Orthodoxy in Coventry
To our most loyal readers, you may have noticed a slight gap in our publications. For most of it, we were planning and executing our 90th Year Celebrations but we felt that a new blog post was in wanting. What makes this unique as a source of spiritual nourishment is that all the posts are provided by our very own Youth Fellowship members (roughly 16 till 35 years of age). Therefore, most of what we report is a young person’s perspective on Christianity, Orthodoxy and life in general.
However, many of our older Youth Fellowship members although being spiritually centred to our very own church in Brickfields, are geographically spread out around the world. The saying goes if you shout out “what do you find under mango trees” in one of our other Malankara Orthodox Churches, you will hear someone reply with “coffee and vada”. The beauty of this is that many of our youth members are able to gain a myriad of valuable experiences, even from a Christian perspective.
I have recently gone to the United Kingdom to study and specifically I reside in the city of Coventry. When I first arrived at the city, it was important I connect myself to either our Malankara church or at the very least an Orthodox Church. Fortunately for me, I was able to witness both these things.
In regards to our Malankara Church’s presence in Coventry, we have a service every third Sunday of the month in a small village hall in Shilton. For a comparison, imagine our services in the Retreat Centre. Although it is a much smaller parish than what I have been used to, it is nice to be a part of a very tight-knit group that is still finding their way in a new country.
In addition, I was also able to attend a Greek Orthodox Service in their church just 10 minutes away from where I live. Immediately, I was awestruck by the number of beautiful icons present and how they feature in crucial parts of their service. Although it was a 4 hour Greek service, the members were incredibly welcoming and provided me with their books with the English translation.
The takeaway from this is that if you can, do travel and visit different churches! What it does is that it not only opens up your mind to the fact that although we have different ways of praying, we are all connected by our love for Christ and fellowship with one another.
-The musings of a global Orthodox member