Ordinations on the patron feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God

On the last day of August the Parish of the Dormition held a quadruple celebration: the first visit of Archbishop Job of Telmessos to the parish, our patronal feast, and two ordinations - Fr Alban to the priesthood and Fr Eugene to the diaconate. All the stops were pulled out for such an occasion and even Hurricane Bertha finally left the British Isles to leave us basking in sun.

The visit of the Archbishop brought its own very welcome surprises in the form of Archdeacon Vsevolod Borzakovsky, who flew in from Rome, and two servers from the cathedral in Paris who assisted Archbishop Job throughout the services. We were also delighted that both Protodeacon Peter Scorer from Exeter and Fr Ian Wallis from Lewes could be with us to share in the celebrations. The absence of an iconostasis in the church allowed us to clearly observe the threefold procession around the altar, signifying the Fr Alban's marriage to the church and sung to the familiar Orthodox wedding music.

With ordinations hardly being frequent events at Holborn, Annamarie de Visser, our Choir Director, provided useful guidance to the congregation as to when they should sing "Axios!" (he is worthy!), the traditional Orthodox acclamation on such occasions. The service proceeded with the ‘laying on of hands’ at the point of ordination of Eugene to the diaconate as described in the Acts of the Apostles. There then followed a sumptuous feast, evidently there had been a baking competition between various members of the parish and there was a fine selection of Calvados infused apple tarts and Ukrainian delicacies to choose from. We look forward to many more visits from our Archbishop and congratulate Father Alban and Father Deacon Eugene on their new ministries within the parish and exarchate.

Daniel Berovic