January 8, 2015
Religious leaders have joined forces to launch a new service at a Lynn church which they hope will allow more people to worship in the way they wish.
An Orthodox Christian service will now be held each month at the All Saints’ Church in Hillington Square, with the first due to take place this Saturday, January 10.
The church has teamed up with the Church of The Holy Transfiguration in Great Walsingham, which is Norfolk’s main Orthodox church, on the initiative.
Father Adrian Ling, the rector of All Saints, said: “We are keen that All Saints should be used as much as possible.
“It’s a very large and versatile building and we were glad to offer church hospitality.”
The services will be held in the Lady Chapel at the side of All Saints on the second Saturday of each month, between 10.30am and noon.
Although worshippers do travel to Great Walsingham from as far afield as Ipswich and Yarmouth, officials hope that the new service will enable people who are unable to make that journey to attend a service that is more suited to their needs.
A monthly Orthodox service already takes place at the King’s Lynn Minster.
And church member Jeremy Dearling said people of all faiths or none are welcome to attend and see as much or as little of the service as they wish.
He said: “If you don’t turn up on time, it doesn’t matter. If you want to leave before the end, that doesn’t matter.
“As long as you get what you want and need, that’s all we want.”
The services will be led by Father Christopher Knight, the parish priest of the Church of the Holy Transfiguration, and will follow the Russian Orthodox tradition. However, they will be delivered in English.
Unlike Western forms of Christian worship, an Orthodox service is either sung or chanted by choirs or the worshippers themselves.
Although people from many European countries join them, officials say that most of the Great Walsingham congregation is British.
According to the 2005 English Church Census, around one per cent of regular churchgoers in England are Orthodox Christians.
