GOCYORK Welcome to the home page for the
Community Of Sts. Constantine & Helen in York.
The community of Sts Constantine & Helen is the longest established Orthodox congregation worshiping in the ancient city of York. The parish is part of the Oecumenical Patriarchate’s Archdiocese of Thyateira & Great Britain.
We normally gather for the Divine Liturgy at 11am on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month at the mediæval church of St. Mary, Bishophill Junior YO1 6EN [which is off Micklegate / Priory Street].
Click here for location information.
The liturgy is usually preceded by the 1st and 3rd hours. Our congregation is pan-Orthodox [made up of people from various Orthodox traditions] and it is therefore served mainly in English, with some Greek and Slavonic. After the liturgy, we stay behind for refreshments and the chance to chat.
Services are also held on some of the traditional Holy Days, please look out for announcements about these. You may wish to note that the parish uses the new (Revised-Julian) kalendar, in line with the majority of the Archdiocese.
All are welcome to any of our services, whether you are already Orthodox or non-Orthodox and wish to learn more about the Orthodox way. Students studying in York are especially welcome to come and keep up with their faith whilst away from home.
If you want to enquire about having one of what – in English – we call the Occasional Offices (Baptisms / Weddings / Funerals etc.) then please ask the priest at the end of the Sunday liturgy or use the contact form and a meeting can then be set up to discuss arrangements.
Confessions can be heard prior to the Holy Liturgy or separately, by prior arrangement. Please ask the priest about this.
NOTE ABOUT FUTURE SERVICES ;
UPDATE : for the 4 April 2020
This week (on the 31 March) the Patriarchate issued the further statement, copied below. Given both this instruction and those current restrictions imposed by the UK Government, regrettably all the intended Holy Week & Paschal services at Sts Constantine & Helen WILL NOT NOW TAKE PLACE.
When it is possible to be confident about the next steps, a further announcement will be made here.
Fr.David. Priest-in-Charge.
There are various churches streaming their services over the internet and over the radio, I hope you are able to use these to participate in the beautiful services which remember the great events of the season.
You may wish to join St. Elizabeth Belorussian Orthodox Convent in Minsk which has for many years been live-streaming most of their services. Since the New Year, they have regularly broadcast Livestreams of services on their YouTube channels:
1. The Russian channel has all of our Livestreams
2. The English channel has most of our Livestreams
The sisters ask that,
‘if you can you subscribe to our English YouTube channel. We currently have 300 subscribers, and our goal is to reach 1,000. Once we hit this goal, we will be able to livestream ALL of our services in English, too. Please subscribe to our English channel, as we would much appreciate it.’
Here is a list of regular broadcasts.
On Saturdays – All-Night Vigil (the broadcast starts at 11 AM ET / 4 PM UK / 6 PM MSK);
On Sundays – Divine Liturgy (3 AM ET / 8 AM UK / 10 AM MSK);
On the eve of one of the Great Feasts – All-Night Vigil (11 AM ET / 4 PM UK / 6 PM MSK)
On the day of one of the Great Feasts – Divine Liturgy (2 or 3 AM ET / 7 or 8 AM UK / 9 or 10 AM MSK.
During Lent,
Additional prayer service with akathist to the Divine Passion of Christ is broadcast on Sundays at 6:30 PM MSK (11:30 AM ET / 4:30 PM UK)
On Wednesday and Friday mornings (12:30 AM ET / 5:30 AM UK / 7:30 AM MSK) and Wednesday evenings (6 PM MSK), you can participate in such services as the Hours, Typica and Vespers with the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts.
During Holy Week (the last week) of Lent, all morning and evening services are broadcast from Monday to Friday at 6 AM and 6 PM MSK (11 PM and 11 AM ET / 4 AM and 4 PM UK)
On the Great Saturday (6 PM ET / 11 PM UK / 1 AM MSK) we will broadcast Matins, Hours, Vespers and the Liturgy of St. Basil the Great.
On the night of Pascha/Easter, the broadcast will start at (5 PM ET / 10 PM UK / Midnight MSK) with the Paschal Matins service, followed by the Hours and the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
Every upcoming broadcast will be announced on our YouTube channel in advance.
OECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE : Communiqué
With the Communiqué of 18 March, the OEcumenical Patriarchate announced the decision to suspend all ecclesiastical rites and events within its territory, until the end of the month, as well as its intention to return to the issue, should it be deemed necessary by current developments.
Already, because cases of COVID-19 are dramatically multiplying throughout the world, with many casualties, and because, for this reason, the imposition – and rightly so – of strict and restrictive measures continue in almost every country, the above mentioned ban will unavoidably remain valid for the Sacred Center of the Phanar and the Dioceses of the OEcumenical Throne throughout the globe until further notice, depending on the course of the pandemic.
The Mother Church of Constantinople prays and wishes that the appropriate effective medicine to combat the disease will be found soon, so as to overcome this great crisis and to address its effects on society and the economy.
From the Chief Secretariat of the Holy and Sacred Synod.
UPDATE : for 24 March 2020
Yesterday, 23 March, the Government announced that all public worship should cease for 3 weeks. This would take us to 13 April, Monday in Holy Week.
The Archdiocese has today said that
# All churches of our Archdiocese are closed until further notice.
# Funeral services can still take place, but attendance is strictly limited to immediate family.
If, sadly, you were needing to hold a funeral, please contact Fr.David as soon as possible, using the contact facility on this site.
It is not currently clear if the prohibition will continue beyond this 3 week date and whether or no, therefore, it will be possible to hold the previously announced services for Holy Week & Pascha.
On the 18 March 2020 the following message was issued from the Phanar to all the churches in the Œcumenical Patriachate ;
4) In light of decisions already taken by some eparchies of the Œcumenical Throne, today we universally declare our ecclesiastical resolution & mandate to cease all divine services, events, and rites, with the exception of private prayer in churches that will remain open, until the end of March. This restriction will be later reassessed, in accordance with the development of the pandemic caused by the virus.
Following this instruction, all previously announced services for March will be cancelled.
Fr. David -priest in charge of the community- also serves at the Church of St. Nicholas, Blackley, Manchester M9 7AT.
