Five years since the founding of the Orthodox Parish "St. Veronica" in Coventry - or about joint service

Arina Cirstea

       Like members of a family that gathers to celebrate that a dear child has passed the threshold of another year of life, this year the Romanian community in Coventry, Great Britain, had the joy of celebrating the 5th anniversary of the founding of their parish. Like a baby, the parish started with small and hesitant steps, through the efforts of the parish priest Cornel Grecu and with the support of a small group of hierarchs and believers, but then grew year by year, both in number and in dreams. and future plans. On July 7 this year, the service location in Coventry - the "church in the box", as it was called in a 2017 TVR Iasi report - proved too small to accommodate all those who wanted to participate in the celebration.

      The joy of this festive day was accentuated by the presence of His Eminence Joseph, Metropolitan of Western and Southern Europe, who officiated, in addition to the service of the hierarchical Liturgy, the ordination ceremony in the rank of deacon of Stefan Topala, one of the oldest and most energetic members of parish. Extrapolating from the mission of the deacon as a co-minister, as an assistant of the priest but also of the faithful, His Eminence Iosif emphasized the centrality of the concept of "ministry" in the dynamics of the Holy Mass but also in that of the Orthodox community in general.  "God" - the hierarch pointed out - "we contemplate him in the image of the other, because we are the icon of Christ". For this reason, it may be suggested, our salvation is done by serving the other; While the priest and deacon have the mission to respond to the spiritual needs of the community, believers also have the responsibility to be actively involved in this ministry, both by participating in holy services and by accepting, encouraging, and supporting their neighbor in various ways. .

       The theme of serving one's neighbor is certainly extremely relevant in the context of the parish of Coventry, and also of other young parishes in the diaspora, where animated only by their faith and desire, priests and believers worked together to build a spiritual and social space - a community Orthodox, a parish, a church.

I say this also because from a strictly personal point of view, the idea of involvement, of participation in the church community, acquired a much more practical and immediate connotation with the move to Great Britain. In the days of my student life in Bucharest, the churches were always there - they were patiently waiting for me, whether I chose to cross their threshold or not. I could count on them, on their firm walls, from which icons of tens or hundreds of years looked at me; I knew that at any time, leaving the mundane din of Union Square, I could climb the Hill of Patriarchy, and feel that I was entering another dimension. This has not been the case in Coventry - the "box church" needs people to unpack it carefully, to assemble it every Sunday, to give it soul and meaning. In their absence, our little church does not come to life, and the space where the services take place is multifunctional - one day it can become a kindergarten, another dance hall. This reality made me viscerally perceive the message that the Church is us - believers, priests and deacons ministers, that we are all called to live our faith alive.