Country walks (in Belgium)

[anglomedved]

After today’s liturgy I went out walking in the centre of Belgium. This is where the big arable farms are. The crop is all harvested, and all that remains are huge bales of straw waiting to be taken to the barns. It was still warm enough to walk in a T-shirt (just).

I attach a notice from the door of the church of one of the two villages I walked through

I attach a notice from the door of the church of one of the two villages I walked through. For those who don't know French, what it tells me is that

- 13 villages over an area of perhaps 200 km², each with its own church, are served by three priests. 3 churches have weekly eucharists, the other ten one a month

- of the three priests, one is Belgian, the two others are black priests from former Belgian colonies.

- For information, the villages look to vary in size from 500 to 5000 people, a mixture of traditional (and wealthy) farmers, retired people and commuters from Brussels, Liège and Namur.

 

This is pretty typical here. I don’t want to draw too many conclusions too quickly, and it is too easy to throw stones, but that’s the situation here……

 

Comments

[mmekourdukova.livejournal.com]

И все-таки это не так уж плохо. Возможность причаститься раз в месяц есть у всех, и, кроме того, прихожане собираются по воскресеньям или чаще, есть приходы и так называемые молитвенные группы, есть приходские советы и всякое такое. Ну да, духовенство не того цвета, но по крайней мере регулярное.
Сравни с ситуацией православного прихода в том же Намюре, где твердого расписания нет вообще и иной раз по два месяца храм даже не отпирают. И "прихожане" никак не общаются между собой ни в богослужебные дни, ни в иное время.

[ursusanglicanus.livejournal.com]

More strictly speaking, there are two Orthodox parishes in Namur, one Greek and one Russian. Neither has got it right and as far as I know they have never spoken to one another.

I am still not sure whether the Russian Orthodox parish in Namur was a real exercise in missionary labour (useful, but at bit late in the day - the influx of Russians into Belgium was in 1993-1994) - or whether it was essentially a 'flag-planting exercise'. The location (a church offered by the Roman Catholics) is unreachable by public transport and with no sanitation or running water.

[ursusanglicanus.livejournal.com]

I know very little about it - other than hearsay.
The photos tell me (http://www.orthodoxia.be/FRkerk/Juridictions/1%20IMBelgiou/Namur.html) tell me that this is a church from the height of Catholic church-building in around 1910. It looks like it will have running water, a lavatory, but could be freezing cold (or cost a fortune to heat) in winter.