Going Greek

The last Anglican service took place at St Mary's Church in Stony Stratford on Palm Sunday 1969. For many years the building was used as a community centre, but now, the Greek Orthodox Community of Milton Keynes is putting it back into service as a church.

Although they don't own the building yet, this evening was a wonderful opportunity to celebrate with them. There was a service of Vespers for Holy Cross Day, with a team of chanters from London. This was followed by speeches, including a wonderful talk by their Archbishop.

The evening finished with a splendid "bring and share" with lots of wonderful Greek food!

There were of course, some local dignitaries, including a number of my colleagues.

It was great to spend the evening with the Watling Valley's own "Greek community". Tony and his boys are regulars at All Saints but also attend the Orthodox congregation. The Nelseys gave me a lift and Janet was able to translate a few phrases for me...
All in all, this was a wonderful occasion and it was really great to be part of. I did enjoy it, but am sadly not tempted to dust off my old Greek textbooks... but good luck to the boys as they get stuck into Greek school!