On the first Sunday in April, April 1,  First Sunday Liturgies resumed for the Christchurch Orthodox with an 11 am service at Cathedral Grammar Chapel, on the corner of Chester Street West and Park Terrace, by the Avon. (attendance and communicants:  14,12) A second Liturgy was held on May 6 and again the attendance and communicants were (14,12).

 This was the first of a series on the first Sunday of the month: May 6, June 3, and July 1.  The matter has now been confirmed by the new Headmaster who began in the second term. Two baptisms have were held after the Liturgy on June 3.  After some discussion it has been agreed to move the time to the fourth Sunday in each month,  so that the away Sundays are the second and fourth, and the Sundays at Ashley the first and third. This began on Sunday, July 22, ( the Feast of S. Mary Magdalene).  The arrangement has now been confirmed with the Headmaster up to October, and the dates for Metropolitan Paul's visit now being clear (November 9-18) we have a date for a Saturday Liturgy at 10.30 am  on November 17, also in the Cathedral Grammar Chapel, cnr Park Tce and Chester St West.

 By holding a monthly series up to August we hoped to revive the English Language Liturgies of S. John Chrysostom which enjoyed some support in the 80s but dwindled in the mid-90s. The figures given above, together with 16 for the Liturgy and 26 for the baptisms in June, 10 on July 1 and 9 on July 22, can be described as moderately encouraging. Greater attendances would be even more encouraging, and it would be a help if collections rose to cover the $50 which we are donating to the school for each  service.

 The 11 am mass was attended by two families (8 present, 4 communicants) followed by a very happy celebration in the Rectory. The regular 9.45 am Sunday masses have been somewhat better attended and it is no longer usual for Fr Jack and Mother Julia to be alone in the Church.

 John was Vicar of Akaroa in the 60s, and became Orthodox after visiting the Serbian monastery at Kiwitea. In spite of his geographical isolation he was important to the New Zealand Orthodox, and  his spiritual writing was much appreciated. His wife Kathleen died last year, and in both cases Fr Ilyan went up to conduct the funeral. Fortunately it was possible for Fr Ambrose to drive up, accompanied by Fr Jack, to see him in the week before his death, and Fr Ambrose was able to give him Holy Communion.

 Fr Nabil's services on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were well supported:
attendances were 15, 27, 35, 20, and 41.  Fr Jack's English services in Lower Hutt had (6,6), (12,7), (6,6).  People seem to be very happy about how things went.

 Fr Jack's  May visit included a Mass on Saturday, May 12 (6,6) at the Nields' house, and a Liturgy  in the Harache living-room (21,10).

 We are now able to announce that negotiations for a Chapel  to use have been successful and owing to the kindness of the Cardinal and the College Trust Board, we have permission to use the Chapel at S. Patrick's College, Kilbirnie.  The time of the LITURGY on Sunday, June 10, was 10.00 am,  with about 20 people present. An afternoon Mass was held at the Nields' on Saturday, with 6 present. In July the figures for Saturday and Sunday were 6 and 21.

   The same times will be observed for the succeeding visits on the second Sunday of the month, which means that Fr Jack will arrive at 9.30 am and begin the proskomide; anyone wanting to make confession is welcome to approach the altar during this time, as was done in Holy Week. The Saturday mass will depend for its time on on the character of the day. Details from Dr Nield..

  We have returned to previous flight times with Air NZ for convenience: Fr Jack will be in Wellington from Friday evening to Sunday evening.

 The planned services for two months at a time, including both the daily services at Ashley, and the services planned in Christchurch and in Wellington, can be found on the website by clicking on:
 the Services, &c    on the front page.
                (   Full address: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/frjack/Ashley.html   }

 VALENCIA, Spain, APR. 12, 2001 (Zenit.org).- Carbon-14 tests that dated the Shroud of Turin to the Middle Ages were invalid, a researcher said today.
 Jorge Manuel Rodríguez, vice president of the Centro Español de indonología, said that all scientific studies prove the invalidity of the carbon-14 dating of the holy Shroud of Turin. Many of the faithful believe the shroud to be Jesus' burial linen mentioned in the Gospel.
 His announcement came in the wake of a Spanish TV report Wednesday on new research which shows that another shroud, venerated for 1,000 years in the Cathedral of Oviedo, Spain, is probably the cloth that covered Christ's head after his crucifixion.
 Rodríguez, also a professor of civil law at the University of Valencia, has been studying the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin for 24 years. He told ZENIT that, "according to scientific research carried out on this relic, it is far more probable that it belonged to Jesus Christ than to any other man."
 Likewise, Rodríguez maintains that "there are scientific proofs that show that the holy shroud is not a falsification, which explains why no one has been able to make a replica."
 The professor, who has given more than 500 lectures on the Shroud of Turin, acknowledged that "the majority of people think that it is a false relic, because of the enormous publicity given to the carbon-14 dating done in 1988, which concluded erroneously that the holy shroud dates from the Middle Ages."
 On the contrary, "subsequent rectifications published by the same scientists who carried out the analysis ... acknowledged the invalidity of the application of the carbon-14 method, as the fabric was contaminated by the gases of the fire that the holy shroud was exposed to, and by organisms like
lichens and mushrooms."
 The Centro Español here is studying the Shroud of Turin, the Oviedo shroud, and other relics attributed to Jesus Christ.
 Rodríguez concluded that there is statistical evidence based on "rigorous studies of the characteristics of the cloth and its image, which shows a probability as low as 200-billion-to-1 that it is not an authentic relic of Christ."
 The last multidisciplinary study of the Shroud of Turin, carried out by NASA experts in 1978, indicated "the cloth shows an image that has tridimensional information, that is made without a single stroke, and that is not produced by contact either, but which resembles the imprint that would be produced by a hypothetical radiation emanating from the body," Rodríguez said.
 In fact, "no image is known with these features. We don't even know how to reproduce them today. They, together with the imprint on the cloth, accurately describes Jesus' stigmas as related in the Gospel, reinforcing the theory that the holy shroud belongs to Christ."

 Meanwhile, TV station "Antena 3" said that other research indicates that the relic in Oviedo, in northwest Spain, also has amazing points of coincidence with the Shroud of Turin.
 For 12 years a multidisciplinary team of 40 scientists applied modern techniques, used in criminal investigations, on the Oviedo relic. The forensic experts discovered human bloodstains of the AB group, identical to those on the Shroud of Turin.
 The blood belongs to a man who died crucified, after being brutally mistreated. The cloth also revealed traces of the crown of thorns, pollen remains of native Palestinian plants, and a host of details and coincidences, which indicate that the man of the Oviedo relic is the same
one as the one of the Shroud of Turin.
 The features of Christ's face, which can be reconstructed from the relic, have nothing in common with those described recently by a British doctor in a BBC program. They do, however, coincide with the face on the Shroud of Turin.
 The Goya Productions Program included statements of more than a dozen experts of several universities and research centers.
 The experts said that the Shroud of Turin could not be dated in the 14th century, as carbon-14 tests indicated, since it covered the same body as the Oviedo relic, whose existence was documented several centuries earlier.
 A more comprehensive version of the program will be on sale May 1 in domestic video. Copies may be obtained from Goya Producciones, C/Goya 19, 28001 Madrid, Spain. E-mail:     goya-producciones@wanadoo.es.

 The shroud, widely believed to have been the burial cloth of Jesus, was subjected to new scanning
techniques last November, and results of the tests were first scrutinized by a symposium of scientists.
Cardinal Severino Spoletto, archbishop of Turin, released the news of the tests.

  In 1534, two years after a fire damaged the shroud, Poor Clare nuns added a linen lining to the cloth to mend the damage. That allowed only one side of the relic to be seen. The recent  examination, carried out with a scanner, revealed bloodstains on the reverse side, indicating that the image was not copied.

 "This is a confirmation of the unfounded character of the hypothesis formulated in the past, according to which the image of the holy shroud was formed by combustion, namely, by the warming of an image wrapped in the cloth," explained Monsignor Giuseppe Ghiberti, vice president of the
Commission for the Exposition of the Shroud.

  Experiments which have reproduced this technique have always left traces on the reverse of the
fabric -- something that does not happen in the case of the Shroud of Turin.

  Paolo Soardo of the Galileo Ferraris Italian Institute carried out the scanning of the reverse of the
shroud, which no one had seen in more than 450 years.

  In the one-week study, done in the sacristy of the new cathedral, a flat scanner was introduced
between the shroud and the linen lining. This made possible the photographing of the central band,
and yielded the unique images, Monsignor Ghiberti said.

 The photographs show bloodstains from the wounds in the feet, legs, hands and arms.

 The color and black-and-white pictures will be published in two volumes: one for the general public
and one for experts.

  Readers of  SPOTLIGHT may remember reports of a proposal being promoted from the Vatican  to achieve a universal date for Easter. According to these sources, the Vatican was seeking  to consult with the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow (the largest Orthodox Church still using the Old Calendar) concerning a proposal to unify the calendars by an agreement by which Rome would change its date of Easter, and Moscow its calendar for the fixed feasts, bringing both into line with the practice of the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and other Orthodox Churches since the 1920s. It was further hoped that this would be achieved  by 2001, when the Easters coincide already, so that they would continue to do so every year.  We also reported that Moscow was avoiding any meeting with the Roman Catholics because of what it considers to be Uniate proselytism in the Ukraine.

 The year 2001 is two-thirds over, and no report of any agreement has been received. The monthly magazine of the CCANZ, Ecustics, recently referred to this subject and opined that division over the date of Easter was a scandal. We may be permitted to observe that such a difference existed in the early centuries while the Church was visibly one communion; and that, while ecumenically minded  churches cannot agree over the Resurrection of Christ itself, the Divinity of Christ, His Virgin Birth, the existence of God, life after death, and other such basic matters, the Calendar is perhaps not all that urgent for agreement.

 In any case, it is clear that in the proposals as reported through Internet sources no change was  being proposed in the practice of our Antiochian Church, but only that others should adopt it. Meanwhile, in June the monthly Newsletter of our Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia  and New Zealand contains a reference to the reports that have been circulating. For us, this is decisive, and very clear, and so we reproduce it in full without further comment:

  "There has been much talk about the celebration of Easter together with the other Christian Churches. His Eminence wishes the faithful to know that the truth is:

 1. This topic was not discussed during the Pope's visit to Syria;
 2. Such a decision needs a Pan-Orthodox Council meeting and no such meeting was held;
 3. Any talk or discussion about joint celebration of Easter is false.
 4. Only His Eminence Metropolitan Archbishop Paul Saliba of our Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia and New Zealand is authorized to inform you about any religious matter."

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