St Paul’s Anglican Church Athens will be holding its annual Remembrance Day Service on Sunday 12th November 2017 at 10.15 hrs.
Prayers will be said for the dead of the Two World Wars, as well as all subsequent wars and a wreath of poppies will be laid on the Alter.
1 John 3, 1-3; Rev 7, 9-end; Matthew 5, 1-12
I have a confession to make. I am absolutely hopeless sin understanding how to use new technology. I feel not so much like a Luddite, which is like an iconoclast, but more like a dinosaur, which is prehistoric.
I can email, and like to email. My mobile phone can receive my emails as well. This is big step forward for me. I can take pictures on my phone – but I don’t know how to forward them to anyone else, so they just sit there in my photo gallery. I can text with my phone, though my fingers are too clumsy, so I often accidentally send off a message when I’m only half way through it.READ MORE
Last Sunday, the congregation of St Paul’s made a ‘marathon’ effort to reach the coach taking them up to the Kokotos Winery in Stamata, Northern Athens, to celebrate their Harvest Festival.
There, in the Sunshine, surrounded by Vines, we gave thanks and sang praise to our Creator for his Creation. During the Service Fr Leonard gave a sermon in which he said that Harvest reminds us of our relationship both to Creation and to the Creator. Read the full text of the sermon here.READ MORE
The time has come for Olga and myself not to say a final ‘goodbye’ but rather a heartfelt ‘au revoir’. It has been a long and at times demanding sojourn in Athens. There have been moments of frustration and anxiety but these have been over ridden by so much that was sheer delight and joy. If asked as to whether or not we would do it all over again then we would firmly say, ‘Yes’.READ MORE
I have not been in the Peloponnese since 1978. I sailed by ferry from Italy to Patras, and then on to Athens for three weeks study at the British School (of Archaology and Topography). From the School we visited Mycenae, Epidavros, Olympia and Korinth. So after such a long time it is good to be back.
There is a legend, of course, about a monk called St. Regulus, who visited Patras and took possession of some of the bones of St. Andrew and transported them to the east coast of Scotland, giving the name to the town and later the University of St. Andrews. This year the university celebrates its 600th anniversary, and it was my first university. So some little connections!
Isiaiah 25, 1-9; Philippians 4, 1-9; Matt 22, 1-14
Many years ago I was a Team Rector in North East Suffolk. Lynne and I lived in a small market town called Halesworth near to Southwold famous for its Adnams beer, and Adnams is a very good wine supplier as well. I recommend the Adnams ‘Fizz’ which friends from Suffolk used to bring us as a present when we were in Crawley and Cirencester.
Halesworth Team Ministry had its own very well produced church magazine called Team Times. The quality of its production was really only possible because we had a truly wonderful woman called Margaret Deering who sold advertising space to local businesses. READ MORE
The Harvest Festival celebration takes places on Sunday 18th October at the Kokotos Estate, Semeli Str., Stamata, Attica 145 75. We warmly invite you to join us in celebrating this year’s harvest in the winery’s beautiful surroundings.READ MORE
Natalia and Christian Reihe celebrate with a blessing of their marriage in St. Paul’s church, Athens. In the short homily, picking up phrase from a poem called ‘Someone’ Fr. Leonard developed the idea that love is about the heart in communion with the heart, and that this is how we connect to the heart of God’s love for us.READ MORE
Matthew 18, 21-36
Today the Church of England remembers the Battle of Britain. Between 1940 and 1941 the Royal Air Force fought the Luftwaffe against very heavy odds in a period commonly called ‘the blitz’. London, Portsmouth, Bath, Coventry, the Clyde in Glasgow – all these and more suffered from the bombing campaign of Germany. In September of that same year RAF Bomber command began a series of night raids over Germany that marked a turning point in the war with Germany as the RAF disrupted German plans to invade Britain in what was known as Operation Sea Lion.