A Voice from the Isles

Today Christ is baptised in the Jordan, the Spirit alights on Him in the form of a dove and the Voice of the Father from heaven is heard …. “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”

Fr. Gregory says that we don't need a New Year's resolution but rather a New Year's revolution.

The Nativity is a present reality for us Orthodox Christians. It’s not just that we celebrate a past event now; there’s more to it than that. Christ is eternally born for all generations in the same way that he is both referred to in the Scriptures as “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8] and also eternally risen and alive in the Cosmos.

Fr. Dn. Christopher gives the sermon on the eve of Nativity.

Fr. Gregory gives a sermon by Fr. Andrew Phillips on the Sunday of the Forefathers.

Love is the basis of the Law. In fact loving God is what obedience to the Law is about, and to those struggling to live under the Old Covenant, it still is.

Jesus is challenging us today to follow Him with a deeper commitment, just as He challenged the rich, young man who ran up to question him 2,000 years ago.

Fr. Gregory gives a sermon on the parable of the Good Samaritan.

We are saved by Christ as part of the Church and our fellow members of the Body of Christ support us both practically and in their prayers. The prayers of the holy people of God are a ferocious weapon in our defence.

The central importance for the Christian life is almsgiving … helping the poor and those in need.

Subdeacon Immanuel speaks about the new fresco Icon of the Theotokos of the Sign written by Efrem Carrasco on the wall behind the altar at St Aidan’s Antiochian Orthodox Church in Levenshulme, Manchester.

If we want to know what our humanity is like and can truly become we need to look at that perfect Undistorted Image which is Christ. Looking at him we shall not descend into destructive narcissism but rather ascend, utterly transformed and beautified by the Holy Spirit, to the Father.

Perhaps it seems capricious and arbitrary of God to deal one way with one situation and remain distant in another; but to demand to know why God does certain things and not others is to demand that He should be answerable to us.

If we are to live effectively in the power of God, if we are to know his power to save even in adverse circumstances; then we must listen to him now and do His will, not put it off, not make excuses.

What happens after we have worked hard, done our best and achieved nothing?