The Shepherd, June 2004
THE COMING MONTH
BECAUSE PASCHA was early this year, both Ascension Day and Pentecost Sunday fell within May, and so June is deprived of any of the Great Feasts. However, there are two important festivals celebrated within the month, which are normally celebrated with Vigils. The first is the Birth of the Forerunner, John the Baptist (24th June / 7th July), and the second is the festival of the Holy Chiefs of the Apostles, Peter and Paul (29th June / 12th July). Of course, it is for the second of these that throughout the month we have been keeping the Apostles’ Fast, and so every day within the month, except the last two, is observed this year as a fast day.
The Birth of the Forerunner is celebrated six months before that of the Saviour because in the Gospels we read that he was born about six months before the Lord (Luke 1:36). The fact that St John’s birth falls at mid-Summer, near the solstice, when the days begin to shorten, and our Saviour’s Nativity falls near the Winter solstice, when days begin to lengthen again, reminds us of the words of the Baptist himself: “He (the Lord) must increase, but I must decrease.”
The feast of Sts Peter and Paul is a celebration of their martyrdom in Rome under the persecution raised against the Christians by the Emperor Nero. It is followed in the church calendar with a second day of celebration, the Synaxis of the Twelve Apostles.
In the Russian Church Abroad, there is a particularly beloved feast, that of the New Wonderworker,St John of Shanghai, who reposed in 1966, and who during his lifetime and since his death has been known throughout the Orthodox world for the miracles ascribed to his intercessions. He died on 19th June / 2nd July, the feast of the Holy Apostle Jude, but the Synod appointed that his festival be transferred to the nearest Saturday. Because we cannot arrange it any other way, here we celebrate St John on the anniversary of his repose at the Convent of the Annunciation in Willesden, and on the Saturday at Brookwood - see calendar insert. St John was the founder of the Convent and chose its dedication festival - he also blessed their chapel for the sisters. Although as Archbishop in Western Europe, he often came to England and visited the missions here, because of the closure and re-organisation of parishes, the Convent chapel is now the only one in the country in which St John himself served. 
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