St. Anthony the Great Orthodox Church: Who We Are

Who We Are

We are a Eucharistic Community of the Diocese of Sourozh, under the episcopal authority of Bishop BASIL of Sergievo, who, in 2003, succeeded Metropolitan ANTHONY (Bloom) of blessed memory. Our pastor is Fr Seraphim Vanttinen-Newton.

Until November 2004, we were located in Herefordshire, principally worshipping near Ross-on-Wye. We have now moved our services to the village of Bentham, between Gloucester and Cheltenham.

The Patron of our Community is St Antony the Great, the father of monasticism, who lived from 251-356.

Sourozh is the diocese of the Russian Orthodox Patriarchal Church in Great Britain and Ireland. The Patron of our diocese is St Stephen the Confessor, an 8th century archbishop from the Crimea who was tortured and imprisoned under the iconoclast Byzantine emperor Leo III.

Though we are Russian by jurisdiction, all of our services are in English.

We follow the New Calendar.