Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Christ is Ascended!
This is weekly newsletter #13 of the St Ignatius Parish in Belfast.
Contents of this Newsletter:
- Message from Fr Dmitry: Praying for the Departed
- News & Announcements: Church Services and Faith & Fellowship Schedule
- Homily on Past Sunday’s Gospel: Co-eternal and Consubstantial
Message from Fr Dmitry: Praying for the Departed
This coming Saturday, 7 June, the day before the Feast of Pentecost, is known in the Orthodox Church as the Saturday of Souls, the universal commemoration of the departed. The Synaxarion of the day tells us:
“On this day in the Holy Orthodox Church, the day before Pentecost, the divine Fathers ordained a memorial for all those who have fallen asleep throughout the ages in true worship and in hope of life everlasting.”
Why do we remember the departed, especially on this day?
Fr Sergei Bulgakov (†1944) writes:
“On the Saturday before Pentecost we commemorate all departed pious Christians, with the idea that the occasion of the coming of the Holy Spirit not only consists of the economy of the salvation of man, but that the departed also participate in this salvation. Therefore, the Holy Church, sending up prayers on Pentecost for the enlivening of all the living through the Holy Spirit, petitions for the grace of the Holy Spirit also for the departed, which they were granted while they were still living, and was the source of eternal blessedness, because ‘all souls are enlivened through the Holy Spirit.’”
Because Christ is risen, death has been conquered. Physical death, the separation of soul and body, is but a long sleep until the Second Coming of our Lord and the universal Resurrection. Those who have gone before us are not dead in the full sense of the word. The departed and the living orthodox Christians are all members of the One Body of Christ, the Church, united in the Holy Spirit.
The Feast of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, is a profound reminder that we are one family in God, who is our Heavenly Father. Just as we pray for our friends and relatives who are alive, so we must also ask God to have mercy on the orthodox christians who have departed this life. And if they are in God’s presence, they in turn intercede with their prayers for us.
Although we are unable to serve the Divine Liturgy and Memorial Service in church this year on the Saturday of Souls, you can still pray at home for your departed Orthodox relatives and friends. Here is the order of the Reader’s Memorial Service, which can be done without a priest, for use at home on Saturday: https://www.goarch.org/-/the-memorial-service
Here also are the beautiful troparia chanted during the Orthros of the Saturday of Souls, as well as at funerals and memorial services. These troparia are known as the Evlogitaria of the Departed. The words are truly profound: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6je5axPodI
I am looking forward to seeing you all in Church on Sunday, 8th June, to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost and Ieva’s baptism.
News and Announcements:
- Sunday, 8 June – Pentecost Divine Liturgy and Ieva’s Baptism – We will gather again in church, God willing, this coming Sunday, 8 June. It is the Feast of Pentecost, one of the great feasts of the Church, and I encourage you all to come. On that day, I will be arriving early in the morning from the USA to Dublin, and making my way straight to Belfast. Because of this, we will not have Orthros. Instead, we will read the Hours and go straight into the Divine Liturgy, which will begin at 11:00 AM.
Following the Liturgy, we will celebrate a joyful occasion in the life of our parish: the baptism of our catechumen Ieva. You are all warmly invited to stay to celebrate this Sacrament together and welcome Ieva into our church family.
There will be a short break of around 30 minutes after the Liturgy, during which some refreshments will be served while we prepare the font for the baptism. Please note that there will be no full parish lunch on this occasion. Some of our ladies have already kindly arranged food and drinks, so there is no need to bring additional food this time. - Online Faith & Fellowship Meetings – our next meeting is on Monday, 2nd of June, at 7:00 PM, Zoom link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/97707660214 As usual, we will begin with the Little Compline. After the prayers, we will continue with the series of conversation on our patron saint, St Ignatius of Antioch. This time, we will reflect on his teaching about the ecclesiology and hierarchy of the Church.
From next week, God willing, we will return to our regular schedule, with Faith and Fellowship meetings on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM.
Past Sunday’s Gospel Reading and Homily
The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John (17:1-13):
At that time, Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work which you gave me to do; and now, Father, you glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. I have manifested your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world; yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you; for I have given them the words which you gave me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you did send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are mine; all mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
Homily: Co-eternal and Consubstantial
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
This Sunday, the seventh after Pascha, falls between two great feasts: the Ascension of our Lord and the coming feast of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit. On this Sunday, the Church commemorates the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, which was held in the city of Nicaea in the year 325. This year the commemoration has special significance, as Christians throughout the world mark the one thousand seven hundredth anniversary of that council. You can read here about the history of the Council: https://www.antiochian.org/regulararticle/1612
The Church placed this commemoration at this moment in the liturgical year with intention. The First Ecumenical Council responded to the heresy of Arianism. This false teaching, which spread widely even within the Church, was promoted by Arius, a priest from Alexandria. He denied the full divinity of Jesus Christ and taught that the Son was not eternal and not of the same essence as the Father.
In response, the Fathers of the Council unanimously proclaimed that the Son is co-eternal (existing eternally with) and consubstantial with the Father (from Latin translation of the Greek word ὁμοούσιος, homoousian, “of same nature”). This teaching was clearly affirmed in the Nicene Creed, also called the Symbol of Faith, which we continue to recite at every Divine Liturgy and at many other services. The Second Ecumenical Council later added the teaching concerning the Holy Spirit to complete the Creed as we know it today.
The Ascension of Christ, which we celebrated just a few days ago, marks the fulfilment of His mission on earth. He instructed us in the truth, He conquered death by His resurrection, and He raised up human nature, joining it to the Divine. He ascended into Heaven, taking our humanity with Him, so that we too might receive eternal life through Him. But this mystery is only possible if Christ is truly divine. If He is not one with the Father, then our salvation would be an illusion. His death would not save us. His resurrection would have no power. His Ascension would be empty. Without His divinity, our faith would have no foundation.
Thus, the Holy Fathers of the First Council were not speculative theologians, scholars detached from real life, debating minor details. They were defenders of the heart of our faith. They did not invent the doctrine of the Trinity. Rather, they confirmed and protected what the Church had always believed and confessed. Apostle and Evangelist John, records in the Gospel fragment for this Sunday, what the has witnesses with his own eyes and heard with his own ears: Christ’s high-priestly prayer. It is the prayer He offered to the Father before going to Gethsemane Garden, before being betrayed and handed over to death. This prayer reveals the divine nature of Jesus. If Christ were not truly one in essence with the Father, this prayer would be incomprehensible. But spoken by the Son of God, it becomes a profound expression of the unity, love, and purpose within the Holy Trinity. It also reveals His mission to glorify the Father and to bring us into that same unity.
Saint Athanasius the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria and one of the leading voices at the Council of Nicaea, later wrote in his work On the Incarnation: “God became man so that man might become god.” The high-priestly prayer echoes this truth. Christ prays not only for His disciples but for all who will come to believe in Him, that we may be one with Him and with the Father. Father Symeon Kragiopoulos writes: “The Lord, sinless, moves toward His Passion and presents Himself as a sinner before God, taking upon Himself the sin of the world.”
We are called to respond to this love. Inspired by the sacrificial love of Christ, we must love Him with all our heart. And if we love Him, we must also love one another, seeing Christ in every person. This kind of love may bring suffering. It may lead to rejection, even persecution. But if our suffering is united to the suffering of Christ, it becomes a holy offering. May our struggles be accepted by God, just as the Father accepted the perfect sacrifice of His Son for the salvation of the world, on behalf of all and for all. Amen!
Yours in Christ,
Fr Dmitry