The Orthodox
Parish of
The Holy Trinity
in Bristol
THE HISTORY OF OUR PARISH
1. The Room at Elsy Briggs House
1997-2004
Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh officially announced the creation of the Holy Trinity parish in Bristol in his sermon at the end of the service on November 30, 1997, on the 40th anniversary of his Episcopal consecration. We consider this day our birthday. He gave us the Book of Gospels and the shroud. The Bishop believed that there must be a parish of the Diocese of Sourozh in Bristol, since it is a large city, the center of Western England, where people from different regions of the country will come to Orthodox services. This continues to this day, and the parish provides care for people who come from all over.
At the diocesan conference the same year, Metropolitan Anthony inspired us with his story about how he served the liturgy in an apartment where the altar was a cooking stove: in other words, a community in an ordinary apartment became a Church.
With Metropolitan Anthony's blessing, in 1997, Father Stephen Hadley, a priest from France, who was at that time on sabbatical leave at Oxford University and at the same time assisting in services in parishes in England, organised us into an Orthodox community in the name of the Holy Trinity. He helped us with advice, guidance and his love begin to pray together regularly. Father Michael Fortunato was assigned by the Metropolitan to provide further pastoral care. He blessed Linda Mary who sang in the choir of the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God for many years to be our choir master. She then shared her knowledge with our other choir master Caroline. The parish attended the seminars on choir singing organized by Father Michael Fortunatto for parishes of the Diocese.
Trips to annual diocesan conferences have become a tradition for our parish. Diocesan reports and their discussions, communication with other parishes, daily services and communal prayers were an important spiritual experience that helped us in organising parish life and in understanding the foundations of Christianity. This tradition continues to this day.
We soon managed to find shelter in the ecumenical Elsy Briggs House of Prayer in the Westbury-on-Trim area, next to the ancient Anglican Church of the Holy Trinity. This house, one of the oldest houses in Bristol, is a very sacred place where people of different denominations prayed for many years, and the caretaker was the Catholic nun Caroline. In this way, our small community gradually acquired the experience of praying together.
Gradually we began to acquire liturgical items. Father Stephen helped us make a portable folding throne, and one of the parishioners, Marions sewed the vestments for it. We built folding lecterns and gathered a collection of icons, some of which were given to us by Bishop Anthony, and others painted by the iconographers Alexander Gormatyuk and Fyodor Streltsov. Although we had to remove our altar and lecterns from the room after each service, we were allowed to leave the icons, the cross and candles in the room.
The monthly liturgical cycle of the parish consisted of two Liturgies and two Typicas. Father Stephen came to Bristol every other week to serve on Saturday and Sunday. All services were in English. For Russians, the possibility of confession by a Russian-speaking priest was provided. Additionally, the occassional visits by Father Maxim and Father Michael were always a great joy for all parishioners.
From the very beginning, our small community felt the care, prayer and help of all the priests of the diocese, and of course the care and prayer of Bishop Anthony. Father Michael Fortunado's visit was of a pastoral and educational nature. Bishop Vasily, who was responsible for parishes throughout England and often came to Bristol on pastoral visits, blessed us to hold a Bible study group.
From the very moment of the formation of our parish, we had a very important prayer connection with the Conception (Zachatiyevsky) Monastery in Moscow. Maria Springford knew the hegumenia of the monastery well, Hegumenia Juliana, the daughter of the wonderful priest Archpriest Gleb Kaleda. From the very beginning of our existence, Mother Juliana and the sisters of the monastery strengthened us with their prayer, prayed for us and treated us with gifts: books, icons, liturgical items, church calendars and vestments for our priests. This prayer connection continues to this day. The parish, in turn, sends a small Christmas donation to the monastery every year.
With the departure of Father Stephen to France in 1998, Bishop Anthony ordained a deacon from the parish in Exeter, Father John Palmer, to the priesthood for our parish. Father John lived in Taunton, an hour's drive from Bristol, and he served liturgy every other Sunday. Father Gregory Wolfenden, who at that time taught at the Orthodox University in Cambridge, was sent to us to help him. Father Gregory became the rector, and Father John became second priest.
At hat time, Father Michael Gogoleff returned from Russia where he worked as a petrochemical engineer and at the same time was a deacon. He participated in many services in the 90s during the period of spiritual revival in Russia. He served in the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in Moscow and even served with Patriarch Alexy at the Easter service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. In addition to his wonderful voice, Father Michael could pronounce litany in different languages, which was very rare in those years. Upon his return from Russia in 1998, Bishop Anthony directed him to us in Bristol to concelebrate with Father Gregory and Father John. At the same time, Father Michael was studying remotely at the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge and was soon ordained a priest by the Bishop. By this time, Father Gregory had left to teach in America, and Father Michael began to serve in our parish as a priest once every two weeks, alternating with Father John.
2. Canford Cemetery Chapel
2003-2012
Gradually the community began to grow and a new stage in the life of the parish began. The room at Elsie Briggs could no longer accommodate everyone, and we began to search for a new place for worship. One of the new parishioners, Peter Williams, who worked at the city council, was able to negotiate for us to be allowed to rent the chapel at Canford Cemetery. It was a small building with beautiful stained glass windows and useful storage facilities. Since the chapel was otherwise used for funeral services, we had to put everything away every time after the service.
Our usual pattern of Saturday Vespers and Sunday Divine Liturgy continued in our new home, with the midnight Easter Liturgy as the pinnacle of the year.
By the time we moved to the chapel, Father Michael Gogoleff had already stopped traveling to Bristol, since Bishop Anthony sent him to Dublin to revive Orthodox life in Ireland. Father John by this time already knew all the people in our parish well and began to come to Bristol from Taunton almost every Sunday. Presbytera Winifred always accompanied him. She organised wonderful tea parties after the liturgy. Her outgoing and affectionate personality was very much loved by all of us. Her wonderful voice was a great embellishment for our choir.
Father David Smith same regularly to help Father John. We loved him very much and were very sorry when a couple of years later he left us, to be with his son in Netherlands. Father David's visits greatly helped in maintaining the prayerful spirit of the community when a sad event happened in the life of the parish. On the way to Easter Vespers, Father John had a mini-stroke. This was a big shock for all of us, since over the years of his service in the parish we all came to love the priest very much. His ministry attracted many people, both English and Russian, Serbs and Ukrainians, to Orthodoxy. Being a deep and wise man, Father John provided support to many parishioners in difficult times.
Despite the misfortune, our life of prayer continued. Every Sunday we gathered for a liturgy and prayed for Father John’s recovery. Hope for God's help never left us. We have always felt the concern of everyone in the Diocese for our small community. During the Feasts - Christmas, Easter and the patronal Feast of the Trinity - Father Maxim Nikolsky came to serve during this difficult period. This has always been a great consolation and joy for all of us.
Gradually Father John's health improved and he was able to resume serving in the parish. By this time, some of our original parishioners left the parish (and the Diocese) following Vladyka Vasily. Despite this split, more and more people were joining us, and the time came to think again about looking for new premises. By 2011, Father Michael Gogoleff stopped traveling to London and Dublin , and was again sent to Bristol to help Father John.
By this time, the Catholic Diocese of Bristol offered us to rent space in the building of their St. John Fisher Church. Catholic Mass was celebrated there only on Wednesdays, and we could worship on the weekends. However, one complication arose: at the same time, the church premises were also offered to scouts for their evening activities. Father John found this concerning. He was not sure if moving there was the right choice.
However, Father Michael (Gogoleff), with his great energy and organisational skills, was confident that new premises were necessary for the growth of the parish and insisted on the move. By this time, Father John’s health had deteriorated again, and he felt that the relocation was too difficult for him to handle. For this reason, Vladyka Elisey released him from his duties at the Bristol parish and sent him to serve as a second priest in a parish located closer to his home. Thus, despite all the difficulties of the decision, we have moved from the chapel at Canford Cemetery to the St. Fisher Catholic Church. And a new stage began in the life of Parish of the Holy Trinity.
2012 - Present
3. St. John Fisher Catholic Church
Services at the new location were held on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday, a Vigil was served, and since most of the parishioners by this time were Russian-speaking, the services were held primarily in Church Slavonic with elements of English. By this time, a very active group of laity had formed in the parish, whose labors, efforts and concerns made regular services possible. Parish life still rests on the shoulders of these parishioners. Here we should mention Tatyana Napoleonova, Larisa Schofield, Lyudmila and Vladimir De Beyer, Valentina Chekandina, Galina Self, Yulia Vorontsova and her husband Martin, Elena Kisina, Ekaterina, Elena and Nikolai Dufenyuk and Maria Springford, the parish warden since 2012. The parish is constantly replenished with new parishioners, and they gradually become more and more involved in the everyday life and concerns of the parish.
The new space of the church required new efforts to transform the place of worship into an Orthodox church. Just as before, according to the terms of the lease, after each service we had to remove absolutely everything from the main part of the church to the utility room. This is how the idea of a folding iconostasis arose. Father Michael blessed and inspired people to raise money for the iconostasis. Yuri Sokolov, who was the parish treasurer at the time, and his wife Tatyana helped us gradually raise the required amount of £15,000. The iconostasis was created at the studio of the artist Denis Skudar in Moscow. 5 people, including Presbytera Maria Tsekh from the church in Butovo and her assistant Katya Mitrofanova were involved in the work. Masha and Katya painted three large icons -- the Savior, the Mother of God and the Trinity in the iconostasis, as well as an icon of the cross, which was originally intended for the door of the iconostasis, but for technical reasons it had to be replaced with a curtain that Olga made. Katya painted the ornament, Olga and Denis painted the icons of the top row of the iconostasis. And Nikolai was responsible for the carpentry work. The whole process took over a year.
When the work was completed, the question arose regarding the transportion of the iconostasis to England; here the Diocese again provided us with invaluable assistance. Tatyana Nosova, who was the warden of the London parish at the time, helped organise the free delivery of the iconostasis on the diplomatic bus of the Russian Embassy. After its delivery, the parish invited the artists who participated in the work to come to Bristol and finally assemble the iconostasis structure on site. We happily received the guests and showed them around Bristo. Bishop Elisey came to bless the iconostasis. He really liked our acquisition and how the church space had been transformed. A little later, Presbytera Maria painted a large icon of the Resurrection of Christ for the altar, which created a single ensemble with the iconostasis. The icon of the Resurrection of Christ in the altar, painted in the same style as the iconostasis, completely transformed the altar space. Tatyana Nosova, yet again, helped bring this large icon, as well as a large crucifix from Vledyka Anatoly's house. A work-in-progress, the crucifix was finished by Sister Gabriela. In recent years, a number of icons were presented to us by the icon painter from Moldova Fyodor Tubiluk, whose icons of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and the Archangel Michael also adorn the walls of the temple.
Over the last few years the situation, the scouts stopped their activities, and Catholic services also stopped being celebrated in the church with the onset of Covid. The Lord arranged it so that we became the de-facto sole users of St. Fisher's Church. This made preparing for the service much easier and certainly strengthened our prayer life. We trust in the Lord that this situation will continue.
In 2017, Protodeacon Philip (Turner) came from Netherlandsto serve in our parish. He integrated into the life of the community very naturally, and we all love him very much.
Divine services in our parish never stopped, even during the quarantine due to Covid. Father Mikhail served the liturgy in the church and then gave communion to the parishioners in Larisa Schofield’s garden. This was a great comfort during the difficult time of isolation.
In the summer of 2019, our rector celebrated his seventieth birthday and on this occasion Bishop Matthew visited the parish. It was a grand and joyful. The Bishop noted the great contribution that Father Michael made to the spiritual life of the parish and to the care of the parishioners. Many of us know from our own experience the power of his prayer. We, in turn, always pray for his health and prosperity.
An important part of the spiritual growth of parishioners has always been diocesan conferences, the tradition which dates back to Metropolitan Anthony's time. The conferences have become a kind of pilgrimage for many of us: in-depth reports and their discussion in working groups, intense prayers, the opportunity for confession and daily services, as well as the opportunity to communicate with parishioners from different parishes in England, Scotland, and Ireland make these events unique and an unforgettable.
Other important moments in the life of our parishioners have been the pilgrimage trips organised by the Diocese: to the Holy Land, to the miraculous icon of the Three Hands in Birmingham, as well as trips to the Hawaiian and Kursk Root icons in Cardiff, and to St. Vita of Dorset, whose untouched relics rest in the Church of the Holy Candida and the Holy Cross in the village of Witechurch.
Another tradition dating back to the time of Metropolitan Anthony are charity Christmas markets that we've held regularly until the Covid restrictions made this impossible. In addition to collecting money, these fairs were of a missionary nature, as they introduced the visitors to the traditions of the Orthodox Church. With God's help, we hope to resume this tradition!
Since the formation of the parish, we have always felt the prayer of Metrapolitan Anthony for our parish. He was always convinced of the need for the presence of the Diocese of Sourozh in such a large city as Bristol. We, in turn, also pray to the Lord. And we see God’s providence in the fact that Vladyka sent Father Michael to serve in our parish, first as a deacon, and later as a priest. We are grateful to Father Michael for his concern for the future of the parish and the spiritual growth of the parishioners. This is proven by the fact that an increasing number of people are finding our Trinity Church and finding their home here.