Храм св. Дунстана, архиепископа Кентерберийского (Пуле, Борнмут)

The early history of Christianity in England is marked by sharp fluctuations. Soon after the Romans withdrew from the island, staunchly heathen Anglo-Saxons virtually obliterated all traces of the first Christian communities planted by St. Joseph of Arimathea and Apostle Saint DunstanAristubules and watered by the martyric blood of St. Alban and others. The vigorous missionary thrusts of the sixth and seventh centuries-effected in the north by Celtic monks from Ireland, and in the south by St Augustine and his followers from Rome—-ushered in a golden age which saw the establishment of many great monastic houses and centers of learning—Iona, Lindesfarne, Wearmouth—and provided England with some of her most illustrious saints: Columba, Alden, Oswald, Cuthbert, Bede, the holy abbesses Hilda and Etheldreda. In the ninth century paganism against raised its head. Raiding Norsemen ravaged monasteries, burning their libraries; the interests of war eclipsed the interests of the Church, and spiritual life declined, hastened by the dissolution of the monastic ideal. Then, once again, the tide began to turn. It was just at this time that the Anglo Saxon Chronicle records the birth of St. Dunstan, a key figure in England’s subsequent recovery of Christianity, a magnificent flowering beforeSaint Dunstan its unfortunate departure with Rome into schism in 1054.
Although the Chronicle gives 925 as the year of St. Dunstan’s birth, most historians place it somewhat earlier, c. 910, on the basis of the fact that from 940-45 he was attached to the court of King Edmund as a priest, a rank which required that he be at least thirty year old.

St. Dunstan was born into a noble Wessex family whose property lay close by Glastonbury Abbey. Although monastic life was scarcely in evidence, Glastonbury’s tradition as Britain’s oldest Christian settlement still attracted numerous pilgrims, and its well-stocked library accounted for some Irish scholars in residence. There Dunstan received a good education before joining his uncle Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, at the court of King Athelstan. Another relative, Aelfheah «the Bald,» who later became Bishop of Winchester, encouraged the youth to become a monk. Dunstan had his eyes on marriage, but he became afflicted with a skin disease which he feared was leprosy, and when he recovered he acted upon his relative’s suggestion and was tonsured.Saint Dunstan
Returning to Glastonbury, Dunstan built a small cell adjoining the «Old Church,» and there he occupied himself with prayer, study and manual labor, showing a talent for fine metal work in his crafting of bells and church vessels. (In the Roman Church tradition, he became the patron sSaint Dunstanaint of goldsmiths and jewelers.) His musical ability was reflected in the hymns he composed. He also spent time in the scriptorium, copying and illuminating manuscripts. Among his peers, he was considered to be a mystic. Nurtured partly in the strictly ascetic Celtic tradition, he concentrated on the inner spiritual warfare and wrestled with visible demons and heard mysterious, heavenly voices. One of his contemporaries wrote that when he sang at the altar he seemed to be talking with the Lord face to face.

Athelstan’s successor, King Edmund, recalled Dunstan to the court as a priest, but jealousy soon conspired to disgrace the monk. He was about to leave the country when the King, in a narrow brush with death while out hunting, had a sudden revelation of Dunstan’s innocence. In making amends, he granted Dunstan some land and, in 943, appointed him abbot of Glastonbury, charging him with the renewal of its monastic life.
One of Dunstan’s first steps as abbot was to reintroduce monastic discipline using the Rule of St. Benedict (+ 547). He enlarged the church and other buildings and bolstered the abbey’s reputation as a center of learning. Students at the school were taught by professed monks and were expected to participate in the daily monastic observances. This preparation provided a good crop of candidates for monasticism. Soon Glastonbury became a spearhead for a widespread monastic revival.

The period of St. Dunstan’s reforms coincided providentially with a change in England’s political fortunes: the death of Eric «Bloodaxe» of Norway in the late 940’s opened the possibility for England’s unification, and the country entered a quarter century of peace. Dunstan continued to enjoy royal patronage under Edmund’s successor, Eadred (946-55) and, as one of his closest advisors, he helped to conciliate the Danes.Saint Dunstan
As a statesman, Dunstan’s zeal for moral reform and his promotion of monastic interests were resented by some of the West Saxon nobles, and they were only too glad when he was exiled by King Eadwig, although the king’s motive was hardly political: the 16 year-old monarch had slipped away from his coronation banquet and was severely chastised by Abbot Dunstan—no respecter of persons—when he found him sequestered in a room with two women, mother and daughter, both making overtures with an eye to marriage. Resentful of such a reproof, Eadwig deprived Dunstan of his property and forced him out of the country, casting uncertainty over the future of England’s monastic revival.

Dunstan found refuge in a monastery in Ghent, where he scarcely had time to observe the reformed type of continental monasticism before he was recalled to England by Eadwig’s half-brother Edgar («the Peaceable», 959-75), who had been elected ruler by the Mercians and Northumbrians. It was Edgar’s ambition to restore all the great monasteries of England, and the partnership of these two ardent reformers shifted the monastic revival into high gear. Dunstan became successively Bishop of Worcester and London, and, in 960, after Eadwig’s death, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Monarch and hierarch were assisted in their’ campaign by two very able and saintly men: Ethelwold and Oswald of York. It was Ethelwold who was primarily responsible for drawing up the Regularis Concordia (c. 970), a common rule for monasteries. The English reformers were not innovators; the rule followed closely that of St. Benedict. >From it there emerges a picture of the rigorous daily life of a tenth-century English monk: in winter he was roused Saint Dunstanat 2:30 AM for the first service of the day; two hours each morning were occupied in manual labor, the rest of the day was devoted to the cycle of services; five hours a day were spent in prayer, psalms singing and scriptural reading; the day ended at 6:30 PM. In summer the day was extended by an hour at each end.

There were, however, some unique features in the English rule: prayers were offered daily for the king, and an attempt was made to integrate monasteries into the life of the people. It was Dunstan’s aim that the monastic reform should encourage personal piety among the laity as well, and he attached great importance to the monastic schools.
As Edgar’s advisor, Dunstan persuaded him to defer his coronation until he reached the age of thirty. Dunstan himself composed the rite, shifting the emphasis from the crowing to the anointing, which gave it a sacred character and suggested strong parallels to the consecration of a priest, forging a mystical link with the ancient Hebrews and cementing the relationship between Church and Crown. It is said that Dunstan attended to all the details of the service, down to making the crown, its four equal sides representing the City of God. The form of the rite is still used in the coronation of England’s kings

After Edgar’s untimely death, Dunstan continued as advisor to his teen-age son Edward. But resentment at the Crown’s extensive land grants to the Church inspired a certain anti-monastic faction of nobles to support Edward’s more malleable younger brother Ethelred. Edward was viciously murdered and Dunstan withdrew from the affairs of state to concentrate on his pastoral duties there at Canterbury and his personal service to God. Even as he grew old, it was his delight to teach the boys of the cathedral school. He was, it seems, a gentle master. and after his death the boys would invoke the aid of their «sweet Father Dunstan» to mitigate the corporal punishment which was so readily meted out in those days.
After celebrating the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of Ascension, 988, St. DunstanSaint Dunstan preached a sermon in which he foretold that within the next three days he would die. He indicated the place he wished to be buried and, on the second day, May 19, after having communed of the Holy Mysteries, his soul departed to the Lord. His last words, according to tradition, were those of the Psalmist: The merciful and gracious Lord hath made a remembrance of His marvelous works; He hath given food to them that fear Him.

In the Chronicle, the entry for 988 says simply «In this year…the holy Archbishop Dunstan departed this life and attained the heavenly.»
This glorious chapter in England’s Orthodox heritage, in which St. Dunstan figured so prominently, gives the impression «of a religion of the sprat rather than of the letter, of a church not noted for its rigid enforcement of ecclesiastical discipline and. given its heritage from the Celtic Church and the size of its still not fully assimilated Scandinavian population, retaining much of that pastoral character of a missionary church whose first duty was that of patient conversion»
(LC.B, Seaman, A New History of England: 410 1975)

Born in Bristol in 1954, Fr. Chrysostom was brought to his Mother’s home, Ireland, to be baptized Charles Leonard at the age of two months. Brought up in an Anglican family, his parents, Charles and Pat, ran a pub in Bristol and then, in Clevedon, Somerset. In 1973, he began his degree in Theology at Bristol University. Graduating in 1976, he trained for the Anglican ordained ministry at Ripon College, Cuddesdon (Oxford). In 1978 he married Mo (Maureen), a teacher, soon after his ordination. For sixteen years he served as an Anglican minister in Swindon, Bristol and Cornwall. It was in Cornwall that their daughter, Eleanor, was born.

It was whilst in Cornwall that Father’s long-standing interest in Orthodox Christianity had time to develop. Finding time for study, especially in the areas of Liturgy and Church History, he was increasingly convinced of the rightness of Orthodoxy and that, correspondingly, the whole western Christian tradition was, in varying degrees, evidently heterodox. As for Anglicanism itself, there was much in its history that might be admired but it was clearly losing its intellectual and moral power. From the Nineteen-Eighties, liberalism in particular was the driving force of the Church of England and with the advent of ‘women- priests’ in 1994 the break was inevitable.

In the early Nineties Father formed the Pilgrimage to Orthodoxy movement that gathered together like-minded clergy. He was soon receiving post from all over Britain from fellow ministers distressed at what had become of the Church of England. These were clergy for whom the allure of the Roman Church did not exist yet they felt at a loss as to what they might do. Many knew very little about the Orthodox Church.

To cut a long story short, in 1994 Father Charles, as he still was and a party of others, led by Michael Harper — elected leader now of the movement, met His Beatitude, Ignatius IV, Patriarch of Antioch in Paris. So began the history of the British Antiochian Deanery with the ordination of priests and the formation of Orthodox communities in various parts of the country.

Taking the name Chrysostom at his Chrismation in April 1995, he was ordained deacon in Paris in September of the same year and priest, a week later. Having left the Church of England, Father trained as a teacher, so was only able to minister in his free time. The small congregation in the Church of St. Petroc and St. Keyna never really developed with its rural location and several members moving out of the area. With the death of Fr. John Nield in Dorset, Fr. Chrysostom was asked to take over his parish at Athelhampton. This proved convenient for family and work reasons and with the help of his deacon, Fr. David, he ministered once again in a rural setting.

It was evident, however, that although it had a beautiful setting, such ‘hidden’ Orthodoxy was not able to contact or attract many who might be searching for the truth of salvation. So, a mission was started in the Poole-Bournemouth conurbation, reflecting the missionary zeal of what had now become the Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the United Kingdom and Ireland. With the ordination of Fr. Deacon David to the priesthood (to serve at Athelhampton), Fr. Chrysostom has now been appointed priest of the new community of St. Dunstan. Gathering in people of Orthodox background, as well as inquirers, the community has now become established as a parish with the Deanery. The Community, originally sited at the old St. Osmund’s church in Poole, is currently worshipping at the church hall belonging to the Roman Catholic parish of St. Edmund Campion at Castlepoint, Bournemouth through the kindness of Fr. Marcus Brisley.

Although he still earns his living through teaching, he is hopeful that this situation might change in the near future. Currently, he is head of Religious Studies at a school in Southampton; his wife, Mo, joining the same school a year later, is now part of the Senior Management Team. During the next academic year (from Sept. ’07) he will be working in school four days as week, leaving Wednesdays free for pastoral work in the parish.

Fr. Chrysostom envisages the new parish as primarily a mission to the English, to enable as many as possible to find the ancient Christian faith of these islands, which was Orthodoxy before the Great Schism of 1054. At the same time, the church needs to bring in those in the town who are Orthodox by historical or ethnic background. This will take a lot of advertising by whatever means possible. The first task, however, is to acquire a building of our own in order to establish as full a round of services as possible, based upon the Lord’s Day. To assist us in this we now have a parish structure with our own account and committee. There are still some items to be obtained for the church in terms of liturgical needs but we are beginning to form a choir. (New sight-reading members are welcome to apply.)

The growth of the parish will happen in God’s good time but the seeds of Orthodoxy have been planted in Poole – Bournemouth. For Father Chrysostom the Nicene Creed could not be clearer: there is only ONE, holy, Catholic and apostolic Church; anything else must be part of a fragmentation. As with the whole Antiochian Orthodox Deanery in Britain, there is a single vision: the Re-hallowing of these islands, calling all into the unity of the One Faith in One Lord.

For information about our mission, please contact Father Chrysostom

Telephone Number 01202 602628

eMail: priest @ Saint-Dunstan.org

Источник: http://www.saint-dunstan.org/