Every second Saturday of the month, Divine Liturgy in English of Sunday - Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of the Holy Family, Duke Street, London W1K 5BQ.
4pm Divine Liturgy. Next: 13th November 2021

Very sadly, the Divine Liturgy in English at 9-30 am on Sundays at the Holy Family Cathedral, Lower Church, have had to be put on hold. Until the practicalities we cannot use the Lower Church space. Hopefully this will be resolved very soon. Please keep checking in here for details.

Owing to public health guidance, masks should still be worn indoors and distance maintained. Sanitisers are available. Holy Communion is distributed in both kinds from the mixed and common chalice, by means of a separate Communion spoon for each individual communicant.

To purchase The Divine Liturgy: an Anthology for Worship (in English), order from the Sheptytsky Institute here, or the St Basil's Bookstore here.

To purchase the Divine Praises, the Divine Office of the Byzantine-Slav rite (in English), order from the Eparchy of Parma here.

The new catechism in English, Christ our Pascha, is available from the Eparchy of the Holy Family and the Society. Please email johnchrysostom@btinternet.com for details.

Saturday 29 November 2014

▶ Pope Francis inTurkey - Visit to Saint Sofia Museum and Sultan Ahmet Mosque - 2014.11.29 - YouTube



As can be heard, when His Holiness sits to sign the Visitors' Book, the call to prayer can be heard.  Aya Sofya is no longer strictly kept as a Museum in a secular, ex-Islamic republic. When our Vice Chairman, Fr Mark Woodruff, visited the week beforehand, the Call to Prayer from the Sultanahmet Mosque was answered from one of the minarets at Aya Sofya. It is known that President Erdoghan regards it as a place of worship and rumours that it will be restored as such are strong, and its history as a building from which the worship of BOTH Christians and Muslims is excluded will end. Another rumour is that the deal could be that the nearby Church of Hagia Eirene, in the first courtyard of the Topkapi Palace, will be restored to the use of the Orthodox. It would take an immense amount of work but, even then, they would never own it. Meanwhile, on the highest hill on the opposite Asian shore of the Bosphorus, Erdoghan is planning a larger mosque than any already in Istanbul - with public funds in a secular republic. The state sponsorship and recovered confidence of public Islam in Turkey is notable.

It is interesting that while the Pope was accompanied by Cardinal Koch as president of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity, there appeared to be no Byzantine Catholic ecumenists in his party.

▶ Pope Francis inTurkey - Visit to Saint Sofia Museum and Sultan Ahmet Mosque - 2014.11.29 - YouTube

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