English Orthodox Church

A church in downtown Athens offers liturgy in English for the English-speaking community

It is a bold step to take for a conservative institution; a necessary evil, as it were. The Greek Orthodox Church is now holding regular services in English at the Sacred Chapel of Saint Andrew (Aghios Andreas) in Plaka. An initiative of the Archbishop of Athens to cater to the growing number of English-language speakers who wish to go to church, the move has been very positively welcomed by the community.

GreeceNow spoke to Protopresbyter Thomas Synodinos who was responsible for executing the Archbishop’s wishes. “There are many English speakers who live and work in Athens and come to church, but don’t speak Greek,” he explained. “A few days ago, an English man, who’s been living in Athens for years but never learnt the language, came to thank me. He was very happy.”

To accommodate English speakers then, the services will be conducted by Father John Raffan on Sundays between 7.30 and 9.15 a.m. (for the Orthros service ) and between 9.15 and 10.30 a.m. (for the Divine Liturgy), but also on special occasions, including Easter.

“This is the first time the Greek Orthodox Church has organized an English-language service on a regular basis,” said Father John to AFP . And while media reports note that the announcement comes just months before a massive influx of foreign tourists for the Olympic Games , Father Thomas explains that it is simply the Church’s aim to provide an accessible service to the existing community, made up of English-speaking diplomats from Orthodox countries, Greeks of the Diaspora (many of whom already follow the Greek Orthodox liturgy in English ) and foreigners attracted to the faith.

A Scotsman who converted to Orthodoxy back in 1982, Father John stresses, “Many people believe the Orthodox faith appeals more to the heart, more to the senses also – the liturgy is very rich, they just feel at home with it.” He adds that the liturgy translation is ‘borrowed’ from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Church there already exercises a policy of “flexible bilingualism” , with hymns sung in Greek and all plain texts, announcement and the sermon delivered in English.

This gesture will certainly make church-going a more meaningful experience for English speakers, but the majority of Greek church-goers do not understand much of the liturgical Greek either. That’s because the service hails from the medieval Byzantine church tradition and is spoken and sung in third-century Greek, Koine , also the language of the New Testament and of texts attributed to historian Polybius and philosopher Epictetus .

While proposals have been made to perform the liturgy in modern Greek, to make the service accessible to the majority of Greeks, especially the youth (in the same way that the Vatican allowed the use of the vernacular) the Church continues to support the preservation of the Koine Greek, because it contributes to the “mystery” of the liturgy. It is generally believed that the use of modern Greek will not attract more people to the church, because the “beauty” and “splendour” of the traditional liturgy far outweighs the precise meaning of the words.

Saint Andrew

Saint Andrew is the Patron Saint of Scotland, and St. Andrew's Day is celebrated by Scots around the world on the 30th November. The flag of Scotland is the Cross of St. Andrew, and this is widely displayed as a symbol of national identity.

The "Order of Saint Andrew" or the "Most Ancient Order of the Thistle" is an order of Knighthood which is restricted to the King or Queen and sixteen others. It was established by James VII of Scotland in 1687.

Very little is really known about St. Andrew himself. He was thought to have been a fisherman in Galilee (now part of Israel), along with his elder brother Simon Peter (Saint Peter). Both became followers (apostles) of Jesus Christ, founder of the Christian religion.

St. Andrew is said to have been responsible for spreading the tenets of the Christian religion though Asia Minor and Greece. Tradition suggests that St. Andrew was put to death by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by being pinned to a cross (crucified). The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag.

St. Andrews bones were entombed, and around 300 years later were moved by Emperor Constantine (the Great) to his new capital Constantinople (now Istambul in Turkey). Legend suggests that a Greek Monk (although others describe him as an Irish assistant of St. Columba) called St. Rule (or St. Regulus) was warned in a dream that St. Andrews remains were to be moved and was directed by an angel to take those of the remains which he could to the "ends of the earth" for safe-keeping. St. Rule dutifully followed these directions, removing a tooth, an arm bone, a kneecap and some fingers from St. Andrew's tomb and transporting these as far away as he could. Scotland was close to the extremities of the know world at that time and it was here that St. Rule was shipwrecked with his precious cargo.

St. Rule is said to have come ashore at a Pictish settlement on the East Coast of Scotland and this later became St. Andrews. Thus the association of St. Andrew with Scotland was said to have begun.

Perhaps more likely than the tale of St. Rule's journey is that Acca, the Bishop of Hexham, who was a reknown collector of relics, brought the relics of St. Andrew to St. Andrews in 733. There certainly seems to have been a religious centre at St. Andrews at that time, either founded by St. Rule in the 6th century or by a Pictish King, Ungus, who reigned from 731 - 761.

Whichever tale is true, the relics were placed in a specially constructed chapel. This chapel was replaced by the Cathedral of St. Andrews in 1160, and St. Andrews became the religious capital of Scotland and a great centre for Medieval pilgrims who came to view the relics.

There are other legends of how St. Andrew and his remains became associated with Scotland, but there is little evidence for any of these, including the legend of St. Rule. The names still exist in Scotland today, including St. Rules Tower, which remains today amongst the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral.

It is not known what happened to the relics of St. Andrew which were stored in St. Andrews Cathedral, although it is most likely that these were destroyed during the Scottish Reformation. The Protestant cause, propounded by Knox, Wishart and others, won out over Roman Catholism during the Reformation and the "idolatry of catholism", that is the Saints, relics, decoration of churches, were expunged during the process of converting the Roman Catholic churches of Scotland to the harsh simplicity of Knox's brand of Calvanism.

The place where these relics were kept within the Cathedral at St. Andrews is now marked by a plaque, amongst the ruins, for visitors to see.

The larger part of St. Andrew's remains were stolen from Constantinople in 1210 and are now to be found in Amalfi in Southern Italy. In 1879 the Archbishop of Amalfi sent a small piece of the Saint's shoulder blade to the re-established Roman Catholic community in Scotland.

In 1969, Gordon Gray, leader of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland was in Rome to be appointed the first Scottish Cardinal since the Reformation. Pope Paul VI gave him further relics of St. Andrew with the words "Saint Peter gives you his brother". These are now displayed in a reliquary in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh.

THE FALL OF ORTHODOX ENGLAND

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