Homily for the Sunday of the 4th Week of Pentecost

He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. John 12:35-50

I would like us to consider the words of Christ which we have heard in the Gospel this morning. It seems to me that we are being taught a variety of lessons by them. Of course, everything our Lord says is filled with inexhaustible meaning, and cannot be reduced to a single explanation. Perhaps if we review the words of our Lord again we will find a true and useful meaning for our own lives in the circumstances in which we find ourselves. He begins his address by saying,

Why am I becoming an Orthodox Christian?

This is the account of one convert to Orthodoxy whom I will shortly have the great blessing of baptising and anointing with chrism to bring her into the Orthodox Church. This is the prayerful ambition of the British Orthodox Church within the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, to see more and more of the people of Britain coming to a knowledge of and participation in the life of the Holy Spirit in the Orthodox Church.Your support is essential if we are to have the resources to help more British people become Orthodox. If you are moved by this account then please make a donation now so that others can share the same transforming experience of discovering Orthodoxy. Please do not pass this opportunity to support our mission by.

I have been a Christian for only around 4 years and I was a member of a local evangelical non-denominational Church.  Right from the beginning I had a love of Church history. I loved reading about the Apostles, the Early Church and the Church Fathers.  This was a major factor that led me to the doors of the Orthodox Church.

But, why do I want to become an Orthodox Christian?

What is Orthodoxy

Ladies and Gentlemen, Fathers and brethren. Having spent a time in prayer, seeking the blessing of God, perhaps we could begin our day together.

May I welcome you all on behalf of the British Orthodox Church and the British Orthodox Fellowship. We are truly blessed to be able to gather together for an Orthodox Study Day in this ancient church of St Andrew, which has been so lovingly restored to life after decades of dereliction by our hosts, Mark and Faith Wright.

It is always a pleasure to spend time in this peaceful place, and I am sure that we will all benefit from a day of prayer, quiet reflection and discussion of the various presentations which we will hear in due course.

Orthodoxy and Evangelism

I am very aware that in this short presentation it is not possible to say everything about evangelism that could be said, or should be said. So forgive me if I consider just one aspect, and do not touch on some aspect that particularly interests you.

The Orthodox Churches have rather a poor reputation for evangelism. Indeed as I was growing up in an Evangelical Christian community we saw the peoples of countries such as the Soviet Union, Egypt and even Greece, as the objects of our own evangelism. We considered the national Churches in those places to be spiritually ‘dead’ – representative of the Church of Sardis in the Book of Revelation. Of whom the scriptures said,

“Revelation 3:1  I know your works, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.”

Homily - Bread of Heaven

It would be an interesting exercise to study the Old Testament and find all of those passages which speak of a divine food, or the miraculous provision of nourishment. One miracle comes to mind. It is the account of the feeding of the widow of Zarepath by Elijah during a great famine. He was led by the Lord into the wilderness, to the Brook of Cherith, and the Lord provided him with a miraculous sustenance which was brought to him each day by a flock of ravens. This passage shows the same connection between being led by the Lord into the wilderness and then being fed by Him.