Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, England, June 23, 2025
Photo: YouTube screenshot
The Monastery of St. John the Baptist in Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, England, joyously celebrated the consecration of a church in the name of its holy founder, St. Sophrony the Athonite.
St. Sophrony, a spiritual child of the great St. Silouan the Athonite, founded the monastery in 1959 and served as abbot for many decades. He reposed in the Lord on July 11, 1993, and was canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople on November 27, 2019.
On Saturday night, June 21, Vespers was celebrated at the Church of St. Sophrony with many pilgrims and guest. The service was presided over by the local hierarch, Archbishop Nikitas of Thyateira. Several other hierarchs were present, including Metropolitan Nikolaos of Mesogaia of the Church of Greece.
The service was livestreamed. The procession into the church starts at 1:15:30 in the video below:
The next morning began with Matins, followed by a procession with St. Sophrony’s relics from the new church to the Chapel of St. Silouan and back, bringing the holy relics to be placed in the altar. The consecration of the church and Divine Liturgy were then celebrated. Abp. Nikitas presided. Also present was Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople.
Matins begins at 35:45 in the video below:
Following the service, Abbot Peter addressed Pat. Bartholomew about the history of the monastery and the prayerful support of its founder, St. Sophrony:
The first foundations of the new church of St. Sophrony in our monastery were laid many years ago, when the holy Elder surrendered perfectly to the will of God, which brought him to this remote land. Just as newborn child begins life with weeping, so too did our monastery begin its life upon the foundations laid by St. Sophrony, with many tears, and groanings from the depths, and with blood and sweat. In the person of our holy founder, Fr. Sophrony the Athonite, the Scriptural saying is truly fulfilled. His life is unlike other men’s and his parts are of another kind (cf. Wis. 2:12-15). With martyric self-denial, the holy Elder remained faithful to the will of God until the end of his days, when he yielded his sacred body to his monastery as a sanctified firstfruit that “leaveneth the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6, Gal. 5:9).
It is He Who blesses the beginning and bestows the end. It is He Who sows good desires in our hearts, Who strengthens our intentions, yet also ordains their fulfillment wherein He builds the temple of His Divinity not made with hands, fixing His gaze upon it and endowing us with the privilege, above all through the Divine Liturgy, to become “eyewitnesses” of His life, as we hasten with joy toward the day of His glorious Coming. Placing no confidence in “the works of our feeble hands,” we lift our eyes to our holy Fathers, Silouan and Sophrony. We bear witness to their grace, we proclaim the power of their prayers, and we do not conceal the many and great benefits which they have bestowed upon our humble monastery. We would be blind were we not to discern this, and ungrateful were we not to confess that, through the intercessions of our holy Fathers and under the steadfast protection of the great Mother Church of Christ, the unfathomable Divine providence has “enlarged the place of our tent” (cf. Is. 54:2).
The placing of the holy relics into the altar. Photo: YouTube screenshot
We reverently beseech Your All-Holiness to pray that He Who has begun this good work in us may perfect it unto the day of the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. The treasure of Divine blessing bestowed upon this newly-built church of our holy founder emboldens us to walk in the path of our holy Fathers. Yet at the same time, it is a fearful responsibility and a solemn warning, that we remain ever watchful, lest the Divine inspiration of this Heavenly gift should “wax cold” within our hearts and we forfeit so great a treasure. For the blessing of God abides only where it is received with thanksgiving.
We conclude our address by humbly entreating our holy Elder Sophrony the Athonite, that his name may never cease from its work in this church, but may always comfort the hearts of all those who enter herein with the incorruptible consolation of Divine grace. “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of Thy pleasures” (Ps. 36:8). Amen.
The Patriarch then spoke about the consecration of churches as a manifestation of the communion of saints.
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