

“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner,”

⁸ and

“A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”

They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

¹⁰ Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.

Live as Servants of God

¹¹ Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul. ¹² Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.

¹³ For the Lord’s sake accept the authority of every human institution, whether of the emperor as supreme, ¹⁴ or of governors, as sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to praise those who do right. ¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing right you should silence the ignorance of the foolish. ¹⁶ As servants of God, live as free people, yet do not use your freedom as a pretext for evil. ¹⁷ Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

The Example of Christ’s Suffering

¹⁸ Slaves, accept the authority of your masters with all deference, not only those who are kind and gentle but also those who are harsh. ¹⁹ For it is a credit to you if, being aware of God, you endure pain while suffering unjustly. ²⁰ If you endure when you are beaten for doing wrong, what credit is that? But if you endure when you do right and suffer for it, you have God’s approval. ²¹ For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you should follow in his steps.

²² “He committed no sin,
and no deceit was found in his mouth.”

²³ When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. ²⁴ He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. ²⁵ For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.