Service for the 6th Sunday of Easter – 14th May 2023

Welcome to St. Paul’s Athens especially if you are here for the first time or visiting Athens.  Please stay for refreshments in the church garden after the Liturgy. You can download the service on a device – ask for the password. You can make your donation by card – we have a POS.

 

The presiding priest this morning is Fr. Bjorn Kling, the Church of Sweden pastor, and the deacon and preacher is Deacon Christine.

 

Entrance Hymn    237  Morning has broken

 

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 the deacon leads us into Confession.

Silence

 

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

Kyrie eleison

All:          Kyrie eleison

Deacon: Lord Jesus, you forgive us our sins.

Christe eleison

All:          Christe eleison

Deacon: 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, the only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sing 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 glory of God  the Father.  Amen. Amen

 

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

Risen Christ, by the lakeside you renewed your call to your disciples: help your Church to obey your command and draw the nations to the fire of your love, to the glory of God the Father.  Amen.

First Reading    (please sit)                                                Acts 17, 22-31   (Oliver Knight)

Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all peoples to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps fumble about for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we, too, are his offspring.’

 

“Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Reader:  This is the word of the Lord.

All:          Thanks be to God. Alleluia!

 

Psalm:    Green Hymn Book  539        This is the day of the Lord, we rejoice and are glad

 

2^nd Reading                                                                         1 Peter 3, 13-end  (Chloe Smith)

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. Maintain a good conscience so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight lives, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Reader: This is the word of the Lord.

All:         Thanks be to God. Alleluia!

 

Gospel Hymn 113  Love’s redeeming work

Gospel Reading       

Deacon:   The Lord be with you

All:            and also with you

Deacon:   Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint John  (John 14, 15-21)

All:           Glory to you, O Lord

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you. “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

At the end of the Gospel

Deacon:   This is the gospel of the Lord, Alleluia!

All:            Alleluia

 

Sermon  (Please sit)  Most sermons are available on the website

 

Credo

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father: through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and was made man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.  Amen.

 

Intercessions: (kneel or sit) Response: Hear or prayer.                        (Alice Karanja)

 

Peace:  The risen Lord came among his disciples and said, ‘Peace be with you’. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! The peace of the Lord be always with you. Alleluia!

 

All:     And also with you. Alleluia!          The Deacon invites us to share the peace.

 

Offertory Hymn      295  Let all mortal flesh              (The Collection will be taken)

Priest:   Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation,

All:        Through your goodness we have this bread to offer. Fruit of the field and work of    human hands, it will become for us the bread of life. Blessed be God for ever!

Priest:   Blessed are you, Lord God of all creation,

All:         Through your goodness we have this wine to offer. Fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become for us the cup of salvation. Blessed be God for ever!

 

The Great Thanksgiving Prayer ( Please remain standing for this)

Priest:  The Lord be with you

All:        and also with you

Priest:  Lift up your hearts

All:        We lift them to the Lord

Priest:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God

All:        It is right to give thanks and praise

Priest: It is indeed right, our duty and our joy, always and everywhere to give you thanks, almighty and eternal Father, and in these days of Easter to celebrate with joyful hearts the memory of your wonderful works. For by the mystery of his passion Jesus Christ, your risen Son, has conquered the powers of death and hell and restored in men and women the image of your glory. He has placed them once more in paradise and opened to them the gate of life eternal. And so in the joy of this Passover, earth and heaven resound with gladness, while angels and archangels and the powers of all creation sing for ever the hymn of your glory:

All:  Holy, holy, holy Lord God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest, hosanna in the highest.

 

Priest: Lord, you are holy indeed, the source of all holiness; grant that by the power of your Holy Spirit, and according to your holy will these gifts of bread and wine may be to us the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ; who, in the same night that he was betrayed, took bread and gave you thanks; he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way, after supper he took the cup and gave you thanks; he gave it to them, saying: Drink this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.

 

Deacon:  Great is the mystery of faith

All:          Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

 

And so, Father, calling to mind his death on the cross, his perfect sacrifice made once for the sins of the whole world; rejoicing in his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming in glory, we celebrate this memorial of our redemption. As we offer you this our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, we bring before you this bread and this cup and we thank you for counting us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you. Send the Holy Spirit on your people and gather into one in your kingdom all who share this one bread and one cup, so that we, in the company of the Holy Mother of God, St. Paul, and all the saints, may praise and glorify you for ever, through Jesus Christ our Lord; by whom, and with whom, and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honour and glory be yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever.

All:   Amen. Alleluia!

All:  Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come;  thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Priest: We break this bread to share in the body of Christ

All:       Though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread.

 

 

(Sung)     Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,

                 have mercy on us, have mercy on us.         (sing twice)

                 Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us peace.

 

Priest:  Alleluia! Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us

All:       Therefore let us keep the feast. Alleluia!    

 

All baptized Christians may come forward to receive the body and blood of Christ. If you wish you may receive a blessing. Please let the Sides-people guide you forward.  

 

Communion Hymn:  391  King of glory

 

Post Communion Prayer:  Let us pray     (please stand)

Priest:   God our Father, whose Son Jesus Christ gives the water of eternal life: may we thirst for you, the spring of life and source of goodness, through him who is alive and reigns, now and for ever.  Amen.

 

All: Faithful God, in baptism you have adopted us as your children, made us members of the body of Christ, and chosen us as inheritors of your kingdom: we thank you that in this Eucharist you renew your promises within us, empower us by your Spirit to witness and to serve, and send us out as disciples of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Notices

 

Post Communion Hymn:  235  Forth in thy name

 

Priest:     The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ

that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the eternal

covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working

in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, and the blessing ….

 

Deacon: Go in the peace of Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!

All           Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!

Fr. Leonard’s usual Day Off – Monday  (in emergencies contact Deacon Christine)

Home tel :  210 72 14 906;  email anglican@otenet.gr

Deacon Chris: 22950 53164: day off Friday.

Swedish Church: contact Fr. Bjorn on  694 607 2428

 

The Anglican Church in Greece (including St. Paul’s) is self- financing, and receives no income other than from the generosity of those who worship here. We are a legal body and we pay tax. Our tax number is 997073090. If you wish to donate direct to our bank (IBAN) the account with Piraeus Bank is:  The Anglican Church in Greece, St. Paul’s Athens  GR 820172 0500 0050 5008 6327 479  Swift code is  PIRB GRAA

Notices:

• Monthly Giving envelopes – it is never too late to join this scheme. Just ask about it.
• Coffee Mornings (now on Thursdays!!!): June 8^th, July 13^th. These are in the Swedish Centre (Winter time) or Church Garden (Spring and Summer)
• Quiz Nights – these are monthly. Listen out for the dates!
• Coronation Bazaar: May 27^th in the church garden – look out for details
• We are glad to have welcomed you to St Paul’s today but remember you can keep in touch with us wherever you are you are in the world. See our e-mag on the website.
• On 17^th May a group from Baylor College will be attending our Liturgy – students on a placement organized by the 1^st Evangelical Church of Athens. We welcome them.
• From Thursday 18h May-Sunday 21^st May a group of 38 members of the Worshipful Company of Glaziers (City of London) are visiting Athens to look at buildings that have interesting stained glass. They will visit both the Anglican and German churches among other places.
• Because of the General Election date the usual commemoration of the Battle of Souda Bay has been moved to the following weekend, so Fr. Leonard will be with the Ambassador and Embassy Defence Team in Crete from Friday 26^th May – Sunday 28^th

 

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