Orthodox Study Circle
St. Raphael, Nicholas and Irene Greek Orthodox Church
708 Hertford. Road,
Enfield, Middx.
EN3 6NR
Summer Holidays
The Enfield Study Circle has broken up for the summer, and will return in September, with a revised format.
In the meantime, I will continue updating the blog that I maintain for a monastery in Greece
http://ypseni.wordpress.com (basically reflecting their Greek content http://ipseni.blogspot.com in English) – so you can get a few vitamins there.
All further updates and programs will be on the study circle weblog https://enteringmystery.wordpress.com. Where you can find powerpoint, video, articles and resources from previous sessions.
Have a good summer!
Practical Spirituality
Tonight’s talk:-
Some thoughts on Inner Stillness, Forgiveness and the ills of resentment.
Background Links:
What is a saint and how do you become one?
Tonight’s Talk for All Saints
What is a saint and how can you become one?
Outline
- What is a saint?
- When I grow up I want to be … a saint!
- From zero to hero…
- If Jesus is our Mediator, why do we pray to saints?
- What about the Panagia, the Mother of God?
- How and why do we ‘big up’ the saints?
- ‘Dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones’
- How do we get the saints’ official rubber stamp of approval?
Links:
What is a saint? Fr. Ian Graham (Orthodox Fellowship of St. John the Baptist)
What we believe about the saints? Fr. Anthony Coniaris
We rolled a lot of topics into one this time
- Who was Emperor Constantine and why is he important?
- Roman Empire? Greek Speaking? Orthodox?
- Is Pentecost the Birthday of the Church?
- (Christ in the Old Testament and the Ecumenical Councils)
- Sickness and Therapy of the Soul
- Pentecost and the Body of Christ
- Speaking in Tongues: Prophesy and Theology
- Conclusion
Read some more:
Straight History
Decadence, Rome and Romania, the Emperors Who Weren’t, and Other Reflections on Roman History
Further Reflections on Roman History
What, if anything, is a Byzantine?
Theology
Jesus Christ – The Life of the World
An appeal for an Orthodox Christian Europe
Theosis in Saint Silouan and Elder Sophrony
Other
We’re off!
We started yesterday at 7.30pm with all the regulars
Ascension and Pentecost:
The Birthday of the Church
Outline
The Ascension
- The Reign of the Messiah
- A mission
- Power from on High
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament
- The word ruah
The Holy Spirit in the Gospels
- The Annunciation
- The Baptism
- The Samaritan woman
- The Feast of The Tabernacles: Sukkot
Psalm 23 [24]:7-10
7 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
And be lifted up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
8 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD strong and mighty,
The LORD mighty in battle.
9 Lift up your heads, O you gates!
Lift up, you everlasting doors!
And the King of glory shall come in.
10 Who is this King of glory?
The LORD of hosts,
He is the King of glory.
The Anti-Pentecost
Pentecost
Troparion of Pentecost
“Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit – through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, glory to Thee!”
Kontakion of Pentecost
“When the Most High came down and confused the tongues, he divided the nations. But when he distributed the tongues of fire, he called all to unity. Therefore, with one voice, we glorify the All-Holy Spirit!
Next week: What is the Church?
Blessed are the persecuted…
After a short break in our talks we start again on the 27th November at St. Raphael’s with a guest speaker.
Fr. Alexander Tefft comes to St. Raphael’s to speak on “Blessed are the Persecuted…”
On the back of a century with the highest number of Christian martyrs since the beginnings of the Church the dynamic, and always interesting speaker Father Alexander Tefft, comes to St. Raphael’s to explain the Beatitude: “Blessed are the persecuted…”
Everybody welcome.
The last time he came everybody complained … “Why didn’t we record that?” We won’t be recording … you’ll have to come along live.
Date: Friday 27th November
Time: 7.30pm
Venue: St. Raphael’s Orthodox Church, within St. George’s,
708 Hertford Road,
Enfield
Nearest train: Turkey Street (Liverpool St. Line – change at Seven Sisters from tube). Bus: 279 stops outside.
Use http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/ for full options
Tea/Coffee and refreshments provided.
Father Alexander is Chaplain for the Institute of Orthodox Christian Studies , Cambridge University and serves at St. Botolph’s Church, in London
Join us on Facebook and invite your friends:
Blessed are the meek..
Again … just the powerpoint… notes to be added soon
We raised £135 for Kenya with a very poor turnout, by the way!
Blessed are those who mourn…
Powerpoint presentation … full talk to follow
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Thank you to everyone who came last night, it was a pleasant evening despite the autumnal chill in the air.
The theme was “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”. The session was a very interactive one, so there is no written talk online. I’m afraid you won’t get the full flavour of the session, this time. which was built around communication and discussion.
There is an adapted video of the edited Powerpoint, and the whole Powerpoint as .pdf (portable document file) document, which might hint at what was said.
Leave a comment if there are any difficulties – or if you like it!
Download Poverty in Spirit Document
There was some homework this week too!
- What can you do this week to have Poverty of Spirit? To put others first?
- How can you start to see yourself as you truly are?
The Elder Paisios video we watched (along with the other parts that we didn’t watch) is here
Science, Creation and Bones
During the pre-talk coffee we got into a discussion about Creation and Orthodox viewpoints, which we may well leave to another session with a guest speaker.
I refer you to this post by Fr. Gregory Hallam
Part of the problem is an attack by atheists on the Watchmaker view of God and Creation. Although based on an old philosophical viewpoint, this has not been the way Orthodox Christians traditionally view God’s relationship with the Universe (although the attached flash file is quite sweet).
God did not set the ball rolling and disappear; He actively sustains the Universe. This is explained by Fr. Stephen Freeman in his blog post here.
There was also a discussion afterwards about relics due to the fact that the relics of Therese of Lisieux have been brought to the UK.
I wrote about this on my test blog last week:
Entering Orthodox Mystery 
