Trinity 1, Holy Trinity Church Corfu

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Lynne and I are delighted to be with you here this morning. I promise that I don’t think you all live like the Durrels! It is a joy to have Jules as a colleague and I know how much you love him and value him as your priest here.

All of us who minister in Greece, and indeed throughout the whole of the Archdeaconry of the East have to be resilient and self motivating as great distances prevent frequent collegial meetings, but we can hold each other in prayer, and I will do what I  can to try and improve on the opportunities we can have to meet and support each other. One of the challenges of this is the cost involved and I will also explore how we might be able to access some funding for an annual meeting of the clergy and Readers, so we can have mutual support in ministry.

I have just returned to Athens from the Diocesan Synod in Cologne, Germany, and I bring you greetings from Archdeacon Colin.

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Trinity Sunday 27th May 2018

James Hadley – Ordinand, and Philip Usher Scholar.

If you have been to Salonika you have probably visited the ancient Roman imperial complex of Galerius, and its Rotunda. You can’t help be struck by is cavernous interior, which in the ancient world was second only to the Pantheon in Rome. Probably when Constantine converted the rotunda into a church in 326 it was the largest church in Greek-speaking Christianity, and later under Theodosius, in it one of the great miracles of mosaics in the ancient world. Some parts of the mosaic remain, the brilliant gold and silver architectural fantasies with martyrs standing before them. The most intriguing parts are barely discernible, but with your camera lens you can begin to count them, one, two, three, four, five, once upon a time some 36 human sandaled feet. These feet are turned in all directions, on tip toes, or foot outstretched; they are in fact dancing feet. It seems that these earliest of Greek-Christians had dancing in their blood!  ♪♪♫ (Hummed) Dance, dance, wherever you may be…

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Pentecost 2018 (St. Thomas, Crete)

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, the likelihood is that it is a duck. We know things by their identity and associated features.

If it is an oval bag shape, and has many tentacles hanging from it, we might think it is a chtapodi an octopus. However it is not an octopus I have in mind but bapgpipes; that very ancient instrument that comes from the Mediterranean area, but is largely associated with Scotland.

You may as well put an octopus under your arm because when it is in a deflated state the bagpipe is as useless as an octopus as a musical instrument. However when you blow into it and fill it with air then it is transformed from being an octopus looking object to an instrument that can make a fair old noise.

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Easter 6 (John 15) 6th May 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

In today’s gospel we hear again the word ‘abide’. Christ invites us to abide in him, to inhabit him, by keeping the law of love – love for God and love for one another. Last week the same word was used, when Christ offers us the image of the vine. It is a glorious image, so I would like to ‘abide’ with this week also.

Just after we celebrated the Orthodox Easter Lynne and I had a few day’s holiday in Santorini. It is, as you will know, a spectacular geological phenomenon, being formed into what is referred to as the Kaldera, and it is the result of a volcanic eruption. As the volcano erupted the earth imploded, creating a vast new area for the waters of the Aegean to flow into and fill. It is thought that the tsunami that followed was enough to wipe out the Minoan civilization in Crete, and there is some suggestion that the water as it was pulled into filling this new vast area may have caused the waters to recess in the Red Sea, thus allowing dry land for a short time that allowed Moses and the Hebrew people to cross. The story of the undersea city of Atlantis which was destroyed  by the volcanic eruption also comes from here.

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EASTER PEOPLE IN ALL OUR BROKENNESS 15/04/18

Deacon Christine Saccali

Christ is risen he is risen indeed. Christos Anesti, Alithos o kirios.

May God be on my lips and in all our hearts.

Isn’t it great that that resounding Easter cry is still ringing out and we hear it for the next 5 weeks until after Ascension as we reach Pentecost! This Eastertide has been a rather special time for our family with the safe birth of our first grandchild Elizabeth.

My son’s partner, Irini whose name means peace, said something wonderful and prophetic in the week before the scheduled caesarean surgery, what she said was “the date is all set and then we will meet her.” And boy (well, girl in this case) have we done so and we will begin to get to know her and she us. New birth and at an appropriate time of the year with life springing up everywhere this season.

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2nd Sunday of Easter 2018, John 20, 19-end

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Most people I know enjoy a good read. Books will never die out. I know there is now kindle but nothing will ever replace that sense of connection you get when you touch a book’s pages, occasionally have to fumble to turn a page, forget the page number you stopped at, or find that your page marker has fallen out.

When we read a book we rarely expect to be told by the author that what you are reading is not the whole story. How frustrating would that be!

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Easter Sunday 2018

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Alleluia! Christ is risen!   He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Today is Alleluia day – in fact the beginning of 50 Alleluia days leading through to Pentecost. The church has real stamina. We keep going. Most people think Easter is one day – the church keeps Easter for 50 days.

In fact it is more than 50 days – every Sunday is a day when we celebrate the resurrection, the Lord’s day. Every time we celebrate a baptism we celebrate the resurrection.  Every person baptized is an Alleluia person. Just think of that – each one of you here today is an Alleluia person. I’m so pleased that there are so many alleluias in church this morning.

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Palm Sunday 2018

Revd.  Canon Leonard Doolan

There is a telling little phrase in St. Luke’s gospel (9,53) where the author says ‘Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem.’

It has a ring of determination to it – a planned or strategic decision. One wonders if there had been any conversations around this decision – had the disciples been given access to the details of the new direction? The little phrase has the resonance of what we would nowadays call ‘intentionality’.

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Passion Sunday 2018 John 12, 20-33

Revd. Canon Leonard Doolan

Many people travel to Greece, mostly now as tourists. The Greeks have also been great travelers, not so much as tourists but in search of work, or trade. A great seafaring nation, Greeks have always been in diaspora.

Our gospel reading this morning refers to Greeks. These are not visitors to Jerusalem, as if they were part of some pilgrim group, but Hellenes. They were ethnically Greek, and firstly Greek speakers, but were also Jewish. Why else would they have been in Jerusalem to worship at the festival?

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Third Sunday in Lent

The Revd. Tony Lane

I vividly remember just a few years ago turning on the TV one evening to watch the news.  The cameras were recording a debate in the Italian parliament, which concerned one of the many  scandals that surrounded the life style of President Berlusconi.   As one might expect the MPs were becoming somewhat excited, even agitated, but that sort of thing probably happens world wide.  What happened next however was certainly ‘not’ anticipated.

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