University Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 1SP

 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

UpComingREV | UU Taos

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. 

 

 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

Are you a taxpayer? Do you put money into the donations box or Sunday collections?
As a charity, the Government will pay back to the Church the amount of tax you have paid on your donations. But for us not to miss out on the full amount, it is really helpful if you:

1) Complete a simple Gift Aid mandate form (available on the table at the back of the church – or just ask) and give it to our treasurer Neil;
2) and then put your donations into one of the little brown envelopes on the candle desk and then write your name on it.
3) The same applies if you are making donations online (see below) – we need your mandate form! That way our treasurer can account for it all to the tax man and get the full amount back.



Some selected saints (AND FEASTS)  of the coming days).. 

    • FRIDAY 1ST – Holy Wonderworkers and Unmercenary Physicians Cosmas and Damian of Mesopotamia, and their Mother Theodota (3c?).  St Cadfan of Ynys Enlli (Bardsey Island) (6c). 
    • SATURDAY 2ND – Martyrs Acindynus, Pergasius, Aphthonius, Elpidophorus and Anempodistus (Persia c341-5).
    • SUNDAY 3RD – Martyrs Acepsimas the Bishop , Joseph the Priest, and Aithalas the Deacon of Persia (4c).   St Gwenfrewi  (Winefride) of Treffynnon (Holywell) (N Wales, 7c).
    • MONDAY 4TH – St Joannicius the Great Hermit (846).
    • TUESDAY 5TH – Martyrs Galacteon and Episteme (3c).
    • WEDNESDAY 6TH – St Paul the Confessor, Archbishop of Constantinople (c350). St Illtud, Abbot of Bangor (Llanilltud) in Glamorgan (Morgannwg), Teacher, (S Wales 6c).
    • THURSDAY 7TH – The Thirty-three Martyrs of Melitene (3c). St Willibrord, Archbishop of Utrecht, Apostle of the Frisians (739).
    • FRIDAY 8TH – Synaxis of  Michael and the Holy Archangels.
    • SATURDAY 9TH – St Nectarius (Nektarios Kephalas), Metropolitan of Pentapolis (1920).  St Matrona, Abbess in Constantinople (c492).
    • SUNDAY 10TH – Apostles of The Seventy: Erastus, Olympas, Herodian, Sosipater, Quartus and Tertius (1c).  St Justus, Archbishop of Canterbury (627).
    • MONDAY 11TH – St Martin the Merciful, Bishop of Tours (Gaul 397).  Martyrs Menas (Egypt 304), Victor (Damascus, 2c) and Vincent (Spain 204). St Stephen Urosh (Stefan Uroš III, Stefan Dečanski),  King of Serbia, founder of the Dečani Monastery in Kosovo (1331).

 

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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

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Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Luke

Archimandrite Kyril Jenner

Luke 8:26-39

Many times in the Gospels we read of people failing to recognise our Lord.   At best they see him as a holy man – a great teacher and healer.   But they only recognise the human face.   In today’s Gospel reading the demons, speaking through the man who was possessed, saw the reality.   They not only knew him by name, but they also recognised that he was the Son of God.   The saw his divinity as well as his humanity.

They saw that his power was the power of God, and they were afraid.   They wanted to pursue their own way of evil, but could not do so when confronted with our Lord and Saviour, the Son of God, the source of all goodness.

Saint Cyril of Alexandria tells us:  “The prophet Avvakum foresaw the glory of the Saviour, and, overcome by his wonderful deeds, he offered up praises to him, saying: “O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and I was afraid:  I considered your works, and I was astonished.”   For of which of the deeds wrought by our common Saviour Christ can any one say that it is not worthy of all admiration?   Which of them is not great, and highly to be praised, and a proof of his godlike authority?   And this we can very clearly see in what has been here read to us from the Gospel.   Let us behold, then, the tyranny of the enemy shaken by Christ, and the earth set free from the wickedness of demons:  let us see the heads of the serpent bruised by him, and the swarm of venomous reptiles driven away overpowered and in terror:  and those who in old time had been full of cunning and audacity, who had held subject to their sway all that lies beneath the heavens, who had prided themselves upon their temples of vast cost, and on their beautifully sculptured altars, who had been honoured with sacrifices, and crowned with universal praises, fall from their former glory, and as though retaining sovereignty over no one single man, beg for a herd of pigs!   A very plain proof is this of the unexpected misery that had befallen them, and of their being broken utterly.”  (Sermon 44 on the Gospel of Luke)

Evil cannot prevail when confronted with the power of God.   It is ultimately self-destructive.   When the demons moved from tormenting one man to tormenting a herd of pigs they destroyed themselves.   We need to recognise this power of evil, and do everything possible to avoid it.

We seek goodness, rather than evil.   We seek love, rather than hate.   We seek the power of God, rather than the forces of evil.   We need to do this internally, in our own lives, seeking to be open to God’s love, and working to share that love at the personal level.   But we also need to be vigilant on the larger scale, and do whatever we can to confront evil and pursue goodness.  

Basil, Bishop of Selevkia in the Fifth Century, tells us that “this Gospel passage also reveals to us God’s care and concern for human beings.   Indeed, everything would have been annihilated in a moment and no person would have been left standing;  everyone would have been devoured by the demons’ fury, if it weren’t for the protection of God’s invisible and invincible hand.   He allowed the pigs to be harmed in order for us to comprehend his providence for mankind.”  (Discourse on the Demon Possessed Man)

What happened when the demons had been destroyed?   The man who had been possessed was now restored to normality.   The local citizens could see that he was no longer a threat to them.   And yet they were still afraid.   They were afraid because they were not in control.   They saw a power at work which was greater than theirs.   They had tried and failed to control the man with chains and fetters.   Now he was under a different form of control, which they did not understand.

The man himself fully understood what had happened.   Previously the demons had recognised Christ as the Son of God.   Now the man himself recognised this.   He saw that God, through Christ, had shown his love and his power of goodness.   The man therefore wanted to remain with Christ.

Despite the evil that we so often see around us and in much of the world, we also need to see the love of God for us.   We should recognise that all that we have comes from God.   We need to give him thanks for his mercy and his love, for offering us the way of salvation through Christ.   We should want to remain with him.   But he has a mission for each one of us.   We need to find that mission.   What are we called to do for Christ?

The man who was healed was told “ “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”   And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.”  (Luke 8:39)  He recognised the source of his healing, and told others about it so that they could come to Christ.

Saint Theophan the Recluse puts it like this:  “After the Gadarene man who was possessed with devils was healed, he clung to the Lord and desired to be with him always;  then, upon hearing Christ’s will, he goes and preaches throughout the whole city about the good things he received.   The benefactor attracts, his will becomes law for the receiver of the benefaction, and the tongue cannot resist proclaiming what was received from him.”  (Reflection on the Sixth Sunday of Luke)

Each day we can be healed.   Each day we can receive forgiveness of sins when we repent.   Each day we can be transformed like the man who was possessed.   Let us make that transformation visible in our lives, giving thanks to God, and proclaiming his love in all that we do.

 

 

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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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