This year we celebrated the services of the Holy Week and Pascha at the Holy Trinity church in Winchester.

On Saturday, March 16th, on the eve of Forgiveness Sunday and the beginning of Great Lent, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in Holy Trinity church, Winchester, by kind permission of the Priest in Charge, Fr Jamie Franklin, and the Parochial Church Council. With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, the Liturgy was celebrated by Archpriest Joseph Skinner, Rector of the Parish of St Silouan, Southampton and Dean of South-West England. Around thirty members of the Parish of St Silouan who live in and around Winchester, or further afield as far as Basingstoke, attended this first service in Winchester, as well as some new people. At the end of the Liturgy, icon cards of St Ephraim the Syrian with the text of his Lenten prayer in English or Slavonic were distributed to the worshippers by Valentina Futoryanova, Churchwarden of the Parish of St Ephraim in Cambridge. It is hoped that the Liturgy will be served at Holy Trinity once a month. All Orthodox Christians and those interested in Orthodoxy are very welcome, there being no other Orthodox presence in Winchester at present. Holy Trinity is an Anglo-Catholic parish church, situated in the heart of the historic city of Winchester, which was the capital of England in late Anglo-Saxon times. The church was built in the mid-19th century in the Early Decorated style. Funds were provided by a Church Commission established by an Act of Parliament intended to support the construction of new churches in towns with growing populations. It is a Grade II listed building.

With the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, our Parish pilgrimage took place on 18th September 2023 in the city of Winchester, the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Wessex. We celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the majestic 12th century church of the Holy Cross, by kind permission of the Master of the associated Hospital of St Cross. It was followed by a picnic lunch on the banks of the nearby River Itchen, and the walk to the historic cathedral in the heart of the city. There we celebrated a moleben at the shrine of St Swithun, a bishop of Winchester in the 9th century who was subsequently glorified by God by numerous miracles. His shrine in the cathedral was a popular pilgrimage destination until its destruction in the reign of Henry VIII. The contemporary symbolic shrine remains a focus of prayer and has recently been adorned with a number of icons depicting the Lord, the Mother of God, St Swithun and other local saints, including St Birinus, Apostle to the West Saxons.

Christ is Risen! Few snapshot of our Easter services and a Parish BBQ that followed

On Saturday, 16th July, parishioners of the Southampton community together with friends from further afield, about 25 people in all, made a pilgrimage to the ancient church of St Boniface in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight. The church, which dates from the 11th century, was built by monks from Normandy on the site of an earlier Saxon church. The Divine Liturgy that we celebrated was quite possibly the first Orthodox service there for 1,000 years. Born in Crediton, Devon in 675, St Boniface was a monk of the great monastery of Nursling near Southampton and became the Enlightener of the Germanic lands and Archbishop of Mainz. His long life of service to the Gospel of Christ was crowned by martyrdom at Pentecost in 754 as he was preparing to baptise a group of catechumens. The liturgy after the Liturgy consisted of a picnic on the beach under hot sun and cloudless skies. Many pilgrims, both young and old, cooled off in the sea before returning home after a wonderful day.

On Sunday, August 29th, we celebrated the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God at St Joseph's Centre in Ashurst, near Southampton, a place we fell in love with when we had outdoor Liturgies there last year. We are most grateful to Fr Desmond for welcoming us back again. Fr Joseph celebrated, assisted by Fr Deacon Victor and the servers Aleksandr and Ivan. Matushka Sarah and Paula sang the service. A short moleben for the beginning of the school year was served after the Liturgy and the children were blessed. We enjoyed a bring and share picnic and time of fellowship in the beautiful grounds of St Joseph's, after which Fr Joseph celebrated a thanksgiving moleben for our parishioners Paul and Tatiana, who were recently married. Altogether a blessed and joyful celebration of the 'summer Pascha'.

On July 17th, the Feast of the Royal Passion-Bearers the Tsar Nicholas, Tsaritsa Alexandra, Tsarevich Alexis and the Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia, the Southampton Parish of St Silouan, with the blessing of Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, organised a pilgrimage to places associated with them on the Isle of Wight.

Our Parish celebrated its Patronal Festival on Sunday, Sept. 22nd. By the blessing of His Grace, Bishop Matthew of Sourozh, the Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Archimandrite David (Edwards), a native of Southampton who has served for many years in the Canadian Archdiocese of the Orthodox Chrch in America. Fr Dn Viktor Nikiforov assisted. Following the Liturgy a joyful procession was held, after which the parishioners continued the celebration over the bring and share meal which is a regular feature of parish life.

First Christmas Services at the Parish of St Silouan, Southampton Our Christmas was framed by two festive meals with many traditional Russian dishes: a Christmas Eve meal before the vigil service, and one after the Liturgy on Old Style Christmas Day. There were also craft activities for the children. The two days had a wonderful atmosphere of joy and celebration. The vigil service was the most demanding upon the people and the choir, and it was noticeable that the attendance was at its lowest during the chanting of the Canons at Matins, when there were no more than 20 souls, although twice that number had been present to begin with. After the Vigil, Fr Joseph made a brief general confession and absolution was givenindividually. On the day of the Feast, we approached 100 people, including about 30 children. Everyone seemed be having a good time. The choir sang out powerfully; the icons and iconostasis were beautifully decorated with flowers; our priest was demonstrably happy to see us. We prayed for our new Bishop, Matthew, and felt gratitude to Archbishop Elisey for having established our parish. The Feast of the Nativity is about reversal of the sin of Adam, of the alienation from God which marks the human race. God has come down us, and by uniting himself with our fallen nature has inaugurated the Kingdom of heaven, the divine nature transforming and transfiguring the human. How can there be any other reaction to this than joy? The period of Advent, and the sobriety of fasting and penitence sets off the Feast like a foil to a jewel. That is the theory, and on this occasion, I felt that there was indeed unfeigned joy, as the light of the “winter Pascha” shone upon us. May we have many years of this! Stephen Thomas

This year, thanks to our Parishioners who worked hard to clear up the site around the hall, we had an opportunity to have a Festal Procession (Крестный Ход) around the Hall for the first time.

On Saturday 24 September 2016 our Parish celebrated its' Patronal Feast. Archbishop Elisey paid his Pastoral visit to the Parish, and was welcomed by Fr Joseph Skinner and about 40 parishioners. We congratulate Leon Nicholson on his tonsuring as a Reader during this service.

On Saturday 17 September children took part in a sponsored litter picking, organised by the Sunday School in aid of raising money for Piam Brown children cancer ward at the Southampton General Hospital. The update on how much they have raised is to follow soon...

On Saturday 16 July, our Parish held the Talent Show with a delicious meal for guests and a programme of performances by our very talented Parishioners, young and... a little older ones. This was organised by the Sunday School to raise money towards the Piam Brown children's cancer ward at the Southampton general Hospital. It was a second fundraiser that the children took part in, and upto date they have raised £350.

Pictures from Pilgrimage to Mt Athos, May 2016. Fr Joseph Skinner, Leon Nicholson, Andrey Prokopchuk, Matthew Wellspring.

Thank you to Charis and Matthew for organising it

We held our Children Christmas Party on Saturday 10 January 2015. Thank you very much to Paula and Leon for organising the event and putting all the activities together in a thoughtful order, for coming up with creative Tree decorating activity linking it to the spiritual symbols of our lives. The cardboard house and the church for children to colour, and also the star and the Nativity icon decorating activities were a success. Thank you to Maya for baking with children, and Yulia for printing out little books for children to put together, and sorting the palydough table. Thank you to Elvira, Ksenia, Yulia, Yulia, Tanya and everyone for providing the food and helping with the party. It was hard work, but everyone worked so well together, and put much thought into their contributions. Especial appreciation and thanks to Evelina for her work in putting together the shadow theatre show: it was stunning - such skill! I hope we will have a re-run some time soon. Our special THANKs are to Fr. Alexey and Evgenia of the Parish of St Trinity in Issad village (St Petersburg region - http://issad.prihod.ru/) for their very generous donation of children books for our Parish! Thank you Fr. Joseph for blessing our party and spending the eve of your Names Day with us! Happy Christmas everybody!!

On the 5th January 2013 (Christmas Eve) our Parish celebrated its' first Vigil.

Memory of St Silouan of Mt Athos. Patronal festival and blessing of new iconostasis.

On Sunday 9th January the parish of St. Silouan celebrated its first Christmas. As this was the first Sunday after Christmas, the feast of St. Joseph the Righteous, we were able to congratulate Fr. Joseph on his Saint’s day. Fr. Joseph spoke about the example of St. Joseph, the faith and humility by which he gave his service to God without the expectation of thanks or reward. A congregation of nearly 50 people attended, and a festal meal was held afterwards, attended by Fr. William, priest of Holy Trinity, in whose parish hall we hold our services. This was also the first time we used the portable iconostasis kindly loaned to us by the Parish of St. Nicholas, in Oxford, who now own their own Church (see www.stnicholas-oxford.org)

St. Nicholas Eve Eastern European Food Fair with Craft Exhibition and Sale by the Sisters of the St. Elizabeth Monastery, Minsk, Belarus took place on Saturday 18th December 2010 at the St. Boniface Church hall, Southampton. The food was all really good, and it was impressive to see how much we were able to produce between us. When we woke up to all the snow, it was obvious that God had a different plan in it all - yes, Shirley Road was nearly empty, but this meant that at the end of the day we were able to give a substantial amount of food to the St. James shelter for the homeless near the City Centre. Sr. Elena and Max came with me to take the food there, and it was very gratefully received. We were told there were actually some Eastern European people sheltering there, who would have been particularly comforted by the food. It was St. Nicholas's day after all!

The first patronal festival of the Parish of Saint Silouan of Mount Athos, celebrated on Saturday 25th September 2010.