This is one of my favourite feasts. Jesus goes up a mountain and reveals himself in all his glory to the disciples. This is also the Gospel narrative that we get the idea of the uncreated energy/light from – an idea that Gregory of Palamas was nearly declared a heretic over.

We celebrated Liturgy this afternoon which was nice – even though we could have used some of that uncreated energy to drive away the blasted humidity! Ah well, can’t have everything. . . .enlightenment, or dehumidification . . . take your pick.

There’s a great exhibit now on at the Petit Palais in Paris on the history and art of Mt. Athos. The collection includes documents detailing the development of the Holy Mountain as an autonomous region of Greece, icons, liturgical items, and jewlery. Sadly the website (here) does not offer much in terms of information and images about the exhibit.

It is also worth mentioning that the permanent collection of the Petit Palais includes a substantive collection of icons from various regions – and is well worth a look.

While you’re there – have lunch at the cafe – unlike museum cafe’s here in the UK the food is rather good, and the view onto the garden is lovely.

Over the next week (18-25 Jan), Christians across the globe are praying for reconciliation and unity among believers. As I stumbled across this article (and this one) and the prayer specifically written for this year’s event (see below) – it made me think of Paul’s admonition to Timothy that a necessary quality of a leader/minister in the community is that he (she) has their own household in order.

Our OC/IC house has been in disarray now for over 70 years. Perhaps this week of Christian unity is an opportunity for us to reach out to one another and be a part of the healing process, witnesses of Christ’s teaching to one another. A small act here, a kind word there, an offer to collaborate, a sharing of ideas – no grand gestures or pseudo-organisations will do it, no one person or synod will stand at the centre (the rest of us won’t allow it, thank God), but we can, in the interests of fufilling our baptismal calling to bear witness to the teachings of Christ, and in the interests of professing our OC/IC identity, stand together, and begin the process of building relationships – “community” among our own people.

Prayer is only the first step. It is an acknowledgement that we need help, but it is also a focussing of our own mind on the issue at hand. Prayer must be lived, it must be followed up by praxis, or it is hollow and without substance. Here then is the prayer composed for this year’s week of Christian Unity:

We pray to you for the unity of all Christians
According to your will,
According to your means,
May your Spirit enable us to experience the suffering caused by division
To see our sin and to hope beyond all hope.
God, you alone are our hope
You alone are our hope

For God had to manifest himself in a new way – this is how one of the Fathers describes the incarnation. Theophany has come – the manifestation of the Trinity, and of Christ’s purpose in the World. God has come to us in a new way a physical way, one that demonstrates his inexorable solidarity with us, with creation.

This is the feast day on which we celebrate the annual blessing of water – an ancient symbol, with a rich repertoire of meaning. For the moment, however, I want to sit with the idea of the physical presence of water; for Just as God came to us in a new way, a very physical way, we employ this physical substance to restore and refresh the very places where we live, and work, and play. The blessed water brought to our homes, is a conscious bridge between the worship in the temple, and the mundane, and the extraordinary events of our lives; a reminder of how these things converge to shape who and what we are as disciples of Christ.

Finally, let us consider how the blessing of our homes sweeps away the worries and burdens, the anger and resentments, the sickness and despair of the past twelve months. We gather together in one another’s homes to celebrate the blessing of that home – usually with a party – looking forward to a fresh beginning, a clean slate for the coming year.

It’s that time of year again – when our community here in London starts looking at which charity we’re going to highlight and make a contribution to for the feast of the Nativity. It’s been our custom for a number of years now to pick one or two and share their work with you – hoping you’ll help them too. Or better still that your local OC/IC community will band together, and do the same with a charity of your choosing.

This video is beautifully conceived – and I thought, a great way to kick off this year’s discernment process. Imagine if all the little OC/IC groups and communities were to make a donation to a charity of their choice in commemoration of the Incarnation?

Last week we went to the Royal Academy’s new Byzantium exhibit. While it was certainly a mistake to go within the first week of its opening (it was heaving); overall we were very impressed with the items they chose to exhibit. The icons in the latter 2/3 were amazing, it was particularly nice to see first hand, examples that previously I’ve only seen in photographs. One, in particular, an enamel icon of St. Michael which I’ve always thought a bit odd is actually rather creepy in real life.

The range of items on display include coinage, embroidery, metal work, iconography, manuscripts, and architectural pieces; and gave us ideas for projects to last quite some time. I’m now eagerly waiting for Amazon do deliver my copy of the enormous catalogue.

The only two criticisms I have is that I did expect a bit more – the first two rooms were a let down, and the RA like other London museums (most notably the BM and the V&A) seems incapable of managing the flow of crowds so as to ensure everyone’s full enjoyment of the exhibit. A number of elderly, and wheel-chair bound visitors were at a real disadvantage, as the crowd took little notice of them, and crowded them out, or brusquely pushed them aside. In Paris, for example, we’ve noticed on more than one occasion that museum exhibits have very good timed entry schemes, and keep a tight control of the number in the hall at any given time.