Welcome to the Russian Orthodox Church site for Devon & Cornwall

December 2009

This new calendar covers just the first quarter of 2010 plus Easter and Bright Week. The main event of recent months has been the estabishment of our new community in Newton Abbott. This has been well supported and I would like to thank everyone involved for their help and enthusiasm. I would especially like to thank Bishop David Silk, who came to our first Liturgy in September and brought greetings to us from Michael, Lord Bishop of Exeter and Bishop John of Plymouth.

Until we are ready to hold elections, I have appointed Michael Cavaghan-Pack to act as both churchwarden and representative to the Diocesan Assembly and Dr Evelyn Born to act as treasurer. I am very anxious that this community looks to be self-sufficient and Michael, Evelyn, Deacon Peter and I are attempting to get together all the necessary equipment. Evelyn has set up an establishment fund for the purpose and we also need to pay our rent, clergy travelling expenses etc. We would ask everyone to be generous in their giving.

Recently, the nuns of St Elizabeth's convent in Minsk have painted am icon of our patron saints, the New Martyrs Elizabeth and Barbara which we shall solemnly bless at the January liturgy. Over many years of priesthood I have come to see that the growing relationship one has with one's patron saints is of enormous importance and I hope that people will feel that paying for this icon should be a priority.

For many years I have had to serve two calendars. The communities in Totnes and Malpas follow the new calendar, but from the beginning of my ministry as a priest, I also served some feasts according to the old calendar for the elderly Orthodox living at Ilford Park Polish home, who of course took the old calendar for granted. Since then I have continued to celebrate the old calendar Christmas, usually at the Little Chapel at Totnes for those for whom that was still Christmas.

In our new community at Newton Abbott, because of the considerable number of Russians attending, we are following the old calendar. So please note that there will be a liturgy at Newton Abbott on the old calendar date (7th January 2010 N. S.).

Turning to Malpas, Bishop Elisey made a pastoral visit to the Community of St Cuthbert in November. It is good to have regular visits from our bishop and so to be made to feel part of the much wider Diocesan community. Our churchwarden Sue Bleakley has been appointed to represent Malpas at the Diocesan Assembly. It is very important that these representations between local and the Diocesan communities become a real two-way communication. Bishop Elisey is working hard to build a renewed sense of Diocesan unity and we have an important part to play in responding to his efforts.

On the subject of unity, there was on Saturday 14th November a liturgy at the ROCOR cathedral in London presided over by Metropolitan Hilarion, the First Hierarch of ROCOR. Archbishop Mark of Berlin, our own Bishop Elisey and Archbishop Anatoly of Kersch concelebrated with him. For most of my life as an Orthodox there has been a painful rift between the Moscow Patriarchcate and ROCOR. For me it was a great joy to be a fellow concelebrant at this occasion, which marked a new stage in the completion of the ROCOR cathedral, to receive communion at the hands of hierarchs of both churches now celebrating the healing of that long division. There have been painful divisions in our own Diocese in recent years and we must all pray and work for their healing.

On a personal level I had the extraordinary joy of making a pilgramage to the Egyptian monasteries of St Anthony and St Paul. These saints, who in the East and West alike, have been an image of Christian love and brotherhood, appear on the cover of this calendar. Lilah and I also went to St Catherine's monastery at Sinai, somewhere Lilah had longed to see for many years. As promised, I remembered you all by name in all three of those holy places

Very Rev'd Mitred Archpriest Benedict Ramsden