Account of the visit of the Kursk-Root icon of the Mother of God to our parish
From Orthodox Parish of St Nicholas
Sunday 25th November 2007
Click here for a two-page photo gallery of the icon's visit...
| Whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? Luke 1:43 |
This is a quotation from the passage of St Luke’s gospel which is read at many services connected with the Mother of God. Last Sunday it was also the text on which Fr Stephen based the sermon which he preached at the moleben before the wonderworking Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign. More than two hundred people had managed to squeeze into St Giles’ Hall, many coming from a long way away in order to venerate the Icon and yet - and this was abundantly clear to all of us had gathered there - it was we who were being visited in this hall and we knew who that Visitor was.
As we stood in silence waiting for the icon to be brought in, a child was heard asking his mother, 'But why is the church different today? Why is it like Easter?'
What can one say in reply? On one level, the reason that the hall - our normal place of worship - felt so different was to do with the fact that the interior of had been transformed. Easter-like flowers adorned the icon-screen, the central analoy where the Icon was to rest and other suitable surfaces. Friends and parishioners had stayed back after the Sunday Liturgy to make preparations: the brass was polished, blue hangings and vestments ironed, flowers arranged and generally, the whole place spruced up. But, there was also a deeper, subtler change felt by all who had prepared the church for the evening. The beautifully cleaned, decorated space appeared incomplete, as if it was lacking something and, as we paused for a minute before shutting the hall until later, we all remarked how each polished surface seemed - like us - to be in a state of quiet but intense anticipation.
This sense of anticipation was very palpable by six o’clock, as Fr Stephen was waiting in the entrance of St Giles’ Hall which was filled to capacity for the arrival of the icon. It arrived soon after carried by Fr Yaroslav Belikoff, the rector of the ROCOR Cathedral of the Mother of God and the Royal Martyrs in London and accompanied by Deacon Matthew who had driven Fr Yaroslav to Oxford. The choir began singing 'It is very meet to bless thee...' and, unexpectedly, but most appropriately, the sound of church bells filled the hall from the adjacent St Giles’ Parish Church. Waiting for the icon inside the church were Fr Ian Graham from the Greek Orthodox Community of the Holy Trinity and Fr Thomas Hardy, a ROCOR priest who lives in Oxford but who serves in London. The Icon was placed on the analoy in the centre of the church and the service began. The order of the service was a completely standard moleben with akathist, but the atmosphere inside the church was far from ordinary. Afterwards, many people, beginning with Fr Yaroslav himself, remarked at the tangible prayerful concentration which united the clergy and the laity during that service. The four priests took turns to read the twelve stanzas of the akathist, and at the conclusion of each, a great cry of ‘Alleluia’ went up from the choir and congregation together. In the same way, during the Trisagion prayers towards the end of the service, the whole congregation - entirely unbidden and unprompted - was moved to join with the Lord’s Prayer chanted by the reader. Clearly the people’s overflowing hearts prompted this uncustomary, but completely spontaneous departure from the norm.
In another unusual moment that day, two Oratorian Fathers from the Roman Catholic Church of St Aloysius across the road from St Giles’ Hall suddenly put in an appearance and began to make their way through the crowd. They took off their birettas and unselfconsciously joined in with the Alleluias, crossing themselves with evident devotion. Their presence only confirmed the universal attraction of this wonderworking Icon, and as the two Catholic priests departed, they beamed approvingly at the throng of people gathered around the image of the Mother of God.
Then, as the clergy and the people knelt down, the choir sang the final prayer to the Mother of God:
O most gracious Queen, my hope, O Mother of God, who receivest the orphan and dost intercede for the stranger; the Joy of all those who sorrow and protectress of the wronged. See my distress, see my affliction, help me for I am helpless. Feed me for I am a stranger and a pilgrim. Thou knowest my offence; forgive and resolve it as thou wilt. For I know no other help, no intercessor no gracious comforter, but thou O Mother of God, to protect and guard me for ages of ages. Amen.
At the conclusion of the service, the assembled people were invited to venerate to wonderworking icon and receive a small icon card with the date of the visit to the parish on the obverse as a blessing. Some 100 cards had been prepared, but, although rationed to one per family, they ran out about half way through the veneration leaving many people disappointed. At this point Fr Stephen gave the blessing to distribute the flowers from the floral arrangement around the Icon, and these were gratefully received. As the congregation approached to venerate the holy image, the choir continued to sing hymns in honour of the Mother of God. To these were added hymns sung spontaneously by the assembled faithful in different languages and to different melodies – Slavonic, English, Romanian, Greek and Serbian – reflecting the various nationalities and traditions of the faithful who were present.
Finally, when the last worshipper finished venerating the Icon, Fr Yaroslav once again placed the cloth cover over it and, singing the troparion, carried it out to the waiting car. A group of parishioners followed, singing hymns as Deacon Matthew prepared to drive Fr Yaroslav with the wonderworking Image in his hands to Fr Stephen’s home for supper before returning him to London. As we waited for the car to depart, we truly felt that we had been visited by the Mother of God herself, and most of us will freely admit that the visit of the Kursk icon to our Parish was one of the most significant events not only in the life of the parish but in our own lives too.
