St John the Wonderworker

Today I passed by St John’s Russian Orthodox Church in Colchester. It's a fairly recent church, it began in 1997 on the fourteen hundredth anniversary of the coming to England of St Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English. The Church is dedicated to St John the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Western Europe. The church building is more than 150 years old and was formerly the Colchester Garrison Church. Now it has become the natural centre for the whole Russian Orthodox Christian community in Essex and Suffolk, gathering over 500 people of more than twenty different nationalities. Their church is home to English, Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Moldovan, Georgian, Cypriot, French, Romanian, Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian members. Interestingly, their website has much on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and also, help for those seeking a husband or a wife.

I have yet to make it inside, but I'm told it has the widest icon-screen (20 metres) in the country, huge, colourful frescoes of Orthodox Christian feasts and saints and 500 icons. I'll get there one day.