ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM PARISH LONDON

The Melkite parish in London is a multi-cultural community, though Arabs still represent more than 85% of our parishioners.

Many of our parishioners are married to British people who represent 7% of our Melkite flock, and the rest is from different nationalities, namely Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Lithuania, Ukraine, Croatia, Russia, Belarus, Poland, USA, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, China and India.

Seeing the international mixture of our Melkite community in London, English will become the main language of our liturgy before the end of the next decade. However, we have already started the introduction of English language into our liturgy, in order to help non-Arabs to take part in our liturgical celebrations. Father Robert Gibbons is in charge of this celebration of the Melkite liturgy in English, which used to be during the first and the third Sunday of the month in the crypt of the church, but soon it will be celebrated every Sunday at 6pm.

Moreover, Father Shafiq has already produced leaflets for the main liturgical events such as Lent, Holy Thursday, Holy Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter, Christmas and Epiphany. These leaflets transmit the liturgical prayers in their original Arabic language with an English translation. He has also introduced a system of transliteration into hymns, in order to help non-Arab readers to sing our liturgical chants in Arabic. Most Melkites would like to keep the Arabic language in their liturgy, and therefore, the system of transliteration will help to protect one important pillar of the Melkite cultural identity, the Arabic language. Also, it helps most Melkites, who were obliged to flee the violence in the Middle East, to feel at home when they pray in their mother tongue, Arabic.

Another move towards the use of English is carried out by our deacon, Richard Downer, who fulfils his role within the Arabic liturgy mainly in English. Also, Father Shafiq, who preaches in Arabic, makes a brief summary of his homily in English for the sake of the non-Arabs who are attending the Arabic liturgy. Furthermore, Father Robert Gibbons and Father John Salter give sometimes a homily in English to the Arabic Melkite flock, in order to remind them of the presence of non-Arabs in our church.

Finally, we organise several social meetings for different cultural groups in our Melkite parish, in order to help each nationality of our Melkite flock to get together and to talk in its own language. We are planning to make these meetings an important cultural event, which aim to celebrate the local national folklore of each different country.