Audio Sermon for the Feast of St Barnabas – 11th June 2023

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Service for the Feast of St Barnabas, Apostle, 11 June 2023

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here

for the first time or visiting Athens.  Fr. Leonard will preside and preach; the deacon is Deacon Christine Saccali. Please note that the church has a POS facility for payments

and you can follow the service sheet online – ask for the password. Communion books and activity sheets are available for children – ask the Sidespeople for assistance.

Entrance Hymn  167  The ‘Son of Consolation’

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

     All:         Amen

Priest:    The Lord be with you

     All:         And also with you

The priest then informally welcomes the people of God and the deacon leads us into Confession.

Deacon: We run the race set before us, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Therefore let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, bringing them to Jesus in penitence and faith.  (A short period of stillness and silence)

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 your Son 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: Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Gloria:  Glory to God in the highest, peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. 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 prayer. 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

Collect:  Let us pray    (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day) 

Bountiful God, giver of all gifts, who poured your Spirit upon your servant Barnabas and gave him grace to encourage others: help us, by his example, to be generous in our judgements and unselfish in our service; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

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Audio Sermon for TrinitySunday – 4th June 2023:

Fr Leonard Doolan p St Paul’s Athens

Liturgy of the Word for Trinity Sunday – 4th June 2023

Welcome to St Paul’s Athens,   especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.

Please join us after the service for refreshments in the garden. St. Paul’s has internet – ask for the password.

The worship is led by Nelly Paraskevopoulou who is in training to be a Licensed Reader.

Entrance  Hymn: 146  Holy Holy Holy

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:   Jesus says, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand. So let us turn away from our sin and turn to Christ, confessing 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

Psalm       Hymn Book 533      This will be led by the choir (Please be seated) 

Refrain:    O God, you are my God, for you my soul is athirst.

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Sermon preached on Pentecost Sunday – 28th May 2023 (Year A):ACTS 2:1-21, 1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13, JOHN 7:37-39

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

I speak in the name of the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We start where we left off two weeks ago talking about the Holy Spirit, ascension has intervened we have been praying the great novena – the nine days between Ascension and Pentecost  reflecting on the initiative of Thy kingdom Come. Here what Pope Francis had to say on 15^th May in his daily missive, journey with the Pope.

‘ The Holy Spirit wants to stay with us : he is not a passing guest who comes to pay us a courtesy visit. He is a companion for life , a stable presence. He is Spirit and presence. He is spirit and desires to dwell in our spirits. He is patient and stays with us when we fall.He remains because he truly loves us ,  he does not pretend to love us, and then leave us alone when things get difficult.No. he is faithful.He is transparent., he is authentic.’

My only quibble with this inspiring text is the pronoun HE used to describe the Holy Spirit. To aghio pneum, a, a neuter noun in Greek, but it is often thought of as feminine. Think of the worship song the Enemy of Apathy whose first line goes,’ She sits like a bird brooding on the waters….’ Referring to the Spirit long before the existence of the world. The Old and New testament are full of references to the Holy Spirit as a consistent presence from Creation to new creation.

You can decide for yourself how to best describe the Spirit of the three person Trinity, along with all the descriptions we heard two weeks ago such as Advocate, Comforter and Paraclete. And we may need to consider how our leanings and feelings change throughout our age, stage of life and circumstances.

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Service for Pentecost Sunday – 28th May 203

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  We have a POS facility so you can make a donation by card. There is coffee in the garden after the Liturgy. The church history and guide book ‘Opening Doors’ will be on sale – €10,00. You can use the POS to purchase this as well as cash. Fr. Leonard is in Crete this weekend for the Souda Bay Commemoration.

The presiding priest this morning is Fr. Bjorn of the Swedish Church. The deacon and preacher is the Revd. Christine Saccali.

Entrance Hymn:    364 God is love  (tune Blaenwern 408)

Priest:  Alleluia! Christ is risen

All:       He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

Priest: The Lord be with you

All:       And also with you

The priest then welcomes the people of God and then the deacon leads us into Confession.

Silence

Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed.

We have not loved you with our whole heart.

We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.

In your mercy forgive what we have been,

Help us to amend what we are, and direct what we shall be;

That we may do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with you, our God.

Amen.

Absolution: May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.   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. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. 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 prayer. 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

Collect:  Let us pray    (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day) 

God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Jesus Christ our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

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Sermon for Ascension Sunday – 21st May 2023:

Fr Leonard Dolan – St Paul’s Athens

I have just had a remarkable experience visiting the Seven Churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation. St. John, thrust into exile on the island of Patmos, has visions – a revelation – part of which are Christ-centred ‘messages’ or letters to the Seven Churches of the area we now would call Asia Minor. Be careful – these are not congregations gathered in a church building, but little fragile groups of people that might just be called a ‘community’ in seven very significant cities in that part of what is now Turkey.

In Smyrna, Izmir, we have two churches – St. John the Evangelist, and a small neo-classical church in the Bornova district that has some superb stained glass windows. I mention this because we have have some members of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers with us this morning. If you visit this church you will be enthusiastic by the superb stained glass window, especially the one with all the imagery of the ‘Christ of the Seven Churches. This window was made Kempe, the great stained glass window expert, influenced by William Morris.

Smyrna, Ephesus, Pergamum, Colossae, Laodicea, Sardis, Philadelphia; all well established cities of the Graeco-Roman Empire with theatres, libraries, Council Chambers, baths, public latrines, houses, and other civic buildings including temples to the pan-theistic Gods.

All these cities have citizens who don’t have a religion as such as we would understand it – they simply worship whoever is the emperor. This is the pagan world. Those who stood out were the Jews – they worshipped a God who was not the Emperor – and they made no recognition of the immense temples erected to the Gods of the pagan Greek or Roman culture.

Ephesus, one of the seven cities, had a temple to the Goddess Artemis. This was one of the wonders of the ancient world. We know about this, not only from the message of the Book of Revelation, but because St. Paul wrote a Letter to the Christian Community there.

What we also know is that many of the little communities of new Christians had emerged from Judaism, the religion of the Jews. This is not unusual – why should it be, as Jesus was a Jew. We were honoured on our visit to Smyrna, or Izmir, to be guided around the three main synagogues of the present day city, all of which are very historic.

‘Hear what the Spirit says to the churches’. The message in each of the Seven missals has a common thread – emphasized by our very able guide, Fr. James, our priest in Izmir – First there is a greeting that speaks of some attribute of Christ; second an acknowledgment that Christ ‘knows’ that church; thirdly that any good things are acknowledged; but then there is a rebuke and a counselling; and finally that there is a victorious Christ.

The church community is encouraged to ‘stand out’ from its pagan context; to refuse conformity to the prevailing pagan spiritual powers. In essence to reject and be distinct – to have a different identity to what has been inherited. This is an important challenge, and is no different to us now as Christians. How are Christians distinct in the world?

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Audio Sermon for Ascension Sunday – 21 May 2023

Fr Leonard Doolan – St Paul’s Athens

Service for Ascension Sunday, 21st May 2023 – 7th Sunday of Easter

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens. Welcome to members of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers (City of London) visiting Athens for a few days. After the Liturgy we gather in the church garden for coffee and refreshments. You can make a donation by card – we have a POS.

The presiding priest and preacher this morning is The Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan, Senior Chaplain. The Assistant is Angelos Palioudakis.

Entrance Hymn    453  Stand up, stand up for Jesus!

Priest: Alleluia! Christ is risen

 All:     He is risen indeed. Alleluia!

The priest then welcomes the people of God and then the Assistant leads us into Confession.

Silence

Assistant: Lord Jesus, you raise us to new life.

Kyrie eleison

All:             Kyrie eleison

Assistant: Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins.

Christe eleison

All:            Christe eleison

Assistant: Lord Jesus, you feed us with the living bread.

Kyrie eleison

All:            Kyrie eleison

Absolution: May the God of love and power forgive you and free you from your sins, heal and strengthen you by his Spirit, and raise you to new life in Christ our Lord.   Amen.

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

              Heavenly King, Almighty God and Father, we worship you, we give you

              thanks, we praise you for your glory. 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; you

              are seated at the right hand of the Father; receive our prayer.

              For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, you alone are

              are the most high, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God

              the Father. Amen.  

Collect:  Let us pray    (remain standing as the priest prays the Collect of the Day) 

Risen, ascended Lord, as we rejoice at your triumph, fill your Church on earth with power and compassion, that all who are estranged by sin may find forgiveness and know our peace, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

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EPISTLE TO THE ATHENIANS SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER YEAR A – 14 May 2023 : ACTS 17:22-31, PETER 3:13-22, JOHN 14:15-21

I speak in the name of the living God Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Here we are at St Paul’s Athens just up the road from the Areopagus – Mars Hill, where Paul, yes St Paul, made his famous speech we heard in Acts, the compulsory reading from the lectionary today. What does that mean for modern Athenians, members of St Paul’s and pilgrims and visitors today? I still find that sight of that rock incredible after over forty years living here. There is an exhibition of a series of photos taken there over the last 150 years featured in the current edition of the airport magazine. I often wonder what kind of epistle St Paul would have written to the Athenians.

We can get some clues from looking again at the speech, although it is hard to tell whether his famous words are a triumph or disaster of Evangelism preached from the rock that was where the ancient legal Court of Appeals was.

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