Orthodox connections

Another day of clouds and sunshine. We were again awakened before dawn by the buzzing of alarm clocks in surrounding apartments - three of them, at different times over half an hour, and each lasting for 10-15 minutes. The floors and walls are so thin that the noise can almost be felt as well as heard. There's no sound of anyone getting up, switching them off and thumping around to follow - the holiday apartments in question are presently unoccupied, and their owners have gone back to their other home in a big city somewhere probably in Spain, without disconnecting their alarm clocks from the mains. The sound emitted is that of an older type clock radio which runs off the mains. Spaniards are noisy at the best of times - even it appears, when thy're not there.

Today is the feast of St Simon & St Jude, Apostles, and this awakened memories of the time we lived and working in the St Paul's Area of Bristol. St Simon was one of our Parish Patrons, as a church dedicated in his honour was erected in Stapleton Road. It survived the alomst total devastation of the area during redevelopment and the laying of the M32 motorway first junction out of the city centre, and is still a landmark of the area, distinctive because the top of its spire was lopped off in the eighties. It became redundant in the early 1960's and its high altar reredos ended up gracing the south west corner of the nave, where a side chapel was created to permit Mass to be said there occasionally. The building was given to a growing Greek Orthodox community in the city, and still functions as Bristol's Greek church today.

It was an important place on my early ecumenical journey. A Greek Orthodox fellow student took me to worship there. It was the first place I had ever experienced worship in a language other than English or Welsh. At that time the church welcomed a young Russian Orthodox deacon, sent to the city to gather fragments of Slavonic church groups into one congregation. The priest prayed in Byzantine Greek and the Deacon in Old Church Slavonic. I found the solemn ritual awe inspiring and the depth of silence on times palpable. It was the start of a lifetime's affair with eastern Christian spirituality. When I was Team Rector of the St Paul's Area, my visits to St Simon's were few and far between, because their service times co-incided with ours, and there were few  weekday when worship was held. Nevertheless the influence of that early experience persisted, and the Slavonic speaking Deacon, once ordained priest, Fr Nicholas Behr became a friend. I learned a great deal from him in ecumenical discussions over tea and his German wife's delicious cake during our student years.