Beloved brothers and sisters,
This is Community Bulletin #50 of Saint Ignatius Parish in Belfast
Contents of this Bulletin:
- This Week in the Life of the Church: Services and more this weekend
- A Pastoral Word: Is “Golden Rule” enough?
- Announcements
This Week in the Life of the Church
The weekend of Divine Services is almost here again, Glory to God. Schedule of services at our parish this weekend is as follows:
- 10th October, Saturday, 5:00 pm – Great Vespers, followed by fellowship at the kitchen
- 11th October, Sunday, 10:00 am – Orthros and Divine Liturgy, followed by the parish lunch
Confessions: Fr Dmitry will be hearing confessions on Saturday after the Great Vespers (as long as needed), and on Sunday before the Orthros, from 8:30 am until 9:45 am.
Location of the church: Cullen Memorial Hall, Methodist Complex, 381 Donegall Road, Belfast, BT12 6GR
Come and see!
This coming weekend is extra special in Belfast for two reasons:
- Visit of His Grace Bishop Irenei to the Parish of St John of Shanghai (ROCOR). A reminder that our brothers and sisters in Christ from St John of Shanghai parish are welcoming their Bishop for the pastoral visit on Friday and Saturday, 9&10th of October. All of you are invited to join. Great Vespers on Saturday at 6 pm, and Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on Saturday at 9:30 am.
Address: Moravian Church, 1 University Road, Belfast, BT7 1NA.
Full Program here: https://stjohnofshanghaibelfast.org - First-ever Thanksgiving Sunday at our parish. This Sunday, 11th October, at the end of the Divine Liturgy, we will hold our first Thanksgiving Sunday. You will be invited to make a silent written pledge to support the parish during the coming year, following the prayer and discernment which we ask you to undertake at home in the days leading up to Sunday and again together in church. Please read the Thanksgiving Project Leaflet, which explains the principles of Christian giving, the needs and hopes of our parish, and exactly what is asked of each of us before and on Thanksgiving Sunday: https://saintignatiusbelfast.sharepoint.com/:b:/s/SaintIgnatiusChurchDocuments/IQDxmoYNC-TxQp-v0s9Ia1nAAQ_xw8aEO13iMzmAwj4aBiA?e=tOhfsy
Saints and Feasts of the Week
*The saints named here accompany the days of the week as living witnesses of Christ. Only the principal saint or feast of each day is listed here, in keeping with the liturgical order of the Church.
- Sunday, 4th of October – 2nd Sunday of Luke, Hierotheus, Bishop of Athens
- Monday, 5th of October – Charitina the Martyr
- Tuesday, 6th of October – The Holy and Glorious Apostle Thomas
- Wednesday, 7th of October – Sergius & Bacchus the Great Martyrs of Syria
- Thursday, 8th of October– Pelagia the Righteous & Pelagia the Virgin-martyr of Antioch
- Friday, 9th of October – James the Apostle, son of Alphaeus
- Saturday, 10th of October – Eulampius & Eulampia the Martyrs
- Sunday,11th of October – Sunday of the 7th Ecumenical Council and 4th Sunday of Luke
Hymns of the Week
*The hymns listed here are those that shape the prayer of the Church for the week, following the liturgical order and hierarchy. They are offered as an aid to prayer and may be used, as each is able, in personal prayer or a simple prayer rule at home.
RESURRECTIONAL APOLYTIKION IN TONE ONE
While the stone was sealed by the Jews, and the soldiers were guarding Thy most pure body, Thou didst arise on the third day, O Savior, granting life to the world. For which cause the heavenly powers cried aloud unto Thee, O giver of life. Glory to Thy Resurrection, O Christ, glory to Thy kingdom, glory to Thy providence, O Thou Who alone art the lover of mankind.
ORDINARY KONTAKION IN TONE TWO
O protection of Christians that cannot be put to shame, mediation unto the Creator most constant, O despise not the suppliant voices of those who have sinned; but be thou quick, O good one, to come unto our aid, who in faith cry unto thee: Hasten to intercession, and speed thou to make supplication, thou who dost ever protect, O Theotokos, them that honor thee.
Epistle and Gospel Readings:
*The Epistle and Gospel of the Sunday that begins the current liturgical week
- Epistle: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
- Gospel: Luke 6:31-36
The Sunday and daily Scripture readings may be read online via the Archdiocesan website: https://www.antiochian-orthodox.com/calendar
A Pastoral Word: Is the “Golden Rule” Enough?
In the Gospel reading for this past Sunday, our Lord tells us: “As you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.” In moral philosophy, this is commonly known as the “Golden Rule”.
Jesus Christ did not invent the Golden Rule. Principles very similar to it had existed for centuries in different religions and cultures. So, does our Lord simply repeat a commonly understood moral principle? Is He simply asking us to treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated?
The answer, of course, is “No”.
The Golden Rule is important, but it is only a foundation. It asks us not to treat others in a way in which we ourselves would not wish to be treated. But Christ immediately asks something much greater of us. He says: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.”
There is nothing particularly Christian about being good to people who are good to us. We naturally love those who love us. We are generous towards those who are generous towards us. We forgive those who apologise to us. Even people who have no faith at all can live according to such principles.
But Christians are called to go further. To be truly Christian, to bear the name of Christ and to grow into the likeness of God, we must go beyond reciprocity. The Golden Rule asks me not to wrong another person, but Christ asks me to love even the person who has wronged me.
What, then, does Christ tell us to do? “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.”
See how extraordinary this is! Christ connects love for our enemies with becoming sons of the Most High. In other words, by grace, we become like God Himself if we love our enemies.
It is hard. Truly hard to follow this commandment. It is easy to talk about loving our enemies when we are thinking of enemies far away (though even that is hard in our deeply divided world). It becomes much harder when we think about the person who has actually hurt us, offended us, treated us unfairly, spoken badly about us, betrayed our trust, or failed to give us what we believe we deserve.
Yet Christ also tells us why we must live this way: “For He [God] is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
This changes everything. We are not merciful because the other person necessarily deserves our mercy. We are merciful because God is merciful to us. We ourselves live every day by His mercy. If God does not deal with us simply according to what we deserve, how can we insist on strict justice every time someone else wrongs us?
Perhaps we are not yet capable of loving everyone sacrificially. But we must begin somewhere.
If you find it hard to love the person who hurt you, start by refusing to retaliate. Do not answer every offence with another offence. Do not insist on correcting every injustice done to you. Do not keep an account of every hurt, waiting for the opportunity to settle it. Sometimes the first step towards loving our enemies is simply refusing to strike back.
Interestingly, the widespread discussion of the Golden Rule in moral philosophy reminded me of another idea, this time from political philosophy.
One twentieth-century economist and Nobel laureate wrote about the difficulty of moving from one set of social rules to another while respecting the freedom of everyone involved. One of the problems is obvious: those who have been undermined under the existing arrangement will naturally want new rules that compensate them for past injustices. That is likely to come at the expense of those who were better off, and the roles will reverse. Hence, if correcting yesterday’s injustice simply means imposing a new injustice upon someone else today, we enter a vicious circle.
As the solution to this problem, the economist suggested that we have to take the existing situation – the status quo – as our starting point and ask how we can move forward together, rather than continually trying to settle the accounts of the past. His proposed political solution was the principle of agreement or unanimity.
Christ asks for something more radical still: mercy.
Not because justice does not matter. Not because evil should be called good, or wrongdoing ignored. But because wounds cannot be healed if everyone insists first on receiving everything he believes justice owes him.
Someone has to stop the cycle. Someone has to forgive. Someone has to surrender the right to retaliate. Someone has to be merciful because our heavenly Father is merciful.
At every Divine Liturgy we pray “for the peace of the whole world, the good estate of the holy churches of God, and the union of all.” But how can that peace and unity ever come to the world, the Church, our parish, our families, or our own relationships if each of us insists on settling every old account before we are willing to move forward?
The Golden Rule is a good beginning: treat others as you would wish them to treat you.
But Christ calls us further: Love when you are not loved. Do good when good is not returned. Forgive when you have been wronged. Be merciful, because your Father is merciful.
This is much harder than the Golden Rule. But this is Christ’s way. May, by God’s grace, we have the strength to walk this way. Amen!
Announcements
- Faith & Fellowship Meeting this week – Join our regular Faith & Fellowship meeting this Wednesday, 7th October, at 7:00 pm on Zoom. We will pray the Little Compline and speak about the saints of the day. Zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/93643306643
- Have you visited our Parish Library yet? Our library offers a growing collection of Orthodox books for adults and children: spiritual classics, lives of the saints, theology, Church history, and books for young readers. A good spiritual book can deepen our understanding of the faith and accompany us in our spiritual life.
You can browse the catalogue and request books online through the parish website. All the information about borrowing books, together with the online request form, can be found here: https://saintignatiusbelfast.org/library
Our librarians, Michael and Porphyrios, will be happy to help if you are looking for something to read. You can contact them at: library@saintignatiusbelfast.org
