Thyateira Midland Ecclesiastical Seminary

11/04/2026

https://jlcards.com/40Pg5k
Pascha greetings from everyone at TMES. Please enjoy our greetings card, the link is perfectly safe. Christ is risen!
Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! Хрїстóсъ воскрéсе! Hristos a înviat!

Please click the image to view your ecard!

08/03/2026

This Sunday is International Women’s Day, so it is a fitting moment to reflect on the many women who appear throughout the New Testament and the life of the early Church.

The Gospels introduce us to the first women who followed Christ—Joanna, Salome, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Susanna and many others. They travelled with Christ, supported His ministry, stood faithfully at the Cross when many others fled, and were the first witnesses of the Resurrection. From the beginning, women were not on the margins of the Gospel story but at its very heart.

As the Church grows in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, we encounter women who serve the Christian communities in many ways. Junia is named by St Paul among the apostles (Rom. 16:7). Euodia and Syntyche labour alongside Paul in the work of the Gospel (Phil. 4:2–3). Women open their homes so that the Church can gather, pray, and celebrate the Eucharist.

We also meet women deacons in the early Church. St Phoebe of Cenchreae is explicitly called a deacon of the Church by St Paul (Rom. 16:1–2) and entrusted with carrying his letter to the Romans. In later centuries the Church remembers figures such as St Olympias the Deaconess of Constantinople, who worked closely with St John Chrysostom and devoted her life to charity, pastoral care, and the support of the Church.

The more closely one reads Scripture and the early Christian tradition, the more these women come into view. They preach, teach, host churches in their homes, care for the poor, serve the sick, practise healing without payment, endure persecution, and even suffer martyrdom. Their witness shows that from the very beginning, women have been central to the life, mission, and diakonia of the Church.

26/02/2026

Orthodox people! if you fit the age profile or you have family who do (16-35) do please consider attending the excellent COTY event taking place in Birmingham.

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/birmingham/greek-orthodox-church-of-the-holy-trinity-st-luke/coty-lenten-gathering-birmingham/e-grorad for attendance.

19/02/2026

Topic: Online Forum with Dr Elena Narinskaya
Time: 20 February 2026, 19:45 London time
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83089992623?pwd=hUGDWu3qN9l6IHCnEJ5jYfEHsgKM32.1

Meeting ID: 830 8999 2623
Passcode: 091860

Come and see!

18/02/2026

Come and join us online for an Online Forum with Dr Elena Narinskaya, Orthodox theologian and biblical scholar.

Topic: Online Forum with Dr Elena Narinskaya
Time: 20 February 2026, 19:45 London time
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83089992623?pwd=hUGDWu3qN9l6IHCnEJ5jYfEHsgKM32.1

Meeting ID: 830 8999 2623
Passcode: 091860

08/02/2026

**What does women’s ministry mean in the Orthodox Church?**
Online Forum with
Dr Elena Narinskaya
Orthodox theologian and biblical scholar
Founder, Women’s Ministries Initiative
Chair, IOTA Women in the Orthodox Church Group

08/01/2026

Strength in the Lord does not show itself in alarm or display, but in a steady refusal to yield when faith is tested, because Christ meets temptation without panic and teaches us to do the same. Our response to sin is measured, not because sin is small, but because Christ has already faced it in obedient love and broken its power at the root. The Church therefore resists by formation rather than reaction, steeping herself in Scripture as it is received within tradition and drawing strength from the sacraments rather than from urgency or fear. Standing where Christ has already stood, we learn to endure quietly, truthfully, and with hope that does not falter.



https://open.substack.com/pub/msvroestevenssmith/p/prayer-in-the-river-faithfulness?r=2v0t7i&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

06/01/2026

Theophany! Happy Feast!

https://open.substack.com/pub/msvroestevenssmith/p/grace-appears-the-waters-awaken?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&shareImageVariant=overlay&r=2v0t7i

01/01/2026

“The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry... The cloak in your wardrobe belongs to the naked... The money you keep buried belongs to the poor... Do not make what is common your own.” (Homily on Avarice)

25/12/2025

Christ is born! Glorify Him!
In Orthodox theology, the Nativity of Christ discloses the wonder of the Word who becomes truly human so that humanity may be restored to communion with God, fulfilling the ancient confession of Saint Athanasius that “the Son of God became man so that we might become god” (Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 54). The child in the manger reveals not a diminished divinity, but divine love that humbles itself and enters our weakness in order to heal it from the inside, clothing our poverty with His glory. The cave becomes a threshold between heaven and earth, where creation offers its frail substance and receives in return the promise of transfiguration and the first fruits of deification. In this radiant feast, the Church beholds the Light who enters history quietly yet decisively, gathering every fragment of human life into the redeeming embrace of grace and resurrection.

Happy feast!

09/12/2025

Remember tonight 6pm UK time. Book your slot.

Register for this fascinating online event. 9th December 18:00 UK time. Email: [email protected]

04/12/2025

✨ Commemorated on 4 December: Saint John of Damascus ✨

Born in Damascus around 680 into a noble Christian family, Saint John of Damascus stands as one of the Church’s greatest theologians, hymnographers, and defenders of Orthodoxy. Raised alongside his foster-brother Cosmas, he was educated by a monk whom his father ransomed from slavery—an act that shaped John’s brilliant mind and deep devotion.

Serving in high office under the Caliph, John lived at a time when Iconoclasm raged in the Byzantine Empire. Unable to remain silent, he wrote his bold and masterful treatises Against Those who Revile the Holy Icons, defending the sacred tradition of Iconodoulia. Enraged, Emperor Leo III forged letters to slander him, leading to John’s dismissal and the brutal cutting off of his right hand.

Yet through the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, his hand was miraculously restored. In gratitude, he affixed a silver replica to her icon—now known as the miraculous “Three-Handed” Icon.

Renouncing worldly honour, John entered the Monastery of Saint Savva near Jerusalem, embracing a life of humility and obedience. Even his extraordinary learning did not spare him from the harsh disciplines of monastic life. Through repentance, tears, prayer, and toil, he grew into one of the Church’s greatest hymnographers—author of funeral troparia, canons, and Paschal hymns treasured to this day.

His monumental work, The Fount of Knowledge, especially its section On the Orthodox Faith, remains a foundational summary of Orthodox doctrine. He also courageously defended the veneration of icons at the Council of 754, enduring imprisonment and torture for the truth.

Reposed at more than one hundred years of age, Saint John continues to be honoured as a teacher of the Church, the “Chrysorrhoas”—the Golden-Streamed—for the beauty and power of his words.

✨ Saint John of Damascus, holy theologian and hymnographer, pray to God for us! ✨