Sunday, November 12, 2017

Anglican-Orthodox dialogue in happier days

From the 1950s onwards, my father was a member of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, founded during the 1920s to promote greater dialogue between the East and the West (at a time when Rome, the abortive history of the Malines conversations notwithstanding, largely eschewed ecumenical contact). Dominated in its early days by the larger-than-life Nicholas Zernov and his formidable wife Melitza, it hosted annual conferences that drew such speakers as Donald Allchin, Anthony Bloom, Lev Gillet, Kallistos Ware and Rowan Williams. The following is an undated fragment chronicling aspects of a conference clearly held in Durham, whose unknown author (almost certainly an Anglican) captures some of the spirit of the Fellowship in its heyday.

1. PRAISE MY SOUL THE KING OF HEAVEN
TO HIS FEET THE TRIBUTE BRING
Oh my gosh, it's half past seven -
How can I expect to sing?
Yawning, moaning,
Stretching, groaning,
Here the damned alarm clock ring.

2. LOAFERS IN YOUR SEATS ADORE HIM,
YE who SIT THERE FAST ASLEEP
Yes we know this talk would bore Him
And that question make him weep.
MAKING Speeches
FRAMED AS QUESTIONS
Voicing contemplations deep.

3. VOICES SO DISTINGUISHED MEET US,
KALLISTOS INTONING prayers,
Rowan's velvet Welsh tones greet us -
When he speaks we know he cares -
Canon Allchin's
Reading poems
And Elizabeth BRIERE'S

4. LITURGIES which run forever
Vespers drag on hour by hour
Standing always SITTING NEVER
Held up by the Spirit's power.
Evensong and
EARLY matins
In the shade of Durham tower.

5. DRINKING beer with Greeks and Romans
Every evening in the bar.
ALCOHOL IN OUR ABDOMENS
Helps to make our thinking shar-p
Thinking deeply
Drinking deeper
Theologians that we are.

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