Dublin church closed by the Church of Ireland has become the cathedral of the Romanian Orthodox Church

At Romanian Orthodox Vespers in Leeson Park, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

Some times church news from Ireland is a little late in reaching me here in north Buckinghamshire. But it was pleasant to hear in recent days that the former Church of Ireland parish church in Leeson Park, Dublin, has become the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Dublin.

The reopening of the church as the Romanian Orthodox Cathedral in Dublin coincided with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross (14 September 2025). On the previous evening, the Romanian Orthodox Bishop of Ireland and Iceland, Bishop Nectarie, with a large number of Romanian Orthodox priests in Ireland, celebrated the service of the Blessing of the Water, followed by Great Vespers in what was once Christ Church Leeson Park.

Christ Church Leeson Park was deconsecrated by the Church of Ireland six months ago (11 March 2025) after the Select Vestry decided to sell the building. At the final service of Evening Prayer in Christ Church, Leeson Park, Archbishop Michael Jackson encouraged the congregation to cherish memories of all that had happened in the church over 150 years. After the service he read the Act of Deconsecration.

The Molyneux Chapel was renamed Christ Church Leeson Park in 1873, and it became a parish in 1892

Christ Church traced its origins to the Molyneux Asylum for the Female Blind, which moved from Peter Street to Leeson Park in the 1860s. The Molyneux Chapel was rebuilt and consecrated in 1868. The architect was James Rawson Carroll (1830-1911), whose other buildings include Saint John the Baptist Church, Clontarf (1860), Saint Philip and Saint James Church, Booterstown (extension and remodelling), Saint Mary’s Church, Athlone (chancel, 1869), Saint John’s Church, Abington, Co Limerick (1869), the Mageough Home, Rathmines (1871-1878), Classiebawn Castle, Co Sligo (for Lord Palmerston’s family, later the home of Lord Mountbatten), the Richmond Hospital (1899-1901), the Royal Victoria Eye and Ear Hospital (1902-1906), and various buildings in Ardagh village, Co Longford.

The Molyneaux Chapel was renamed Christ Church Leeson Park in 1873, and became a parish in 1892 and was united with Saint Bartholomew’s, Clyde Road, in 1972.

Christ Church was shared with the former congregation of Methodist Centenary Church from 1972 for some years, and the church was used at times for opening services at the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan synods.

Christ Church became a Romanian Orthodox Church in 2005, but the Church of Ireland had continued to use it for many years, including a mid-week Eucharist on Wednesdays. I was invited to preach there by both the Church of Ireland parish and the Methodist ministers, and after the changes about 20 years ago, I occasionally celebrated the mid-week Eucharist there.

When it became a Romanian parish church, I sometimes brought students and ordinands there from the Church of Ireland Theological Institute (CITI) to experience the beauty of the Orthodox liturgy.

Father Godfrey O’Donnell, Patrick Comerford and Ruth O’Donnell at the IOCS course in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, in 2014 (Photograph courtesy IOCS, Cambridge)

My friend the late Father Godfrey O’Donnell, who died over five years ago [14 February 2020], was instrumental in establishing the first parish of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland in 2000, and later he was the first Orthodox churches priest to serve as President of the Irish Council of Churches (ICC), and co-chair of the Irish Inter-Church Meeting (2012-2014).

I was a guest at his ordination to the priesthood in the Orthodox Church in 2004, and while I was living in Dublin we continued to meet regularly, often at the same Church gatherings and ecumenical events. He was a frequent visitor to CITI when I was on the staff, and he was the first Orthodox priest to preach in the chapel. We were both students too at times at the summer courses in Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies (IOCS).

His work in establishing the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland and his service to the Romanian Orthodox community were recognised in 2013, when he was honoured with the accolade of ‘Stavrophore,’ the highest award given to married priests in the Romanian Orthodox Church.

But my connections with the Romanian Orthodox Church and Romania go further. I was visited Romania many times between 1991 and 2007, visiting Bucharest and places such as Brașov, Sinaia, Harman, Buzau, Urziceni and Harman.

At first, these visits were for family reasons. But I also worked there as a journalist with The Irish Times, and I subsequntly worked in partnership with parish churches in the Church of Ireland and the Romanian Orthodox Church on projects in Bucharest and Brașov, preached in the Anglican Church of the Resurrection in Bucharest, and was invited to take part in events in Romanian Orthodox churches.

The Romanian Orthodox Cathedral at Leeson Park reopened 10 days ago (Photograph: Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland)

The Romanian Orthodox community in Ireland had been using Christ Church, Leeson Park, under a licence agreement since 2005, and the decision by the Church of Ireland to put it on the market last February and to deconsecrate the church left a question mark hanging over the future of the building.

The Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland said the purchase was made possible through a 10 million lei (€2 million) grant from the Roman Government Department for Romanians Abroad, donor contributions in Ireland and from abroad, a Go Fund Me campaign and fundraising efforts that were met with a generous response.

The Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland was established in February 2024, with headquarters in Dublin and Bishop Nectarie is its first bishop. He was elected in October 2024 and was enthroned in January 2025. Before that, he was an auxiliary bishop in the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of Western Europe and a monk and abbot at Crasna Monastery in western Romania.

Bishop Nectarie presided at the services marking the formal opening of the new cathedral in Dublin on 13-14 September. In his address, he said the church had been the cradle of the Romanian Orthodox community in Dublin since 2005, and from it many other parishes have been established across Ireland. He emphasised that the cathedral will continue as a place of prayer, unity, and mission for all.

The Romanian Orthodox Church has seen significant growth in these islands in recent years (Photograph: Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Ireland and Iceland)

On Sunday 14 September, on the patronal Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Bishop Nectarie celebrated the Divine Liturgy with diocesan priests and deacons. In his sermon, he recalled Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, who said that ‘the bishop is the guardian of apostolic faith and the visible sign of Christ’s presence in the Church and in society.’

The Romanian Orthodox Church has seen significant growth in these islands in recent years, and official figures show there are more than 50,000 Romanians in Ireland and about 2,800 in Iceland.

Hundreds of Romanian and Irish people attended the celebrations, including representatives of the Romanian Embassy in Ireland. ‘This is not just a real estate acquisition, but a restoration of the sense of home for thousands of Romanians in Ireland,’ Father Călin Florea said.

The West Doors of the former Christ Church, Leeson Park, Dublin (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Showing respect for the Cross on Holy Cross Day and taking to heart the meaning of the flag

The icon of the Elevation of the Holy Cross in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford on Holy Cross Day this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

Today has been a rain-soaked day and has been Holy Cross Day. We marked this day in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford at Choral Evensong last night and at the Parish Eucharist this morning (14 September 2025).

I also attended the Divine Liturgy in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford this morning, where today’s Feast was marked with Mattins, the Divine Liturgy and the Elevation of the Holy Cross, led by Father Gregory Wellington.

Holy Cross Day is a traditional Orthodox commemoration that I have attended in Greece in previous years in both Preveli and Arkadi monastery in Crete. This day celebrates the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helen in the year 326, followed by her son, the Emperor Constantine, building the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem in the year 335.

During these special services in the Orthodox tradition, the cross is elevated and venerated. It is traditional to bring sweet basil to church, as it is said to have grown around the cross. The cross is then placed on a bed of basil, and people receive blessed sprigs of basil sprigs after the liturgy.

This reverence of the Cross last night and today is in sharp contrast to the misuse, abuse, and (dare I say) the desecration of the Cross in recent weeks, when the Cross of Saint George has been used as a symbol of exclusion and hate up and down the land, and especially at yesterday’s far-right displays in central London.

Please do not get me wrong. There are appropriate times to fly the flag with the Cross of Saint George and, perhaps, even to be proud of it. It is appropriate to fly a flag with the cross on it from church towers, especially on Easter Day, Saint George’s Day, Sundays – indeed, on an any day.

This flag flies each day at the top of the tower of Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church in Stony Stratford, and it should never be conceded to or hijacked by political extremists, who have no understanding of the Cross as a symbol of love, forgiveness, personal sacrifice, compassion, inclusion and new life.

It is appropriate to fly the flag outside pubs with names like the Old George or the George and Dragon. In other words, the flag can be a sign of welcome and inclusion.

It is appropriate to fly the flag this evening to celebrate England’s win over Scotland in the Women’s World Cup quarter final.

But it is not – and never should be allowed to become – a symbol of exclusion, of racism, of hatred.

The cross is found on the flag of many European nations, including Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and – depending on how you look at them – the flags of Malta and Slovakia. There are even those who would make the Cross of Saint Patrick the flag of Ireland.

It reflects the historical and cultural legacies of those nations and states, but was never intended to exclude others. The flag of the United Kingdom, in all its contortions and complexity, was designed not as symbol of imperialism or triumphalism, but to express hope of harmony between the nations of England, Scotland and Ireland.

The far-right flag flyers seem to be unaware of this symbolism too. But they also seem to be unable to realise that hanging a flag at half-mast is a sign of mourning, and flying a flag upside down is a sign of distress.

Many of them cannot tell the difference between the flag of England and the flags of Denmark and Switzerland, or between the flag of England and the flag of Georgia.

As they painted the cross on roundabouts and road crossings, they were inviting motorists to drive on the cross and pedestrians to walk on the cross. How many of them ever heard of the countless Christians who were martyred for their refusal to walk on the cross and to trample it underfoot.

Father Gregory Wellington elevates the Cross in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford on Holy Cross Day this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

The sprig of fresh basil I took home from this morning’s liturgy are filling our kitchen with sweet aromas this evening, and the words of the liturgy are still echoing in my ears.

In the Epistle reading in the Orthodox liturgy today (I Corinthians 1: 18-24), Saint Paul says ‘the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.’

In his notes on today’s readings, prepared for the Ecumenical Patriarchate Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, Father Gregory writes: ‘We are … called to emulate Christ in self-sacrificial love towards God and towards our neighbour … We need … to act charitably to our neighbour, give of our time and talents, help those around us, and spread Christ’s message.’

And that is showing true respect for the Cross on the flags of England and the United Kingdom.

Father Gregory Wellington processes the basil through the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford on Holy Cross Day this morning (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Daily prayer in Ordinary Time 2025: 127, Sunday 14 September 2025, Holy Cross Day (Trinity XIII)

The Elevation of the Holy Cross … an icon in the Monastery of Arkadi in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Patrick Comerford

We are continuing in Ordinary Time in the Church Calendar and today is Holy Cross Day and the Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity XIII, 14 September 2025).

I hope to be at the Parish Eucharist in Saint Mary and Saint Giles Church, Stony Stratford, later this morning, and afterwards I may visit the Greek Orthodox Church on London Road, Stony Stratford, where the traditional feast is being celebrated with Mattins, Divine Liturgy and the elevation of the Holy Cross.

Before today begins, however, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:

1, today’s Gospel reading;

2, a reflection on the Gospel reading;

3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;

4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.

The Elevation of the Holy Cross … an icon in Analipsi Church in Georgioupoli in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

John 3.13–17 (NRSVA):

[Jesus said to Nicodemus] 13 ‘No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.’

The Elevation of the Holy Cross … an icon in the Greek Orthodox Church in Stony Stratford (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2024)

Today’s Reflection:

The cross on which Christ was crucified has become the universal symbol of Christianity, replacing the Ichthus or fish symbol of the early Church. After the early persecutions ended, early in the fourth century, pilgrims began to travel to Jerusalem to visit the places associated with the life of Christ. Saint Helena, the mother of the emperor, was a Christian and, while she was overseeing excavations in the city, it is said, she uncovered a cross she believed to be the Cross of Christ. A basilica was built on the site of the Holy Sepulchre and dedicated on this day, 14 September 335.

Nicodemus only appears in Saint John’s Gospel, and in this morning’s Gospel reading (John 3: 13-17) we read the first of his three appearances. He is a leading Jew of the day, a Pharisee and a rabbi, a doctor of the law, a member of the ruling Sanhedrin. He comes to visit Jesus at night, and he comes with a bundle of questions.

But, despite his erudite learning, he finds it difficult to understand the answers Christ gives. Yet, it is all so simple: ‘God so loved the world …’ (verse 16).

In fact, what Jesus says here is deeply profound. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras was born on the island of Samos, the neighbouring island of Patmos, the island where Saint John spent his time in exile.

Most of us know about Pythagoras because of his calculations about right-angle triangles. But he also provides an insight into one of the key concepts in Saint John’s writings. His understanding of the cosmos (κόσμος) includes the earth, the planets, the stars, the whole created order.

It is an idea derived from the mathematician and philosopher, Pythageros of Samos. In Pythagorean thinking, the cosmos (κόσμος) includes the arrangement of the stars, ‘the heavenly hosts’ as the ornament of the heavens (see I Peter 3: 3). It is not just the whole world, but the whole universe, the whole created order. It is earth and all that encircles the earth like its skin.

It is as if everything is wrapped into and lives within God’s skin, that we live in God’s womb, and it is there that God loves us. It is not that God so loved the saved, or men, or humanity, or even the world. What Christ says here is that God so loved the cosmos, the whole created order, that he gave, or rather sent, his only-begotten Son.

This key phrase is often translated as ‘God so loved the world’ (John 3: 16). Indeed, in China, I was shocked to see this verse translated into Chinese in a way that it means ‘God so loved humanity’ … ‘that he gave his only Son.’

The original text tells us that God so loved the κόσμος – the whole pulsating, created order as imagined by Pythagoras and the philosophers – God so loved the cosmos that he sent his only son … [Οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ Θεὸς τὸν κόσμον, ὥστε τὸν Υἱὸν τὸν μονογενῆ ἔδωκεν …] Not that he gave insipidly, but that he sent actively, sent him on a mission.

Nicodemus is a little nonplussed, but he comes back again and again, a second time (John 7: 45-51) and a third time (John 19: 39-42), and the third encounter is on Good Friday.

When Christ dies on the Cross, and the women come to bury him, Joseph of Arimathea provides the grave (Matthew 27: 57; Mark 15: 43; Luke 23: 50-56; John 19: 39-40), and Nicodemus steps forward to provide the customary embalming spices, and he assists them in preparing the body of Christ for burial (John 19: 39-42).

Nicodemus brings a mixture of myrrh and aloes, estimated at about 33 kg, to embalm Christ’s body. In his book Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week, the late Pope Benedict XVI observes that ‘the quantity of the balm is extraordinary and exceeds all normal proportions. This is a royal burial.’

So, in the story of Nicodemus, we find birth is linked with death, new birth is linked with new life, and before darkness falls Nicodemus really comes to possess the Body of Christ, to hold the Body of Christ in his hands, and in anointing him to recognise him as priest, prophet and king.

If being a priest is about presenting God through Christ to the world in word and sacrament, and presenting the world through the Christ to God in word and sacrament, then Nicodemus both receives and presents the Body of Christ, in a very Eucharistic way, and is a model for priesthood.

But we could say the same too of the women who seek to comfort and console Christ as he carries his cross to Calvary, who stay with him at the Crucifixion, who bury him, and who at great personal risk set off early on Easter morning to anoint his body, not knowing then that the Cross is not the end of the Christ story, but that it reaches its climax at the Resurrection.

The Body of Christ is the Church. Nicodemus claims his place in the Church. He acts on his faith. But he could never have known what the consequences would be for him, for the Church and for the world because he first came to Jesus in the dark, because he engaged with the fact that this Jesus would die, because he claimed the Body of Christ and because he engaged in an Epiphany-like moment, revealing that the Christ who became his teacher, the Christ who was to be betrayed, the Christ who was executed, is also the Risen Christ.

Saint Constantine and Saint Helen hold the Holy Cross … an icon in the church in Arkadi Monstery in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Today’s Prayers (Sunday 14 September 2025, Holy Cross Day and Trinity XIII):

The theme this week (14 to 20 September) in Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Standing in Solidarity with the Church in Myanmar’ (pp 38-39). This theme is introduced today with a programme update from Rachael Anderson, former Senior Communications and Engagement Manager, USPG:

The Revd Canon Dr Duncan Dormor, General Secretary, and the Revd Davidson Solanki, Senior Regional Manager for Asia and the Middle East, recently visited Myanmar (Burma) to offer solidarity to our sisters and brothers. As many will know, Myanmar is grappling with a prolonged and deeply complex civil war. Two-thirds of the country is controlled by forces opposing the government, and an estimated three million people have been forced from their homes, fleeing from one region to another in search of safety.

Despite the turmoil and uncertainty, the Church continues to do an extraordinary job – especially in the field of education. Across every diocese, dedicated leaders are running education projects, offering not just schooling but also theological and health education.

This vital work faces significant challenges. USPG understands that the government’s recent introduction of military conscription for 18-year-old men means that many young people are seeking opportunities abroad to avoid being forced into combat – sometimes against their own communities. Even the Church’s own teachers and ordinands risk being conscripted as well.

‘It was a unique privilege to meet with the Church of the Province of Myanmar’s House of Bishops and to offer support and partnership in these challenging times. In the face of such adversity, we witnessed remarkable courage and compassion.

‘We were deeply moved by the love and generous hospitality offered by sisters and brothers in the Church of the Province of Myanmar (Anglican)’ concluded the Revd Davidson Solanki.

The response of the Church in Myanmar is to continue to find the light in the darkest of times.

The USPG Prayer Diary today (Sunday 14 September 2025, Holy Cross Day and Trinity XIII) invites us to pray:

Today, we lift up Holy Cross Theological College, the only provincial Bible school in the Church of the Province of Myanmar. In the midst of conflict and uncertainty, we pray that it may continue to train faithful leaders, unite your Church, and shine your light.

The Collect:

Almighty God,
who in the passion of your blessed Son
made an instrument of painful death
to be for us the means of life and peace:
grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ
that we may gladly suffer for his sake;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

The Post Communion Prayer:

Faithful God,
whose Son bore our sins in his body on the tree
and gave us this sacrament to show forth his death until he comes:
give us grace to glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for he is our salvation, our life and our hope,
who reigns as Lord, now and for ever.

Yesterday’s reflections

Continued tomorrow

The Emperor Constantine and Saint Helena hold the Holy Cross … a fresco in Piskopianó in Crete (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org

Saint Constantine and Saint Helen hold the Holy Cross … an icon in the church in Panormos, east of Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)