Easter was celebrated with great spiritual uplift

The Great Feast of Resurrection of the Christ - Easter was celebrated at the parish on the 19th of April as almost everywhere else in the orthodox world. Despite the temporary problems with premise, the celebration went with great spiritual uplift. It was helped a lot by the small group of parishioners who had crafted a wonderful new icon screen for the parish together with the altar and the Holy table.

Prior to the beginning of the service the new icon screen was blessed. Parishioners made confession. Acts of Apostles were read before the Holy Sindon, then the midnight service took place and the Holy Sindon was brought to the Altar, where it was placed on the new Holy Table.

The choir sang very brightly, with the glimmering oil lamps, icons on the incon stands with burning candles in front of them one could almost forget that it was happening in a non-orthodox country. The sacred procession went along the perimeter inside the premise.

It was traditionally crowdy at the celebration, some people did not speak Russian at all, but still came along to celebrate Easter together with us. After the Liturgy Easter eggs and cakes were blessed followed by breaking of the fast.

Christ is risen!

New icon screen was built for the parish of St. Kentigern

It was a great joy for the parish that several of its members had built a new icon screen. The screen is folding and portable, but still looks very attractive. Over the period of more than five weeks a group of parishioners (Anatoly, Andrey, Konstantin and others) spent selflessly many hours every day in order to get the screen ready for Easter. And they succeeded. Also altar and holy table were crafted for the church as well as the robes for them.

Originally not quite appropriate for a service room completely transfigured to host a celebration in truly orthodox decoration. The diocesan administration invited the parish to bring the new icon screen to the yearly conference of the Diocese of Sourozh, where joint church services took place, headed by the Bishop.

Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Dundee on the Holy Saturday

First Liturgy in the histiry of the city in Scotland was celebrated by a Russian orthodox priest. Blessed by Elisey the Bishop of Sourozh, archpriest Michael Dudko, who serves the parish in the name of St. Kentigern in Glasgow, celebrated the liturgy.

Orthodox beleivers, who live in Dundee and its vicinity, gathered at the service. The church choir, conducted by deacon Michael Rozhkov, came from Glasgow. The rector of the Saint Salvador Church, where the service was allowed to take place, estimated that about 30 people were present. After the Liturgy, during which many made confessions and took Holy Communion, those who brought their Easter eggs and cakes could have them blessed.

New parishioners have not yet formed a community, but should this happen there will be an opportunity to have regular services here in the future.

Anointing and Divine Liturgy was celebrated on the first Saturday of Remembrance of the Departed Parents in the Greek churche of St. Luke

Regular service took place in the community of St. Kentigern on 13th and 14th of March. Those who wished to receive Atonement could do so in the evening the 13th, and Divine Liturgy was celebrated the following morning.  A new parishioner - Nadezhda was baptised on that day, making a promise to become an active member of the parish.  The service took place in the Greek church of St. Luke, the rector of which, Fr. Konstantine, very kindly offered us the church for the service.

Also on Saturday there was a Parish meeting, to which Fr. Michael invited everyone. The members of the Parish council were present as well as those, who care about the future of the parish. The main issue discussed at the meeting was a new permanent place of worship. It was decided by Fr Mikhail and group of supporters that Easter would be celebrated in the church premises, which is currently occupied by the parish school.

Candlemas was celebrated in St. Bride's church

A Great Feast of Candlemas was celebrated in the parish of St. Kentigern. Although the Feast should be celebrated on the Sunday, with Bishop Elisey's blessing and as per the current practice the Feast was moved one day earlier. On Friday evening there was a celebration of vespers with the Divine Liturgy celebrated on the following Saturday. During these services for the first time in Glasgow we commemorated the new Head of the Russian Orthodox Church - His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia. The choir sounded terrific, which not only became noticably more experienced, but also had some new singers. The services were conducted in two languages: Church Slavonic and English. The parishioners had an opportunity to buy the newly printed icons of St. Kentigern, the Patron Saint of the parish. The icons were blessed after the Liturgy.  

It was decided that during Fr. Michael's next visit (please refer to the service schedule) all wishing to receive the Anointing will have an opportunity to do so.

Picture: blessing of the icons after the Liturgy.