The Shepherd, May 2009
VISIT OF ARCHBISHOP ANATOLY
ON RADONITSA, the second Tuesday within Pascha, when the Russians made a special commemoration of the faithful departed, we were paid an unexpected visit by His Eminence Archbishop Antatoly of Kerch (MP). The Archbishop arrived about tea time, accompanied by Fr Joseph Skinner and parishioner Misha Sarni, a long-time friend of our community. He had come to chant a memorial service at the grave of his spiritual daughter, Mother Serafima. In the event, he first visited Saint Edward’s Church, where he chanted the paschal canon, hymns to the Mother of God and to Saint Edward, and then venerated the holy things and sacred relics that we are blessed to have there. He then went to Mother Serafima’s grave and served a pannikhida, again adding in the paschal canon, and praying for her and for all the Orthodox buried here. He visited and censed all the graves in our section and in the adjoining Serbian Orthodox cemetery. Afterwards, we showed our guest the new house and our work rooms. In his youth the Archbishop had been a candle-maker and a bookbinder, and so was able to show a lively interest in what we are doing. Then, in the Exhibition Room, we treated him and the others to paska and kulich. He spoke to us about his restoration of an icon of St Nicolas, now in the Russian Cathedral in London at Ennismore Gardens, of his ministry in Damascus and his early years in Soviet Russia. His visit was unexpected but very uplifting and, in the event, it lasted over three hours. Incidentally, Misha Sarni has written a brief history of the Russian Church in London, of which he had earlier sent us a copy. It is informative and balanced, illustrated with coloured and black-&-white photos, and has been published in their Diocesan magazine, Sourozh.
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