Every second Saturday of the month, Divine Liturgy in English of Sunday - Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, London W1K 5BQ.
4pm Divine Liturgy. Next: 13th November 2021

Very sadly, the Divine Liturgy in English at 9-30 am on Sundays at the Holy Family Cathedral, Lower Church, have had to be put on hold. Until the practicalities we cannot use the Lower Church space. Hopefully this will be resolved very soon. Please keep checking in here for details.

Owing to public health guidance, masks should still be worn indoors and distance maintained. Sanitisers are available. Holy Communion is distributed in both kinds from the mixed and common chalice, by means of a separate Communion spoon for each individual communicant.

To purchase The Divine Liturgy: an Anthology for Worship (in English), order from the Sheptytsky Institute here, or the St Basil's Bookstore here.

To purchase the Divine Praises, the Divine Office of the Byzantine-Slav rite (in English), order from the Eparchy of Parma here.

The new catechism in English, Christ our Pascha, is available from the Eparchy of the Holy Family and the Society. Please email johnchrysostom@btinternet.com for details.

Wednesday 21 May 2014

President of Macedonia gives Pope an image of Sts. Cyril and Methodius







Archbishop Stephen  of Ohrid (a see which historically was the patriarchate of the Bulgarian Empire, with which the See of Rome maintained semi-communion for the sake of the pastoral care of Byzantines in Southern Italy for over half a millennium after the supposed break with the Orthodox Churches after the so-called Great Schism of 1054)  and the Macedonian Orthodox Church are not recognised as canonical by the Russian, Serbian or Greek Orthodox Churches, or the Ecumenical Patriarchate. owing to the unilateral declaration of autocephaly from the Serbian Orthodox Church in place of autonomy within it, following repeated Serbian rejection of the Macedonian Metropolia's requests. This was at the time that Macedonia,  Serbia and Bosnia belonged to a single state - Yugoslavia. Since the disintegration of this entity and the subsequent civil wars,  the Macedonian Republic has pressed the Orthodox Church in its territory to be fully independent of all external jurisdictions, to reflect the Macedonian identification of itself as a distinct nation, in the face of Greek claims that Macedonians and the name for the territory are historically Greek, and Serbian assertions that they are of the same stock and language group. A 2002 compromise between the Serbian and plenipotentiary Macedonian church leaders was rejected by the government in Skopje and the Synod of the Macedonian Church, leaving one of their bishops, Metropolitan Jovan, isolated as one who maintained his commitment to the agreement. The Serbian Church in Macedonia, serving ethnic Serbs and some Macedonians in Macedonia, was granted its own autonomy and Metropolitan Jovan appointed its head as Metropolitan of Ohrid in accordance with the earlier agreement. Since then he has been denounced as a political traitor and repeatedly imprisoned, detained on new charges and threatened with fresh trials and convictions. He has been deemed by Amnesty International to be a Prisoner of Conscience. Metropolitan Stephen was evidently received by Pope Francis as part of the diplomatic delegation of President Ivanon, and greeted respectfully as a fellow bishop, not in the role of an ecumenical interlocutor - especially on the eve of the pilgrimage of Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople together to the Holy Land. This all presents the urgent need for prayer for reconciliation and mutual healing of memories.


Pope Francis welcomed the President of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanon, at Casa Santa Marta. After a brief meeting behind closed doors, President Ivanon introduced his wife and members of his delegation, including several government ministers.

The delegation also included Stephen of Ohrid and Macedonia, the primate and leader of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. He and the Pope greeted each other affectionately.

The Balkan head of state gave the Pope an icon of Our Lady with the Child Jesus, as well as an engraved, wooden image of Saints Cyril and Methodius. For his part, the Pope gave the president a medallion of the Angel of Peace.

With the visit to the Vatican, the Macedonian delegation ended a three-day trip to Italy, to mark a series of events titled, "Macedonia honors St. Cyril.” 


President of Macedonia gives Pope an image of Sts. Cyril and Methodius

No comments: