What's in the News

Greek Dance Workshops

I would like to invite all parents with children over the age of four(4+) to join us at the Orthodox Antiochian Church hall for the enrollment to greek school 2009-2010 this Saturday.

Our teacher Miss Athanasia Sevastaki would be there to meet you all to discuss the years events and subjects to be covered. Athanasia will be assessing the children to ensure they are placed in the correct class. Please feel free to discuss any enquiries at this time.

Meeting will be at The Antiochian Orthodox church of St Ignatius,(main Hall), at three o'clock on the corner of Antrim rd & Cliftonville rd in Belfast www.belfast.antiochireland.org/ on Saturday 19/9/09 Time 15.00-17-00.

Orthodox Transfiguration Service to be held on the Isle of Man

Antiochian Orthodox Church will serve Divine Liturgy celebrating the Feast of the Transfiguration
Saint Matthew's Church
Ridgeway Street, Douglas, Wednesday, 5 August, 6pm

All are welcome and refreshments will be served afterwards. Service predominantly in English with a choir singing Byzantine Music mainly in English but to include the different language groups on the Island, some Slavonic, Greek, Romanian, Arabic and Manx will also be used. The celebrant will be Rev Fr Irenaeus from The Antiochian Orthodox Church of St Ignatius in Belfast.
Contacts: Dr Andriana Tsagas-Cilliers 01624 677776 or Fr Irenaeus 028 90712523 irenaeus@btopenworld.com, http://www.belfast.antiochireland.org

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Summer Festival - Celebration of Cultural Diversity

The 2009 Summer Festival - Celebration of Cultural Diversity held in our parish hall Sunday, 21 June, was a huge success! It started with tasty foods from various countries at 1 pm and continued at 2 o'clock with a staged event starting with a Romanian pan-piper and a Romanian couple dancing to his music and continuing on with many international entries, songs, prose and poems in Scottish, Arabic (Lebanese), English, Russian, German and with dances from America, Ireland and finally Greece. Both UTV and Romanian Television were in attendance.

The church hall was packed and the atmosphere was electric with the dancers of the last act spontaneously jumping off the stage and getting priest and people to join in the dance Zorba the Greek It was the first of a number of events planned between Shalom House and the Orthodox Church, with further events due to be organised for the Autumn.

And here is a letter printed in the Belfast Telegraph, Wednesday, 1 July 2009

Positive side of many cultures

In light of the broken windows and homes and racial attacks in Belfast it is good to see a positive counterweight in north Belfast. June 21 saw a successful summer festival at the Antiochian Orthodox Church at the corner of the Antrim and Cliftonville roads, a celebration of cultural diversity organised by Shalom House and the Orthodox Church.

Some of the countries represented by parishioners in the Orthodox Church here put on dances, instrumental performances, poems and songs in a variety of ethnic traditions and languages.

Listening to various comments of people who were there and urged me to write in, I am confident that I am not the only one who is looking forward to more of the same.

Johanna McBride, Belfast

Orthodox Divine Liturgy on the Isle of Man

The Antiochian Orthodox Church will serve Divine Liturgy at St Matthews in Douglas on the Isle of Man at 6 pm. We are very Grateful to The Revd. Canon Duncan Whitworth and his Parishioners for the use of this wonderful Church. All are welcome and refreshments will be served afterwards at Silvercraigs Hotel, 27 Palace Terrace, Queens Promenade, Douglas IM2 4NF The service will be predominantly in English but to include the different language groups on the Island, some Slavonic, Greek, Romanian, Arabic and Manx will also be used. The celebrant will be Rev Fr Irenaeus from The Antiochian Orthodox Church of St Ignatius in Belfast accompamied by a small choir from Belfast. Contacts: Dr Andriana Tsagas-Cilliers 01624 677776 or Fr Irenaeus 028 90712523 irenaeus@btopenworld.com.

Fr Irenaeus will take the personal greetings of His Excelence, Metropolitan JOHN of Western and Central Europe to the Bishop of Sodor and Man, The Rt Rev Robert Paterson as well as to The Very Rev Canon Brendan Alger, Dean of the Isle of Man who have both undertaken to support and publicise the forthcoming visit to Isle of Man. The Antiochian Orthodox Church hopes to build a good working relationship with all the other Clergy and co-labourers in Christ on the Island and trust that this first visit will be followed up by regular services in future.

Romanian/English Services

"Early Christian Sites in Ireland Database" Goes Online

For years now Father John Musther, known to many of you as the priest who leads the St. Ignatius Ireland Pilgriamages, has been collecting information and photographs of early Christian sites in Ireland and compling this information into a database. The database is very compehensive, covering all of the counties of Ireland, with many hundreds of sites, including photo galleries of each site. Now this valuable work has been made available to the public on the Internet for study by students and scholars, or for perusing by the curious. One can spend many hours travelling from Donegal to Waterford, from Kerry to Derry exploring the churches, monasteries, high crosses, cross slabs, grave slabs, tomb shrines, round towers, holy wells, and holy trees of Holy Ireland. There is an amazing amount of early Christian archaeology remaining in Ireland to this day, and this site will direct pilgrims and tourists alike to places of beauty and contemplation.

The Web address of the Early Christian Sites in Ireland Database is www.earlychristianireland.org.

Father John Musther is the author of the book "The Living Tradition of the Saints" available from the Exarchate of Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe bookstore http://www.exarchate-uk.org/Publications/pubindex.html.

Icon Exhibit

Since the time of the visit of Metropolitan JOHN St. Ignatius has been sponsoring an icon exibit as a means of educating the public on this important aspect of the Orthodox faith.

Over and above the over 400 Icons that we already have, Lazar Predrag Markovic, curator of the travelling Balkan Icons Exhibition, will be exhibiting the work of well know Iconographers all over the world. Read more about the Balkan Icons Exhibition at this link: www.balkan-icons.com (Or this CLICK HERE. from the University of Cambridge website.)

Opening times from now on every Saturday 12 noon to 6 pm followed by Great Vespers and refreshments.

His Eminence Metropolitan JOHN Visits St. Ignatius

November 20th through the 23rd we had the great honour and privilege of welcoming to Belfast our newly enthroned archbishop, His Eminence Metropolitan JOHN of Western & Central Europe. READ MORE

Paul Totten Ordained Deacon

Saint Ignatius' faithful servant Paul Totten was ordained a Deacon by Metropolitan JOHN on Sunday 22nd November 2008. READ MORE

Directory of Migrant-Led Churches and Chaplaincies Launched

The All-Ireland Churches Consultative Meeting on Racism's (AICCMR) new Directory of Migrant-Led Churches and Chaplaincies was launched in Belfast on Friday 5th December 2008, by Fr Irenaeus du Plessis at Edgehill College, and in Tallaght, Dublin on Sunday 7th December by Minister for Integration, Conor Lenihan TD. READ MORE