DIVINE LITURGY PRESIDED BY HIS GRACE BISHOP IAKOVOS AT ST BARNABAS
On the 29th October His Grace Bishop Iakovos presided at the first Sunday Divine Liturgy in the English language, at St Barnabas Wood Green. Around 100 faithful were prayerfully present, predominantly young families of North London. This Liturgy – which should be the epicentre of our spiritual lives – was celebrated within the context of our outreach and pastoral initiatives, in re-evangelising our young generation.
HOMILY OF HIS GRACE BISHOP IAKOVOS AT THIS JOYOUS AND HISTORICAL DIVINE LITURGY IN ENGLISH:
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Allow me to warmly welcome all of you here present, to this new beginning, this bold witness of our local Orthodox Christian Church, this new initiative of the Sunday Divine Liturgy in English, here at our community of St Barnabas.
This is truly an important day in the vibrant life of our community. When we celebrate the Divine Liturgy the entire cosmos rejoices and is renewed in Christ, for in the Eucharist we find our fulfilment as we commune with God Himself and with one another in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. For us to celebrate the Divine Liturgy henceforth in the English language on Sundays means to acknowledge that we truly are beginning to express ourselves as a local Church, as the truly Ecumenical Patriarchate, the canonically local Orthodox Church of this country, under the gracious guidance and leadership of His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas.
We commence these Divine Liturgies in order to reach out to all of you, particularly the younger generation, who, as His Eminence our Archbishop often states, are not the future of the Church, but the present. The Orthodox Faith, the Apostolic Tradition, the Eucharistic life and ascetic ethos of the Church, offer the human being newness of life (Rom 6:4) in Christ, fulfilment and salvation. It is therefore both our responsibility and our joy to share this richness of the Orthodox Faith with our younger generation, so that you – our families, our students and children – may essentially become beacons of Christ’s light in a troubled world and society. May you and your families bear witness to the ‘God of Love’ (1 Jn 4:8) Who is ‘wondrous in His Saints.’
In today’s Gospel reading, my dear brothers and sisters, we are reminded of the Lord’s words to the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years: ‘Your Faith has made you well; go in peace.’ We see an example of how Christ not only grants miracles and physical healing to those who place their hope in Him, but also that he grants His peace. One of the concluding prayers of the Divine Liturgy proclaims: ‘Let us go forth in peace.’ The deacon, standing before the holy doors, as he commences the Great Litany, says on behalf of the people: ‘In peace let us pray to the Lord.’
Peace is an essential part of our lives as Christians for it is not simply a state of the mind, but rather internal peace is a consequence of our prayerful relationship with Christ, our contentment and our appreciation towards God. Peace, in other words, is the very presence of God in our lives and hearts. St Seraphim of Sarov states: ‘Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.’ This peace can certainly not be provided to us by the means and ways of the world, but here, within the Liturgical life of the Church, by partaking of the Lord’s body and blood in the Holy Liturgy.
The late Metropolitan John Zizioulas of Pergamon writes: ‘Without the concept of communion it would not be possible to speak of being.’ ‘In the Eucharist we can find all the dimensions of communion: God communicates himself to us, we enter into communion with him, the participants of the sacrament enter into communion with one another, and creation as a whole enters through man into communion with God. All this takes place in Christ and the Spirit, who brings the last days into history and offers to the world a foretaste of the Kingdom.”
Christ is in our midst dear brothers and sisters. May He enlighten and strengthen us in building up His body, the Church, together. (Eph 4:12) Amen.