CONTACTS:
To message Archimandrite Kyril or to arrange a baptism or wedding please email the Parish Priest@bristol-orthodox-church.co.uk (Tel. 01179706302 or 07944 860 955).
For more see: CONTACTS
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Every Saturday: 5.30 p.m. Vespers Every Sunday: 10.30 a.m. Divine Liturgy
WEEKLY SERVICES & INFORMATION (Note: our Parish follows the “New” (Revised Julian) Calendar. For dates on the “Old” Julian Calendar, refer to an online calendar.)
NB: Between now and The Great Fast the lectionaries of the different Orthodox local churches differ. This affects the Sunday Epistle (Apostle) and Gospel readings. Our parish follows the more traditional sequence as published online by the Orthodox Church of America (though it is, of course, not “theirs”!). This will not always match, however, the current (and more recent) sequence used by, for instance, the Moscow Patriarchate or of the Great Church of Constantinople.
Saturday 2nd November. 5.30 p.m. Vespers
Sunday 3rd November. 19th Sunday After Pentecost. Tone 2. St Gwenfrewi (Winefride) of Treffynnon (Holywell). Martyrs Acepsimas the Bishop, Joseph the Priest, and Aithalas the Deacon of Persia (4c). Readings: 2 Corinthians 11:31-12:9 Luke 8:41-56
Saturday 9th November. 5.30 p.m. Vespers
Sunday 10th November. 20th Sunday After Pentecost. Tone 3. Apostles of The Seventy: Erastus, Olympas, Herodian, Sosipater, Quartus and Tertius (1c). St Justus, Archbishop of Canterbury (627). Readings: Galatians 1:11-19 Luke 10:25-37
FOOD BANK: Amidst our God-given sufficiency, DON’T FORGET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS. Bring contributions please.
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PARISH NEWS **Building update**: The painting of the altar walls has been completed. We are waiting for the scaffolding to come down….. Once that happens a huge clean-up will ensue, and then we move back to our normal arrangement. Meanwhile, we now have further scaffolding at the back of the church tin order to investigate and remedy woodworm activity! Please keep giving generously! THANK YOU for your generous donations. Without this, we would not have a space to worship in. We are extremely blessed to have our own space that does not need to be shared with other users. If we look after it, the building will be sure to last a few more hundred years and serve our community for many generations to come.
GIFT AID |
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Some selected saints (AND FEASTS) of the coming days)..
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For those who wish to donate to our Parish online, our Facebook fundraiser can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/donate/453504039824339/?fundraiser_source=external_url
Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Luke
Archimandrite Kyril Jenner
Luke 8:41-56
Today’s reading from Saint Luke’s Gospel tells of two healings. The stories are beautifully interwoven, and linked by the time of 12 years. The daughter of Jairus was 12 years old. We are not told of any previous significant illness, so it appears that after 12 years of happy life she was suddenly taken ill and likely to die. The woman with the flow of blood, on the other hand, had been in a state of ‘living death’ for 12 years. Constant bleeding would have left her weak and unable to live a full and normal life, and the fact of the bleeding would have excluded her from society, so that she lived in a sort of shadowy existence.
Healing for the woman comes through Christ. She has faith that he can heal her. She just needed to make contact – in this case to touch his clothes. She succeeds in this and is healed, but she is not able to remain in hiding. Christ is aware of what has happened, and because he then seeks her out she is fully restored to her place in society.
Meanwhile the daughter of Jairus has died, and the crowd around thought that that was the end. Our Lord had other ideas and restored the girl to life.
We all need healing. All healing comes ultimately from God. Healing comes in answer to prayer. Our prayer may be formulated in words, like the prayer of Jairus to Christ for his daughter. Our prayer may also sometimes be purely inward, like the prayer of the woman with the flow of blood.
Outwardly our prayer often takes the form of asking for things. We do this publicly in our services, and we do it privately in our prayers at home. But in addition to asking for things we should also be seeking to open ourselves to the will of God. If we just ask for things without reference to the will of God, then the answer to our prayer will often be “no”.
Our Lord showed us the right way in his prayer on the night before his Crucifixion. He was in the garden, waiting to be arrested. He prayed to the Father: “My Father, if it is possible let this cup pass me by. But not as I wish, but as you wish.” (Matthew 26:39) In the first part he prays to be spared punishment and death. But then he goes on to conform his human will to the divine will. On this occasion the human prayer was not granted. But by conforming to the divine will he achieved something much greater. Through his death he destroyed the power of death, granting us forgiveness of sins, and through his Resurrection he grants us eternal life.
We do not look for such spectacular results. Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood were looking for something much more personal. They achieved this by opening themselves to the will of God. Jairus recognized Christ as God, and placed his daughter into the hands of God, so that God’s will could be done. The woman with the flow of blood recognized Christ as God, and sought to have a closer encounter with him, so that God’s will could be done. The encounter with God was at the heart of their prayer. That encounter must be at the heart of our prayer. Yes, we may ask for specific things, but in all things we must seek to conform ourselves to the will of God and open our hearts to his love.
This requires faith. Do we truly recognize Christ as our Lord and God and Saviour? Do we recognize his love at work in our lives – providing us with all that we have, forgiving our sins, and opening the way for us to enter into the fullness of life in him? Only with such faith can we pray truly.
Reaching such a level of prayer is the work of a lifetime, but we need to start and continue on that journey. Saint Theophan the Recluse tells us: “People sometimes say, ‘I pray and pray, but my prayer still is not heard.’ Labour to ascend to a measure of prayer that cannot be refused, and you will see why it was not heard. Whether you are in a prayerful situation like Jairus, or in a simple, ordinary one, like everyone around him, such as the woman with the flow of blood, when true prayer arises in your heart it will undoubtedly reach the Lord and incline him towards mercy. The question is how to attain such prayer. Labour, and you will attain it. All prayer rules have as their object to lift up those who pray to such a measure of prayer, and all who sensibly follow this course of prayer reach their goal.” (Reflection on the Seventh Sunday of Luke)
Prayer is work. Regular practice makes it a little easier, but real progress requires continual hard work. Day by day we should try to open ourselves to God, accept his love for us, try to find his will for us, and follow that will in all that we do.
Prayer and faith have to go together. Both Jairus and the woman with the flow of blood had faith that Christ would answer their prayer. Let us pray that we may be granted such faith, and through prayer and repentance may be granted forgiveness of sins, true healing, and a place with Christ in his heavenly kingdom.
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Like all small communities we rely on the generosity of friends and well-wishers. If you would like to contribute to the continuation of our parish and the upkeep of our historic church building, you can make a donation here:
https://www.facebook.com/donate/679204386685133/?fundraiser_source=external_url
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