Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Christ is Risen!
This is weekly newsletter #9 of the St Ignatius Parish in Belfast.
Contents of this Newsletter:
- Message from Fr Dmitry
- Announcements
- Homily on next Sunday’s Gospel: the Benefit of Doubt
Message from Fr Dmitry:
Christ is Risen, beloved brothers and sisters! Once again, congratulations on the Great and Glorious Feast of Pascha — the Feast of Feasts, the Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ. May the Light of the Risen Lord fill your hearts with joy and peace.
It was a blessing to celebrate Pascha with you on Bright Monday at our parish. I am grateful to the chanters for their beautiful singing, the servers for their help in the altar, those who set up and packed away the church space, and all who cooked and served in the kitchen.
A special thanks goes to the women of our parish who dyed Paschal eggs for blessing and distribution after the service, and who baked traditional Greek Paschal pastries!
You may have noticed a few changes in the church during the service:
- New Icons: We installed four new icons in the iconostasis, in line with the wishes of our Father and Metropolitan Silouan to replace the faded, older ones. With his blessing and Gabi’s help in Latakia, Syria, we sourced high-quality digital images of Byzantine-style icons. Wadih, who often assists the Cathedral parish, printed them onto wood in a London shop. They were then shipped to Belfast and mounted by our altar server Carsten, using hooks provided by our parishioner Georgina.
- New Liturgical Items: We now have a censer with bells and new Byzantine processional candle torches. These were sourced and posted to us by Stavros and Nitsa, the parents of our parishioner Eleftheria, from their local ecclesiastical shop. They arrived in time for Pascha. On behalf of the whole parish, I thank Stavros and Naitsa for their help.
- New Processional Cross and Ripidions (Cherubim Fans): We have also acquired a new set of professional Cross and Fans for use during the Great Entrance and other processions
May all these offerings be for the benefit of the Church and the faithful, helping to make our services even more beautiful and spiritually uplifting for years to come!
News and Announcements:
- Baptism of Adam (Porphyrios). On Bright Wednesday, April 23, our catechumen Adam was received into the Holy Orthodox Church through baptism in the Jordan River, taking the name Porphyrios, after Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia. A parishioner of the Cathedral of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple in Amman, Patriarchate of Jerusalem, played a key role in Adam’s journey into Orthodoxy and helped coordinate the baptism with the local clergy. We congratulate newly illumined Porphyrios and look forward to welcoming him at our parish services!
- Next Services in the Church: weekend 10th–11th May. I will be in Belfast for services in the weekend of 10th–11th May:
- Saturday, 10th May – No Vespers. Instead, we’ll make a pilgrimage to Bangor in honour of St Comgall of Bangor, visiting the Malachy Wall of the ancient Abbey established by St Comgall, and pray a short supplication service to him at the nearby church (pending permission from the local parish). This will be followed by a picnic or lunch. Details to follow.
- Sunday, 11th May – Orthros and Divine Liturgy from 10:00 am as usual, followed by parish lunch.
- Online Faith & Fellowship Meetings Resume: Wednesdays at 7:00 pm on Zoom. We’ll pray Little Compline and reflect on the Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday. No preparation needed — just come as you are! Join via this link: https://ucl.zoom.us/j/97707660214
Next Sunday’s Gospel Reading and Homily:
The reading from the Holy Gospel according to St John (20:19-31):
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in His side, I will not believe.” Eight days later, His disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see My hands; and put out your hand, and place it in My side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered Him, “My Lord and My God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen Me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.
Homily: On the Benefit of Doubt
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
The Sunday following Pascha is called Anti-Pascha (literally “in place of Pascha”), or Thomas Sunday — not because it replaces Pascha, but because it reflects the dedication of every Sunday to the Lord’s Resurrection.
It is also named for the Apostle Thomas, whose encounter with the Risen Christ we read about in the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday.
In Russia, where I come from, “Doubting Thomas” is a phrase often used (sometimes jokingly) for someone who won’t easily believe something. But the Church Fathers speak of Thomas’s doubt as blessed. Why?
First, because Thomas takes the reality of Christ’s death, resurrection, and divinity seriously. He doesn’t entertain empty talk. His demand for evidence is not irreverence, but a deep desire to ensure the truth is not mocked.
Second, and perhaps more importantly, the Church calls Thomas’s doubt blessed because it led not only to his own deep conviction but also to the strengthening of the faith of countless others. His insistence on seeing and touching the Risen Lord becomes the occasion for Christ to make Himself tangibly known — not just to Thomas, but to all of us through him.
The first Aposticha stichera of the Great Vespers for Thomas Sunday proclaims: “What a miraculous wonder, that lack of faith became conviction of faith!” Through the doubt of one, faith is confirmed for the many. Thomas becomes, in a sense, a representative of all who struggle to believe without seeing, and through his encounter with Christ, he receives proof on our behalf.
This is deeply relevant for us. We were not there in the upper room. We did not see Christ’s hands and side. And yet we believe, and, hence, we are blessed, for as the Lord says: “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” But our belief is not a blind leap into the dark. It is a response to the witness of the Apostles — and Thomas’s testimony is among the clearest and most powerful. His doubt, transformed into faith, gives us a firm foundation. His words “My Lord and my God!” have echoed through the generations and remain a confession of true and living faith.
Thomas doubted, but not out of pride. His was not a doubt born of arrogance or rebellion, but of seriousness, of reverence for the truth. And when Christ appeared and offered His wounds, Thomas immediately believed and confessed the truth.
So, brothers and sisters, if ever you feel doubt about your faith, in God’s love or His will for your life, do not despair. Be honest with God. Ask Him to show you the truth. But when the truth is revealed, respond like Thomas: not with delay, but with humility and faith. Confess with joy and conviction that Jesus Christ is “our Lord and our God.”
Amen.
Yours in Christ,
Fr Dmitry