Service for the sixth Sunday after Trinity – 7th July 2024

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.

The worship is led by Licensed Reader Nelly Paraskevopoulou

Entrance  Hymn: All ye who seek a comfort sure 63

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

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Sermon for the Feast of SS Peter & Paul – 30th June 2024

Fr Benjamin Drury – St Paul’s Athens

The solemn feast we keep today, is one of our two feasts of title here at st Paul’s church,

In the red vestments we recall: The fire of the Holy Spirit and the blood of the martyrs.

They were filled with the holy spirit, they witnessed to the truth  that was in them by the shedding of their blood: St Peter on a cross, St Paul by the sword.

The feasts of these two great saints and Apostles (that is ones sent forth) could have been kept separately: indeed they have other fests that honour them, the feast of the Chair of St Peter, of the conversion of St Paul on the Damascus road:

But today’s feast of Ss Peter and St Paul is to show that at the heart of their lives for God, is a unity of purpose: at the heart of being sent forth for god, all the Apostles are united in Christ, united by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and no more so than Peter and Paul.

Perhaps in our church of st Paul and here in Athens where he preached on the areo-pagus we might focus more on St Paul, but on the seal of this church I am pleased to see both the sword symbol of the martyrdom of st Paul, and the crossed Keys of St Peter: a sign of the unity of St Peter and Paul in the love of Christ and in their calling to serve God in proclamation of the Gospel.

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Service for the feast of SS. Peter & Paul – 30th June 2024

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  Please stay coffee in the garden after the Liturgy.

The presiding priest this morning is Fr. Benjamin Drury, who is also preaching. The deacon is Revd. Deacon Christine Saccali

Entrance Hymn  : 214 Let the round world with songs rejoice

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 welcomes the people of God and invites us to confess

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 almighty God have mercy on us,

forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.

Amen..   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 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,

In the glory of God the Father. AMEN

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

Amen.

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Service for the Fourth Sunday after Trinity – 23rd June 2024

The Eucharist

with

the Licensing of

The Revd Benjamin Drury

as

Chaplain of Anglican Church of St Paul´s in the Greater Athens Chaplaincy

President:

The Venerable Dr Leslie Nathaniel

Archdeacon of Germany and Northern Europe and the East

Come, my Light, and illumine my darkness.

Come, my Life, and revive me from death.

Come, my Physician, and heal my wounds.

Come, Flame of divine love,

   and burn up the thorns of my sins,

   kindling my heart with the flame of your love.

Come, my King, sit upon the throne of my heart

 and reign there, for you alone are my King and my Lord (Dimitri of Rostov, d. 1709)

ORDER OF SERVICE

T h e   G a t h e r i n g

Opening Music

All stand

The president and the other ministers enter.

Opening Hymn 333 All my hope on God is founded

President says
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The president greets the people, welcomes friends and guests and introduces the liturgy.

The congregation is now invited to confession of their sins.

All say:

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in thought and word and deed, through negligence, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault.  We are truly sorry 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 grant that we may serve you in newness of life to the glory of your name.  Amen.

The president says the 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 in Excelsis

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 the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Collect

The president says:

God our Father, Lord of all the world, through your Son you have called us into the fellowship of your universal Church.  Hear our prayer for your faithful people, that in their vocation and ministry each may be an instrument of your love and give your servant Benjamin now to be licensed the needful gifts of grace; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

All sit

T h e   L i t u r g y   o f   t h e   W o r d          

                     New Testament Reading: 2 Corinthians 6.1-13

Read by Reader Nelly Paraskevopoulou

A reading from a letter to the Corinthians

As we work together with him, we entreat you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.  For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!  We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry,  but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: in great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities,  beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;  in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love,  truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;  in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.  We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you.  There is no restriction in our affections but only in yours.  In return—I speak as to children—open wide your hearts also.

This is the word of the Lord. | Thanks be to God.

Hymn 459 (Psalm 23): The Lord´s my Shepherd, I´ll not want

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Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Trinity – 16th June 2024

Fr Benjamin Drury – St Paul’s Athens

A man throws seed on the land..he sleeps, when he is awake the seed is sprouting and growing.

It is good to hear the Gospel of Mark with you on this my first full Sunday with you here at St Paul: planting seeds new beginnings are in our minds as we prepare next week for the formal beginning of my time with you and sharing with you In God’s mission here in  Athens.

I am delighted to be with you, and am enjoying meeting you all bit by bit. Sowing seeds has already taken place at the parsonage flat: some have even come up in the troughs of earth: I hope these green shoots bode well for the times we shall share ahead working for God together.

From a tiny seed mustard seed  grows the great tree

From a tiny shoot a tiny cutting of a noble cedar tree will come forth:

Such is the kingdom of God in all its fullness like a mighty tree described by St Mark in our Gospel as like that tree from a mustard seed, and by the prophet Ezekiel a noble Cedar of Lebanon.

These great tree analogies are to express the all encompassing nature of the Kingdom of God. Like great trees bearing much fruit or holding all the birds of the air. The kingdom of God is there both to nurture and shelter those that are within it, but also to bear fruit that is for others and draws them in turn in to the Kingdom of God.

We who make up the body of Christ as his Church are to be like this, both  being nurtured ourselves by the Great tree of Life who is Christ, and by being joined to him, and in his power to share that life, to be fruitful and aid in God’s mission to all people to draw them in to his kingdom.

St Mark’s gospel the shortest, earliest and sometimes most immediate of the Gospels:  perhaps the directness of the fisherman St Peter is behind it: St Mark is always passing on Christ’s teaching about the Kingdom of God: not of this world but able to transform this world: just as we are made Christ like, made more in to the image of the one who came to save us by his cross and give us life through his resurrection, so too that transformative power of God is to be put in to effect through God’s Church, his Kingdom, his body in the world.

We his body are to be a transforming presence: growing many branches, welcoming in drawing in the birds to roost in the branches of the church, offering the prayer and worship to God and for the world: being fruitful in prayer and acts of mercy.

We are in St Paul’s city, his zeal for the kingdom of God brought him here:

In his letter to our neighbour long ago down in Corinth St Paul speaks of making our home in the lord.

I have come to make my home among you, but yet we have a true home only in Our lord Jesus Christ

Some of us might feel exiles in this land, some may feel we have found our true home here or somewhere else.

Remember what St Paul teaches us, that we are all exiles whilst we live in the body: exiles from the Lord. That is to say that we should never be quite at home in the World, because we belong not to it but to God.

Lest we be downcast St Paul reminds us that we are all new creations: in this life not just the next: meaning we are new because we are regenerate: re- born in to a life with Christ from the time of our baptism at whatever age.

I pray that God’s will be done here in Athens in our small church and beyond its walls. That we assist with the other local churches in building up his Kingdom together. By proclaiming our Faith in Christ the Risen Lord: by whose death we are saved and healed from our sins, and by whose resurrection has shared his life with us.

It is good to give you thanks O Lord.. to proclaim your love in the morning and your truth in the watches of the night

The Just will flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar of Lebanon.. still bearing fruit when they are old, still full of sap, still green.

Let us embrace together our calling always as Christians… little anointed ones, little followers of the Christ, in proclaiming his resurrection, in truth and in love, and by doing his will in love and in truth, and in his strength build up the Kingdom of God together.

Service for the Third Sunday after Trinity – 16th June 2024

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  There is coffee in the garden after the Liturgy.

A very warm welcome to our new senior chaplain Fr. Benjamin Drury

The presiding priest this morning is Fr. Benjamin Drury, who is also preaching. The deacon is Revd. Deacon Christine Saccali

Entrance Hymn    Introit: 408 (Blaenwern) Love divine, all loves excelling

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 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 almighty God have mercy on us,

forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.

Amen..   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 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,

In the glory of God the Father. AMEN

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

God our Saviour, look on this wounded world in pity and power; hold us fast to your promises of peace won for us by your Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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Liturgy of the Word for the second Sunday after Trinity, 9th June 2024

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.

The worship is led by Revd. Deacon Christine Saccali, Assistant Chaplain, who is also preaching.

Entrance 

Introit: 439 (Gerontius) Praise to the Holiest in the height

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

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SERVICE FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY, 2ND JUNE 2024

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  Fr. Bjorn Kling of the Swedish church will preside. The deacon is Revd. Deacon Christine Saccali.  Licensed Reader Nelly Paraskevopoulou will preach.

Entrance Introit: 234 (Ratisbon) Christ, whose glory fills the skies

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.

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Service for Trinity Sunday – 26th May 2024

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.

The worship is led by Licensed Reader Nelly Paraskevopoulou

Non Profit Organization ‘Creative Hands’ will present their work, in a question and answer session with Deacon Chris,  especially appropriate to the strands of the Trinity  which we celebrate today.

Entrance  Introit: 146 (Nicaea) Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!

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

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Sermon for Pentecost Sunday – 19th May 2024:ACTS 2:1-21, ROMANS 8:22-27, JOHN 15:26 -27,16:4b-15

PENTECOST 2024 DISRUPT US – Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

I speak in the name of the Triune God, Father, and Son AMEN

I am so glad we sang Enemy of Apathy again, that wonderful worship song whose words capture perfectly the Spirit of Pentecost not as a fluffy white dove, any more than Easter is about cute yellow chicks. Michael Mitton in his book Wild Beasts and Angels talks about the peristera mentioned in the gospels, as being a dark wild sort of wood pigeon which lives in caves.

Let’s read the first verse again: She sits like a bird, brooding on the waters, hovering on the chaos of the world’s first day; she sighs and she sings mothering creation waiting to give birth to all the Word will say.

I saw something similar perching on the top of a flagpole at OAKA last month when I had the honour with my family of being present at the Olympic museum when the cauldron was lit outside from the torch relay for the Paris Olympics – remember there was no international relay for the flame three years ago for Tokyo due to the aftermath of the pandemic and the change of date. Actually, that event at the Olympic Park in Marousi was a glorious spirit filled moment recalling 2004 twenty years ago and the best of human endeavours and hopes now in 2024 followed by the handover between Greece and France at the Kalimararo stadium.

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