Nativity of Mother of God

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

On Tuesday 21^st September parish of St Kentigern celebrated Nativity of Mother of God. Archpriest Gennadiy Andreev conducted Divine Liturgy on that cheerful day.

Nativity of Mother of God is one of the 12 Major Holy Days in church calendar. By the way this is the first Feast in 7518 church year (year of Christ’s Birth plus 5508). Church celebrated beginning of a new year on 14^th September.

On that day, on the turning point from Old to New Testament Most Holy Virgin Mary was born. By Lord’s Providence she was destined to serve the secrecy of incarnation of God’s Word and to be a Mother of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Nativity of Mother of God meant the beginning of time, when the great and comforting God’s promises to save people from evil slavery started to come true.

This event made the Kingdom of God to become close to earth, the Kingdom of truth, godliness, virtue, immortal life. By God's Providence the Mother of begotten Son is also our Mother and merciful protectress, to whom we constantly resort with all our diligence.

Holy Virgin Mary was born in a small Galilee town of Nazareth. Her parents were religious Joachim from generation of Prophet and King David and Anna from the family of Archpriest Aaron. They had no children as Anna was fruitless, but even when they got older they did not loose hope for God’s Mercy.

St. Joachim and Anna promised to devote to God’s service the child, which will be given to them by Lord. Childlessness considered being God’s punishment among the Jewish folk and Joachim and Anna had suffered unfair abuse from their fellow countrymen.

On one festive day Joachim brought his sacrifice to God in one of the temples of Jerusalem, but the high priest rejected it, calling Joachim unworthy because of his childlessness. Deeply in grief St. Joachim went into desert and prayed with tears to God to give him a child.

St. Anna knowing what had happened in the Temple of Jerusalem, cried desperately, she did not complain but prayed to God for mercy to her family.

Lord had heard their prayers when the saint couple became older and got ready for the high purpose of being parents of the Holy Virgin Mary, future Mother of God, Jesus Christ. Archangel Gabriel brought the joyful news to Joachim and Anna that their prayers have been heard and that they will give birth to the Most Blessed Daughter Mary, through whom the salvation to the whole world will be given.

The Most Holy Mary exceeded not only people but also angels in her purity and virtues, became a living God's temple and as holy church glorifies Her to be " heavenly door, welcoming Christ into Universe for salvation of our souls"



Parish of St. Kentigern welcomed Guest

On Saturday, 12 August, on the day in memory of Alexander Nevsky, Evgeniy Selensky, cleric of London Cathedral, visited our parish.

With blessing from Archbishop Elisey, Father Evgeniy served Divine Liturgy and service for the dead (panikhida) after that.

Translated by Julia Klein



OUR PARISH CELEBRATED ONE OF THE MAIN FEASTS IN CHURCH CALENDAR

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

The Dormition of the mother of God is one of the main Twelve Great Feasts and is celebrated according to the new style calendar on 28^th August. The festive Service was held in Govan Church last Saturday. Archpriest Gennadiy Andreev conducted The Dormition of Mother of God Liturgy.

With this Service Eastern Orthodox Church remembers pious decease (Uspenie) of Mother of God. This event is sad and joyful at the same time, sad because it is end of her life here on earth and joyful because it is the day of her reunion with her Son.

The Gospel does not tell us anything about life of Mother of God after Ascension of the Savior. Church kept information about her last days, according to which, the day of her death was revealed to her by Archangel Gabriel. Nobody was around when it happened, apart from Apostle John (other Apostles went away for preaching around the world), but in some miraculous way they all gathered in Jerusalem by that day. Only Apostle Thomas was absent. They buried Holy Mother of God with candlelight and psalms singing in the garden of Gethsemane, in a cave.

On the third day Apostle Thomas, who was late for funeral, reached Jerusalem. Wishing to say good bye to the Holy Virgin, he entered the cave and found it empty. Apostles came back home and prayed to God to let them know what happened to the body of Mother of God. On the same day in the evening Mother of God appeared before the Apostles and told them " Rejoice! I am always with you!"

Why we are not sad on that day, but happy? We celebrate this event with joy not only because The Holy Virgin said to do so, but also because her death was unusual. This was as a short sleep, after which the birth into eternal life followed. Holy Church tries to inspire in us fearless attitude towards Death and calls deceased, "fallen asleep".

Translated by Julia Klein



The Parish of St Kentigern celebrated The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.

The parishioners were looking forward for Fr Gennadiy to return from his holidays. Transfiguration of Jesus Christ (Preobrazhenie) was the first service to be celebrated after the long break.

This Feast was established to commemorate The Transfiguration of Jesus in front of his disciples upon a mountain (Mount Tabor) Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36. The Gospels have similar description of this event. Shortly before his Crucifixion Jesus took Peter, James, John the Apostle and went to the Mount Tabor, where he started to pray. Soon the apostles became tired and fell asleep. As they woke up they saw that Jesus has transfigured before them: he became radiant, his face had light upon it as bright as sunshine and his clothes became dazzling white as snow. Moses and Elijah, two Old Testament prophets, appeared and talked with Jesus about his death that would soon take place .

Later the Gospels say that a cloud enveloped them, and a voice said, “This is My Son, listen to Him! After that the vision disappeared. The disciples fell down on the ground in fear. Jesus came closer to them, touched them and told them “Get up and have no fear”. They then got up and saw Jesus in his usual appearance.

The Feast of Transfiguration of Jesus is considered to remind people of the necessity of spiritual transfiguration. The Church teaches that with his Transfiguration The Saver allows us to see the Transfiguration, which a man can expect in the Kingdom of God.

Christ was also preparing the disciples for his death; they must have seen him in his heavenly glory not to hesitate later in the moment of trial.

The Transfiguration of our Lord is also a traditional harvest feast, when the fruits of the earth, such as apples, pears, plums, etc are being blessed in the Church. The apples are very popular for blessing and our parish is not an exception. At the end of the Service Farther Gennadiy blessed the fruits brought by the congregation.

The tea and conversations took place after the Service There was much to talk about; we have not seen each other for more than a month. During this time some of us visited Holy Land, Italy, some of us went to Estonia, Latvia, Russia. Now we are all back and together. Thanks God!

Translated by Julia Klein



A Celebration of Victory Day in Glasgow Russian School

On the 8^th of May Glasgow Russian Orthodox School celebrated the 65^th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and allied countries over fascist Germany [we more often say ‘Nazi Germany’, but of course ‘fascist Germany’ is perfectly comprehensible]. At the beginning of the celebrations Fr Gennadiy Andreev, the priest in charge of the Glasgow parish of St Kentigern, conducted the prayer service composed especially for this occasion by Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Kirill. A celebration programme was put together by the combined efforts of the teachers, children and their parents. Recordings of music of the war years were played at the concert. The teachers outlined the main events of the Great Patriotic War. The boys and girls recited poems about the war, told about the heroism their relatives had exhibited at the front and on the home front during the war years. A particularly moving part of the day was when Fr Gennadiy and Larisa Sokolovskaya fastened Saint George’s Ribbons to the children’s tops. The Saint George’s Ribbons were kindly made available for the Russian School by the Consulate-General of Russian Federation in Edinburgh. Genuine medals and other items of wartime life were displayed in the school hall. This small exhibition aroused the interest of the children and Scottish guests at the event.We are full of hope that the memory of those days will never vanish and our grand- and great-grandchildren will hear the words so dear to everyone: “This Victory Day, saturated with the smell of gunpowder …This is a holiday… This is joy… Victory Day!!! (“Victory Day” is the most popular Russian song dedicated to the World War II).