St Paul’s Harvest Festival Kokotos Winery

Everyone is welcome to come and celebrate our annual Harvest Festival on Sunday 27th October at the Kokotos Winery in Stamata.

There is a free coach leaving St Paul’s at 10.00hrs Sharp, (booking required). The service commences at 11.00 hrs, followed by wine tasting and an opportunity to purchase wines both before and during  the buffet lunch, cost 10€.

This is always a very enjoyable day out for all the family and a chance to get out of the town and into the countryside for the day. We have been very lucky with the weather over the past few years and pray that this current spell of warm sunshine will last for another week.

Kokotos Winery is a great friend of St Paul’s and we are very thankful that they allow us to celebrate our harvest festival so fittingly amongst the vines and grape harvest of their Winery.  Of course the wine-tasting is an added attraction to the day out but set in beautiful grounds it is an opportunity for the Chaplaincy to come together and enjoy themselves.

For more information and to reserve a place on the coach (first come first served) please contact:

Mrs Lynn Stavrou on:  6938 325088, or 2111 838414

For more information about the Kokotos Winery please click here

Archdeaconry Synod 2019 Report from Athens.

The Athens chaplaincy has been richly blessed since September last year with the presence of the Revd. James Harris, his wife, May, and children Grace and Rose. Fr. James had come to the end of his English curacy, and before exploring where he might wish to be a parish priest, he took the bold step of coming to Athens to work in the ministry team. This was all entirely at the family’s own expense, so it was a very sacrificial year for them. Sadly, in the middle of July we said our farewells and they are now back in Bristol.

Fr. James adds:

“Our year in Greece has been a formative adventure for us as a whole family: we have learned much, enjoyed much, and received much. A connection has been established with this country, and with St Paul’s Church in particular, which we are sure will last long into the future and shape the rest of our lives and ministry. As a priest, this year has opened my eyes to the challenges and opportunities of the world Church (both within and beyond Anglicanism) and helped me reassess the privileges of, and priorities for, Anglicanism in England. Although it was hard to say goodbye to many people who had become an important part of our lives, we feel we are called now to bring back our learning and experiences to the UK and invest them into what we hope will be a long term season ‘at home’.”

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ST Paul’s has a new Prayer Candle Stand

A new prayer candle stand has been generously donated to us by Metropolitan Gabriel, Bishop of Nea Ionia and Philadelphia (here in Athens).  We are very grateful for his continued support to us.   When it is in place please feel encouraged to come and light a candle before or after the Holy Liturgy or during the week when the church is open.

Quiz Evenings at St Paul’s

One of the highlights of the darker winter months is the regular Quiz Evening held every month at the Swedish Centre.

With questions set by our indomitable Quiz Master, Jean Mertzanakis, the teams made up of groups of 4 people, can be seen scratching their heads and arguing amongst themselves as they try and recall their general and particular knowledge.

This last season the quiz nights have brought in an amazing 1300 Euros to help the Chaplaincy for which we are very grateful and with a long summer ahead of us, we aim to read and study in order to face a new season of quiz nights with renewed vigour!

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Ascension Sunday and visit of Rowan Williams to St Paul’s Anglican Church Athens

Fr L W Doolan

They say ‘lightning doesn’t strike twice’. Open for debate, I think.  A few years ago I had the privilege of preaching at St. Mary’s Anglican Cathedral in the centre of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.  The preacher the Sunday before my preaching engagement was none other than one Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury. Follow that.

Well I find that I am in the same situation again. Bishop Rowan Williams preached here last Sunday, so I find myself in a somewhat unenviable situation again. ‘Lightning doesn’t strike twice’.  If I put a positive spin on this, I could be grateful to Rowan Williams as my ‘warm up’ guy.

Bishop Rowan was with us in Athens for 5 days, and we had a varied programme, a programme devised by me to exploit the world-wide prestige of this man, and the esteem with which he is held by the Orthodox Church here in Greece.

He arrived last Saturday night and stayed at the Residence of the British Ambassador. Sunday was set aside for a St. Paul’s focus, with him presiding and preaching at the morning Liturgy, followed by a wonderful church brunch served in our garden – thank you to all who organised this brunch, or who served food, moved tables, cleared away, and brought food to share.

After an afternoon rest we were back to St. Paul’s for Choral Evensong with the Schola Cantorum choir which Bishop Rowan thoroughly enjoyed, and we popped into Plaka to have a drink with the young singers.

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TUESDAY EVENING AT ST PHILOTHEI HOUSE

On Tuesday evening, May 28^th, in the beautiful surroundings of St. Philothea House in Plaka, a colloquium of distinguished guests joined Bishop Rowan Williams and Fr Leonard for discussion and conversation.  The panel consisted of Orthodox Bishop Gabriel of Nea Ionia, Mr. Costas Carras, President of the environmental group “Europa Nostra”, Dr. Nicki Tsironi, Associate in Byzantine Studies at the Universities of Athens, Harvard and Vancouver, and Mr. Constantine Dimtsas, Director-General of the Orthodox Charitable Foundation, Apostoli. Bishop Rowan then gave a brief description of his thoughts on Being Human after which there were contributions from the panellists.

“Being Human”

• The modern and technologically biased model of a human being is totally inadequate; a human being is not a “passive lump” – the body – powered by a “machine” – the brain, as proposed by various contemporary writers, but a united and living whole.
• The “mystery” that is a human being is defined first in relation to our Creator and then to other human beings; we recognize them and are recognized by them; we work together with them and also interact with the physical world around us, not with an eye to self-gain but with reverence for God’s creation. But we should also stand in silence before God, His Creation and our Neighbour – seeing the mystery but not trying to grasp it.
• Our best model of what God is like is found in Jesus Christ, Who not only used constant examples of the natural and physical world around Him to illustrate His teachings but also exemplified them through His actions. The Orthodox organisation “Apostoli” and the work it does with others, including St. Paul’s, to support those in need not only solves their problems but helps the image of Good in them to be realized.

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OF WAR AND PEACE

There’s nothing like welcoming a group of inquisitive, exploratory children into a space with which you think you’re familiar, to make you look at it with fresh eyes and realise just how much you take for granted, or have missed altogether.

When the two classes from Year 4 (ages 8-9) at Byron College visited St Paul’s in May, they were delighted to be able to explore the church, and look closely at the various memorials, windows and liturgical furniture which adorn the building. For many it was their first time inside St Paul’s, and for some, the first time in a Christian church of any kind. The questions they asked about the building and its purpose were insightful, thought-provoking and occasionally challenging – but that’s how we all learn, and this Priest was certainly put through his paces and caused to think hard about some of his responses!

The children came as part of their studies on issues relating to war and peace, and specifically the history of the First World War. Having visited the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery at Alimos in the morning, the visit to St Paul’s was an opportunity to think about the names recorded on the various memorials in the church and to wonder who those men were, what had brought them to Greece and why their loved ones had wanted to commemorate their lives – and their deaths – in this particular place.

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