The Sunday of Orthodoxy celebrated in London
The Sunday of Orthodoxy in London was liturgically celebrated in presence of the highest dignitaries of all Orthodox Churches.
The Triumph of Orthodoxy was solemnly marked at the Vesper service (on Sunday, March 20th) among Orthodox brothers in the Russian Cathedral church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Mother of God of the Patriarchate of Moscow (67 Ennismore Gardens).
The host was Archbishop of Surouzh Elisha (successor of the famous Metropolitan Anthony Bloom), and among guests there were also Archbishop Gregory of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Metropolitan Silouan of the Patriarchate of Antioch, Bishop Dositej of Britain and Scandinavia of the Serbian Orthodox Church, with the presence of Russian, Greek, Romanian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Antiochian and Serbian clergy, clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and lots of faithful people.
The church choir sang in Greek, Arabic, Georgian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Church-Slavonic and English. It was really the Sunday of Orthodoxy not just both from historical and theological viewpoint, but also as an actual example: common prayerful gathering of spiritual dignigtaries of the Orthodox Churches in Great Britain.
Protopresbyter-stavrophor Dr. Luka Novakovic, in his highly interesting sermon (held both in English and Russian), explained a role and a priceless significance of the Icon of the Three-Handed Theotokos which Saint Sava, precisely, introduced into the Serbian people and into the history of our spirituality. He also mentioned that famous, not so familiar to the public, “voyage to the Byzantine Empire” of the creme de la creme of the English Christian nobility, shortly after the Battle of Hastings (in 1075 AD when 235 ships sailed to the Black Sea coast of the Byzantine Empire and founded “New England” there), and many more interesting facts…
Source: Serbian Orthodox Parish of Saint Basil of Ostrog in East London
