Londoners and St John the Baptist Monastery, Essex

I don't honestly think there are a lot of Orthodox Posters here who are from London .

I've been there - some years ago and stayed for a complete weekend - I enjoyed the experience , but it's a bit far for me

nikolaj said:

Greetings everyone,
I am new on the forum and I hope I will get to know a lot of you.
I live in London, I go to my local parish church, but I would like to go to St John the Baptist monastery in Essex as often as possible. So far, I have been there just once, but I am looking for some options how I can go there once every two weeks, once a month at least.
The problem is that local Essex buses don't run on Sundays??!! I wouldnt mind walking from there from a train station (it takes 2 hours). But the train services on Sundays start very late, so it would be impossible to get in time for the Liturgy. I wish I could stay there entire weekends and avoid all of this Sunday travel problems, but I work on Saturdays, plus they don't allow children over night.
I know that a lot of people from London go there, so I was wondering if anyone who has a car would like to team up, I would pay all the fuel expenses etc. I have a three year old daughter who would go with me sometimes too. So if you go there regularly please get in touch. If you have never been, may I just say you should, because it is great!!

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I'm not from London, but I was hoping to visit that monastery the last time I visited my cousin in Bath (I'm from the USA)! Unfortunately I couldn't for the same reason you are having trouble. They aren't Orthodox, so I would have to get a bus there, and services didn't run at the right time. I hope someone else in London will see this post!

Welcome, Nikolaj! It's great to have you here!

I'm in the US as well, and don't know anyone from London offhand, but I will keep my eyes open among others I know online in case there's someone I'm not thinking of right off.

Is there anyone in your parish that might be interested? Even if not so often? (Maybe more than one?) I had hoped to share a ride to a monastery myself with someone from my parish since it's a 5-6 hour drive for me, but it hasn't worked out. I hope you can work something out!

Again, welcome!

nikolaj, welcome to TAW!

I was at the Essex monastery last year and it is a wonderful place for sure, but is there any reason you would prefer to attend a monastery church instead of your home parish?

welcome! I have never been there but many of the St Tikhon's (I am a seminarian) teachers have been there, and I have heard nothing but good things from that place.

stick around!

Welcome Nikolaj!
I too would like to go, but I live a bit further away than most here in the land of Oz. We have friends who grew up under the eldership of elder Sophrony plus the current Abbot is an Aussie

I think your best bet would be to contact the monastery and let them put you in touch with one of their regular visitors from London.

Yes, please do stay. And I can understand your reasons for wanting to go to the monastery. If I was faced with those scenarios and choices, I would do the same.

nikolaj said:

And Kyllisa, nice picture btw.

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LOL, thank you. My Godfamily surprised me with the name Anastasia upon my baptism - I was actually thinking I would keep my given (Christian) name. But it has proven very apt and precious to me for many reasons. BTW, I think your picture is the one I use for my cover on FB.

Nikolaj - this Forum is not intended for debate - yes, discussion between the Orthodox members is what has happened in the past. Non- Orthodox are very very welcome to ask questions and comment on the answers they receive .

For some unknown reason things / atmosphere here has changed in recent months and there's an attitude that has crept in which is not conducive to the the civilised conversations we've had here in the past.

Anhelyna said:

Nikolaj - this Forum is not intended for debate - yes, discussion between the Orthodox members is what has happened in the past. Non- Orthodox are very very welcome to ask questions and comment on the answers they receive .

For some unknown reason things / atmosphere here has changed in recent months and there's an attitude that has crept in which is not conducive to the the civilised conversations we've had here in the past.

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Agreed 100%. It's not always like this - normally it is a safe haven, so to speak.

nikolaj said:

Yes I might stay, but I can see there is a lot of debating going on in this forum. For me, there is not much room for debate. There is one faith and that's it, not much to talk about there. Even if I would want to say something, I wouldn't really dare as the words must be carefully chosen when talking about fate. There is always danger of sin of frivolous talk, or simply saying things wrongly due to my unworthiness could tempt someone, or even myself. At any rate I am no theologian; not that any reasoning would win a debate about fate.
I am a musician and recently I started doing a course which claims that it can teach a grown man the skill of perfect pitch. What is required of you, is that you don't try!! Because as soon as you start rationalizing, the whole process is ruined. You really have to do the exercises with the mind of a child. The way one progresses in this training resembles how faith develops a lot. Anyways, I hope I was making sense why I don't embark in this kind of talk.
However, if I see a bit more mundane topics, I might join in. I quite like the people here right from the start

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Oh, Please DO stay then! That is the sort of environment we normally have around here, and what I'd like to see it come back to. Not just mundane topics - we do get a bit of Church and theology and spirituality, yes. But it's not supposed to be an atmosphere of debate. The forum recently moved to a new server, we got a few new folks in, and I think people are not really so sure of the the forum rules or of what forum they are participating in. We do have forums for debate, and those for people of very mixed backgrounds, and so on. But this is not it.

This is a "safehouse" for EO ... because we are good-natured we have never minded others coming in and asking questions, and we do share fellowship with some others, most especially we have Eastern Catholics who spend time here. (Most of the safehouses in CF allow outsiders to come in and ask questions - I've visited a number of them myself and have always been well-treated, though when I reach something I disagree with, I let it drop.)

Actually, your perfect pitch study sounds very interesting. I'm sort of musically inclined, but had very few lessons in various things as a child. I'm in the choir now, but try to keep rather low. I "hear" very well, I'm not as confident of what I produce though, LOL. But it sounds interesting. I just don't have the technical vocabulary to discuss much, nor much instruction.

My daughter is an amazing singer ... I found someone who offered free lessons for a few students, trying to get her client base built up. When she heard my daughter, she said forget payment, and doubled her sessions. I wish she was interested in Church singing - it's funny, when she was a toddler, I still remember she looked over at me one day in the car and said when she grew up, she was going to sing songs and tell people about Jesus. The odd thing was, that was before I ever took her to any church ... but anyway ... I have varying interest. But no real concrete knowledge.

You might like the St. Euphrosynos Taverna & Ouzeri thread ... we chat there. Or in thread, sometimes ... Fellowship is good!

Kylissa speaks the truth - and of course I'm the EC who haunt the place - have done ever since I came to CF