anglomedved

I rather dread episcopal liturgies, of which I am not an aficionado. But yesterday’s patronal feast at Leuven  was definitely one of the better experiences.

Leuven (also known as Louvain) is Belgium’s oldest university city (1425), 40 minutes by car from Brussels. I helped found our Russian Orthodox parish there nearly 10 years ago. It is now the third largest church in the diocese, behind our second Brussels church and Antwerp. The liturgy is a mixture of Slavonic, Dutch (which the priest speaks fluently) and English (there they could use some coaching…). I was heavily involved for the first two years until called back into the altar team in Brussels. The Leuven congregation is pretty mixed: when we started we were pitching at the university, but found ourselves ministering to some very large refugee families. Today there are a clutch of academically competent young people from the university who are keen and committed (something we desperately lack in Brussels). This is a ‘greenfields’ parish, with space to work out its own format untrammelled by the past (coming from the Cathedral with 150 years of history, I’m jealous).

The service went well. Vladika was just back from holiday and relaxed. The protodeacon is unflappable – he needs to be –and can switch from Russian to Dutch to English to French like that. Our non-Orthodox friends may criticize the iconostasis for crating two liturgical spaces, but an episcopal liturgy, with about 20 people at the altar, not used to serving together, is always a slightly hazardous business, and an iconostasis hides a lot of mistakes. Vladika, who is an excellent liturgist, was forebearing and patient.  The choir was in form and the church superbly decorated.

There real value of such gatherings is to catch up with everyone, especially the younger men. They are generally a good bunch, so more academic, some less so (within limits, I like the fact that we place less stress than the Catholics on academic qualifications). I now have enough Russian to make small talk with those who struggle with Dutch or English.  Being the oldest man at the altar also helps. …

Full set of pictures on https://picasaweb.google.com/102503858453155075079/ParochiefeestInLeuven03