FRIENDS OF MOUNT ATHOS
(Registered
Charity No. 1047287)
With great joy we
announce that our President has been advanced to Metropolitan Kallistos of
Diokleia. To celebrate this and the twenty-fifth anniversary of His EminenceÕs
consecration as a bishop, all members of the Friends are invited to a buffet
supper at 6.00 pm on Monday 28 May at 1 Canterbury Road, Oxford. The charge is
£8.00 per head, and places are limited, so in order to avoid disappointment, please
return the enclosed slip with your cheque (payable to the Friends of Mount
Athos) to Jeremy Black as soon as possible and no later than 19 May.
The notice of this
yearÕs AGM is enclosed. As usual, the proceedings will be chaired by His
Eminence Metropolitan Kallistos. We hope that the programme will prove to be
interesting and that it will attract a good turn-out.
The
first speaker is Bishop Hilarion of Vienna. Born in 1966, he studied music at
the Moscow State Conservatoire before being tonsured at the monastery of the
Holy Spirit at Vilnius in Lithuania. A graduate of the Moscow Theological
Academy, he wrote his DPhil at Oxford under the supervision of Metropolitan
Kallistos and was elected a bishop in 2001. He served first as an assistant
bishop in the diocese of Sourozh in Great Britain until his nomination in 2002
as representative of the Russian Orthodox Church to the European Institutions
in Brussels and (in 2003) Bishop of Vienna and Austria. He is the author of
thirty books in Russian, English, French, Italian, German, and Finnish. Of his
theme, Tom Dykstra has written:
On 3 July 1913 some 400 monks of the Athonite monastery of St Panteleimon fled to one of their dormitory buildings and set to work barricading the entrances with bed boards. Bayoneted rifles in hand, sailors of the Russian Imperial Navy surrounded the building while their officers exhorted the unarmed monks to give up peacefully Ð but to no avail. Prepared for martyrdom but hoping in GodÕs help, the monks sang, prayed, did prostrations, and took up icons and crosses to defend themselves. Finally the trumpet rang out with the command to ÔshootÕ, and the calm of the Holy Mountain was rent by the roar É not of firearms, but of fire hoses. After an hour-long Ôcold showerÕ had dampened the monksÕ spirits, the sailors rushed into the building and began to drag recalcitrant devotees of the contemplative life out from the corridorsÉ.
Their crime: disagreeing with the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church in a controversy about the phrase ÔThe name of God is God HimselfÕ. The SynodÕs show of force was intended to end the debate and extort at least tacit agreement from its opponents Ð but it accomplished neither. Rather it was but one of many turning-points in a long theological dispute whose course was more often determined by politics and personal grudges than by theology. The history of this controversy is a fascinating one in its own right, but at the same time it provides insight into the inner workings of the Russian Orthodox Church. (Tom E. Dykstra, Heresy on Mt. Athos : Conflict over the Name of God among Russian Monks and Hierarchs, 1912Ð1914 . Master of Theology thesis submitted to Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary (1988). See http://www.samizdat.com/imiaslavtsy.html, Introduction.)
Mount Athos has entered the twenty-first century in
every respect Ð cars (unfortunately), mobile phones, and many computers. But
the presence of this modern technology is an extremely useful instrument for
the monastic community for the registering of relics and monuments, for
planning and carrying out conservation projects, and for the study of the infinite
sources tracing the course of the Holy Mountain through the centuries. At the
same time the atmosphere, the scent of the ages one encounters on the Holy
Mountain, as well as the psychology of the monks and their dedication, remain
impressively unchanging through the centuries.
The
duties of the Governor of Mount Athos are constitutionally and legally
established. Appointed by presidential decree following a recommendation by the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Governor holds the rank of General Secretary
of the region. He exercises the powers of the state on the peninsula which
include the strict maintenance of public order and safety and authority over
all administrative services and civil servants on the Mountain. If we consider
that Mount Athos is the contemporary presence of Byzantium, it is obvious that
the duties of the Governor often include intriguing issues and situations that
can be very important and interesting.
Between
the two talks, and after lunch if you choose to take it, we shall conduct the
official business of the AGM itself and as usual there will be elections.
Alasdair Cross has been nominated for election to the Executive Committee.
Meanwhile Bishop Basil of Amphipolis, Professor David Cadman, and Dr Graham
Speake (Hon. Secretary) have reached the end of their term of office and will
tender their resignation. All have indicated their willingness to stand again.
Any further nominations for these positions should reach the Secretary in
writing at least one week before the meeting. Guests are welcome to attend the
AGM but may not vote.
The
fact that we are meeting on a Saturday means that we have the opportunity after
tea to attend a vigil service at the Orthodox church at 1 Canterbury Road
(Ecumenical Patriarchate) at 5.30 pm. Both Orthodox and non-Orthodox members
and their guests are warmly invited to attend this service which will last
about two hours.
Attendance
at the AGM is free. The charge for attending the rest of the day (including
morning coffee and afternoon tea) is £10.00 each (students £5.00); and there
will be a buffet lunch costing £15.00. Completed forms and cheques (payable to
the Friends of Mount Athos) should be sent as soon as possible to Jeremy Black
at Proffitts House, Millers Lane, Hornton, Oxfordshire OX15 6BS.
This spring another expedition, the seventh, will be dispatched to the Mountain for a fortnight in May. The list for this year is already full and there is a waiting list, but the project leader, John Arnell, will soon be assembling a team for next year and any members of the society who wish to volunteer their services are encouraged to contact him (John@thearnells.org).
This yearÕs pilgrimage will run from 20 to 28 October and will spend four days visiting the main sites of Christian Cappadocia followed by four days in Constantinople including an audience with the Ecumenical Patriarch. The cost of the tour, which is being led by Metropolitan Kallistos, is approximately £880 per person. Anyone interested in joining the group should contact Dimitri Conomos (dimitri.ec@btinternet.com) as soon as possible.
Applications are invited from suitably qualified graduate students working for a higher degree or diploma at institutions of higher learning in the UK for the Friends of Mount Athos Travel Bursary. Applicants may be drawn from any discipline but should be already engaged in or willing to become engaged in a project with a specifically Athonite context. The value of the award is £500. Applications, accompanied by the names and addresses of two referees, should be addressed to the Secretary, Dr Graham Speake, Ironstone Farmhouse, Milton, Banbury OX15 4HH. The attention of applicants is drawn to the fact that women are never admitted to Mount Athos.
An exhibition entitled ÔLight from Light: Contemporary Icons from Mount AthosÕ will be mounted at the Sacred Space Gallery (St JohnÕs Notting Hill, Lansdowne Crescent, London W11 2NN) from 12 April to 24 May 2007. Further information is available at the wesbite: sacredspacegallery.com
A one-day conference on this theme will take place on 18 June 2007 at the Boardroom, 2 Gower Street, London WC1. Registration is free, but delegates must sign in first at 11 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3RA. Further information may be obtained from the organizer, Eugenia Russell, at the Department of History, Royal Holloway, University of London (e.russell@rhul.ac.uk).