Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Last time liturgy served some 947 years ago in Oxford

(Oxford Times) - OXFORD’S Keble College played host to a very special ceremony when it welcomed Bishop Jerome of Manhattan, of the Russian Orthodox Church.

When His Grace celebrated a Western Orthodox Episcopal Liturgy on Friday, it was the first time the service had been held in the UK since 1066.

Before then the church in the UK was Orthodox, but the Norman Conquest saw the Roman church take over.

Father Stephen Platt, parish priest at the Russian Orthodox church St Nicholas the Wonderworker in Marston, Oxford, said: “Orthodox services generally have an Eastern origin, while Catholic and Anglican churches have services which originate in Ancient Rome.”

Philip Pughe-Morgan, who came from Weston-super-Mare for the service, said: “Many people are put off by what they see as a form of worship which doesn’t relate to their traditional culture.

“The Russian Church has now introduced a mission to offer worship in the form and culture of these islands which developed here in the early centuries.”

During his visit, Bishop Jerome also met members of the public at St Barnabas Church in Jericho.

6 comments:

  1. Absolutely splendid. Praise to our Lord Jesus Christ!

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  2. "it was the first time the service had been held in the UK since 1066." Really? So I am guessing the argument goes that the English church was "Orthodox", I am sure that's news to our ancestors. And what is the meaning of using 1066 as a year of any import? Certainly a sad year for many of the indigenous Christians of the time It is plainly an anachronism to call the English church "Orthodox". This is nothing but inverted Uniatism. The only difference being that the Uniate churches in communion with Rome are natural communities who sought to unite themselves to Rome for various reasons. Someone once remarked of the late Revd Percy Dearmer and his attempt to resurrect the Sarum rite that it was British Museum Religion. I think that dear old Revd Dearmer has some new devotees.

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  3. About time someone called out this reverse-Unia. The double standards of some people, especially Russians, is... Imagine if the reverse occurred in their 'canonical territory'. I can imagine the hissy fit from the very same Russians.

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  4. For WRO:

    - They were not forced by the state to convert.
    - The Anglican or Roman Catholic Churches were not declared illegal and persecuted by the state.
    - Hierarchs had not been seduced with state dignities.
    - Believers have converted intentionally.

    No single common point with Uniates.

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  5. The whole "pre-Norman Orthodox" church myth needs to be laid to rest. I'm Orthodox and I get embarrassed whenever I hear that nonsense.

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  6. What is incorrect about calling all churches in communion with all of the ancient patriarchates before the Great Schism "Orthodox"(regardless of which liturgical rite they practiced)? Is this considered an anachronism?

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