THE BATTLE FOR ENNISMORE GARDENS
Rejoice,
O faithful Church of the Isles! Rejoice, O First-Martyrs Alban, Julius
and Aaron! Rejoice, O Ninian, Apostle of the North! Rejoice, O divine
Patrick, come to the Irish land with the Gospel of Christ! Rejoice, O
David, Enlightener of the West! Rejoice, O Columba, light of the Scots!
Rejoice, O Gregory who with thy disciple Augustine, saw not Angles but
Angels! For ye were our first intercessors with the Maker of all, bringers
of the Orthodox Faith and guides to the True Light! Rejoice, from every
hamlet and town, nurtured by those who now dwell in heaven! These saints
have been shown to be guiding lights for our souls! With the brightness
of signs and deeds, they have shone forth most mystically unto all the
ends of the earth and now beseech Christ for the salvation of our souls!
Verse from the Glory at Lord, I have cried of the Service to All the Saints of the Isles
Shortly before the Vigil Service in honour of All the Saints of the Isles
on Saturday 16 June, we heard the news that a small group within the Patriarchate
of Constantinople wishes to take control of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral
at Ennismore Gardens in London. This, it seems, is to be done through
the courts.
As one of those who thirty years ago, in 1977, made a donation for the purchase of this Cathedral for the Sourozh Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, I object. As one of those who has stood up for the Russian Orthodox Tradition over the last thirty years against renovationism, I object. As a priest of a sister-diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, I object. It cannot be that a Cathedral is to be taken away from six hundred parishioners, its clergy and bishop by a tiny group of dissidents dissatisfied with the Russian Orthodox Church, because it keeps the integrity of the Orthodox Tradition.
We pray that justice will be done in this matter, by the prayers of all the saints of the Isles, whose icon, painted by the ever-memorable Priest Mark Meyrick (later Igumen David), ordained in the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, is venerated in the Cathedral.
From the ends of the earth, O Lord, the isles of the sea offer Thee
all the saints who have shone forth therein as the fair fruit of Thy saving
splendour. Through their supplications and through the Mother of God,
preserve Thy Church and Thine isles in peace profound, O Most Merciful
One.
Troparion of the Feast
Priest Andrew Phillips
