Orthodox England Magazine

ORTHODOX ENGLAND: OUR MISSION

Orthodox England

English speaking Orthodox Christians are served by a variety of magazines. Apart from Anglican-style parish newsletters, there are magazines which transmit Greek Orthodox (both New Calendarist and Old Calendarist) news, views and politics in English, those which are dedicated to spreading English translations of pre-Revolutionary Russian piety and those which are devoted to the Paris School of modernist Orthodoxy with its Gnosticism.

The quarterly journal 'Orthodox England' is something else. Following on from twenty-five years of writing and prayer, summed up in several books such as 'Orthodox Christianity and the English Tradition' or 'The Hallowing of England', 'Orthodox England' is unique. It is not about a culturally and politically alien Orthodoxy translated into the English language, but about the Orthodox Tradition which is culturally rooted in the West.

On the one hand 'Orthodox England' refers to the Western Christianity of the First Millennium, especially in England. We believe that an understanding of the spiritual and cultural roots of the First Millennium Orthodox Church and Faith in the West is essential to both Orthodox and Non-Orthodox. We believe that an appreciation of that Faith before its political and theological transformation in the eleventh century, before Western Christianity became institutionalised by Papacy and State alike, is indispensable to us if we are to find our bearings in the modern world.

On the other hand 'Orthodox England' also deals with the here and now, with the pastoral problems of English and English-speaking Orthodox in the present Third Millennium in the reality which history has bequeathed to us. Hence we refer to the contemporary pastoral, liturgical and cultural issues in the modern world, of interest both to Orthodox and Non-Orthodox. We are profoundly aware that Orthodox Christianity is neither an idea nor an ideology, but a way of life rooted in the Orthodox Church and that in order to live it our hearts must be fed.

Providing a forum of interest for English-speaking Orthodox Christians both in the British Isles and around the world, its readers come from many different backgrounds and dioceses. 'Orthodox England' answers those classic cultural excuses: 'I can't be Orthodox because I'm English', or 'Orthodoxy is Eastern, I'm Western', or again, 'Orthodoxy is only for Greeks and Russians'. Standing outside national ghettos and unedifying sectarian polemics, it looks forward to the flowering of an authentic Orthodox spirituality in the context of English culture and history.

Recent issues have included articles on topics as diverse as St Theodore of Canterbury, St Botolph of Iken, the Emperor Otto III, Liturgical Hymns of the Orthodox West, an Akathist to the Felixstowe Mother of God, Islam, Tolkien, John Lennon, the Harry Potter books, Folksong, Anglo-American co-operation, the pastoral problems of Orthodox prisoners, the question of Church Unity and also our ever popular Questions and Answers pages.

Subscriptions run from 1 September, the beginning of the Church Year. Payments should be enclosed to:

Orthodox England,
Seekings House
Garfield Road,
Felixstowe,
Suffolk IP11 7PU
ENGLAND

English subscribers should make out cheques for £10 to Fr Andrew Phillips. US and other overseas subscribers should make out cheques drawn on US banks to 'Orthodox Christian Books Ltd' or send US$18 or €15 in cash which is always safely received. Individual issues cost £2.50 ($4) and back numbers are still available.

RECOMMENDED READING

Road to Emmaus, a Quarterly Journal of Orthodox Faith and Culture, PO Box 16021, Portland, OR 97292-0021, USA (emmausjournal@juno.com).