Service Sheet for Sunday 26th January 2025 – 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. The Conversion of St Paul

St Paul’s Anglican Church Athens

Celebrant Fr Benjamin Drury

Welcome to our Liturgy of Holy Communion (Sung Mass)

Entrance: 155 (Ellacombe) We sing the glorious conquest

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 19

Gradual: 154 (St. Petersburg) A heavenly splendour from on high

Offertory: 302 (Song I) O Thou, who at thy Eucharist didst pray

Communion: 305 (Anima Christi) Soul of my Saviour

Recessional: 482 (Gott Sei Dank) Spread, O spread thou mighty word

 

All are welcome to stay for refreshments after the liturgy.

 

Please remember that the chaplaincy in Athens neither receives funding from the British Government nor from the Church of England. All donations are, therefore, very gratefully received.

 

A reading from the Acts of the Apostles (22: 3-16)

 

Paul said to the people, ‘I am a Jew and was born at Tarsus in Cilicia.

I was brought up here in this city. I studied under Gamaliel and was taught the exact observance of the Law of our ancestors. In fact, I was as full of duty towards God as you are today. I even persecuted this Way to the death, and sent women as well as men to prison in chains as the high priest and the whole council of elders can testify, since they even sent me with letters to their brothers in Damascus. When I set off it was with the intention of bringing prisoners back from there to Jerusalem for punishment.

‘I was on that journey and nearly at Damascus when about midday a bright light from heaven suddenly shone round me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” I answered: Who are you, Lord? and he said to me, “I am Jesus the Naz- arene, and you are persecuting me.” The people with me saw the light but did not hear his voice as he spoke to me. I said: What am I to do, Lord? The Lord answered, “Stand up and go into Damascus, and there you will be told what you have been appointed to do.” The light had been so dazzling that I was blind and my companions had to take me by the hand; and so I came to Damascus.

‘Someone called Ananias, a devout follower of the Law and highly thought of by all the Jews living there, came to see me; he stood beside me and said, “Brother Saul, receive your sight.” Instantly my sight came back and I was able to see him. Then he said, “The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will, to see the Just One and hear his own voice speaking, because you are to be his witness before all mankind, testifying to what you have seen and heard. And now why delay? It is time you were baptised and had your sins washed away while invoking his name.”

The Word of the Lord: Thanks be to God

Responsorial Psalm: Ps. 19: Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life

 

A reading from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians (12: 12-30)

Just as a human body, though it is made up of many parts, is a sin- gle unit because all these parts, though many, make one body, so it is with Christ. In the one Spirit we were all baptised, Jews as well as Greeks, slaves as well as citizens, and one Spirit was given to us all to drink.

Nor is the body to be identified with any one of its many parts. If the foot were to say, ‘I am not a hand and so I do not belong to the body’, would that mean that it stopped being part of the body? If

the ear were to say, ‘I am not an eye, and so I do not belong to the body’, would that mean that it was not a part of the body? If your whole body was just one eye, how would you hear anything? If it was just one ear, how would you smell anything?

Instead of that, God put all the separate parts into the body on pur- pose. If all the parts were the same, how could it be a body? As it is, the parts are many but the body is one. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you’, nor can the head say to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’

What is more, it is precisely the parts of the body that seem to be the weakest which are the indispensable ones; and it is the least hon- ourable parts of the body that we clothe with the greatest care. So

our more improper parts get decorated in a way that our more proper parts do not need. God has arranged the body so that more dignity

is given to the parts which are without it, and that there may not be disagreements inside the body, but that each part may be equally concerned for all the others. If one part is hurt, all parts are hurt

with it. If one part is given special honour, all parts enjoy it.

Now you together are Christ’s body; but each of you is a different part of it. In the Church, God has given the first place to apostles,

the second to prophets, the third to teachers; after them, miracles, and after them the gift of healing; helpers, good leaders, those with many languages. Are all of them apostles, or all of them prophets, or all of them teachers? Do they all have the gift of miracles, or all have the gift of healing? Do all speak strange languages, and all

interpret them?

 

The Word of the Lord: Thanks be to God

 

O God, who, through the preaching of the blessed Apostle Saint Paul, hast caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout

the world: Grant, we beseech thee, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may shew forth our thankfulness unto thee for the same, by following the holy doctrine which he taught; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP)

 

Church Open: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Services: Unless noted, liturgies are followed by refreshments

Weds. 29th January: 10 a.m.; Low Mass Sun. 2nd February: 10 a.m.; Sung Mass

 

There is to be an organ recital, with retiring collection for the mainte- nance of the organ, to be held on Saturday, 1st February, at 8:00 p.m. The organist is Mr. Nicholas Kilhoffer.

There is to be a short meeting of all sidespeople and intercessors (and those who would like to be) on February 2nd (Sunday) after the liturgy.

 

Next Sunday (2nd February) is Candlemas: if any would like to bring a candle to be blessed for home use, they are encouraged to do so.

Evening Prayer (Choral Evensong): 16th February, 16th March (6 p.m.)

 

Walking Group and Study Group: details from Fr. Benjamin

Coffee Mornings: February 13th, March 13th (Thursdays) 10:30 a.m.

 

Donate electronically by scanning the QR code;         

the Church does not receive any funding from

the Church of England or the British Government

and is reliant on the goodwill of congregants and visitors. We thank you for your support.

 

Priest Chaplain: Fr. Benjamin Drury

frbenjamindrury@gmail.com; Tel.: 210 72 14 906

anglican@otenet.gr (Church e-mail address)

Deacon Christine Saccali : (Day Off: Friday)  697 737 7655

Church of Sweden: Fr. Bjorn Kling  694 6072428

Facebook @AnglicanAthens                    www.anglicanchurchathens.gr