My association with the Eunoia project dates back to my time at Mirfield. Just before I was sent to Portsmouth to be ordained as a deacon, one of the Monks, Fr Nicolas Stebbing came up to me as I was working in the College Library and asked if I’d enjoyed my visit to the Theological Seminary in Transylvania.

It had been a wonderful taster of Romanian life and theology, but cut short for me due to an accident to one of our party and the need for me (as a qualified nurse) to accompany him home. Fr. Nicolas was looking for a deacon who knew of Romania and was interested in youth work, and it might not have been much of a surprise that they had me in mind.

The Eunoia project is a youth mission initiated by a remote Orthodox parish in western Romania, and links us here in the UK with them, through prayer, through financial support and by offering to some of their young people an opportunity to see beyond the horizon, the fields and see what God is calling them to.

Romania is no longer a country filled with HIV-ravaged orphanages, reliant upon shoeboxes of direct aid. However, it remains a desperately poor and underfunded country: 43 years of Communism took a terrible toll on that country and it was in western Romania, in Timisoara itself that the 1989 revolution was born. Romania aims to become an EU country within the next few years, but struggles against corruption, against indolence and apathy and against exploitation.

I was impressed by the determination of Romanians to make the best of what they had, and pull themselves up from their bootstraps; but they lack the tools and sometimes the vision to do that. When I first visited, I brought resources that enabled them to purchase a chainsaw, and with that they built a playground. With less than £30 we bought enough pencils and exercise books to last a class of the most promising children for a year (and how pitiful was that), with an Advent collection of £70 we paid for their fuel to heat the project classroom over the winter.

The Anglican Church and the Romanian Orthodox Church has had an intercommunion agreement since the 1920’s and CR has been involved with Romania for many years, even through the dark days of Communism. Fr. Daniel Sabau is, like me, just a parish priest, an Orthodox with a passion for working with young people. His wife is amazed how alike we are, and how similar our sense of humour is. He is passionately committed to make the Gospel a reality for young people, and our work together in local schools and in the coming together of teenagers has been really fruitful.

When Liam and I leave the UK late on Easter Day, we arrive at the end of Palm Sunday in Romania. Confused? Don’t be – The Orthodox Calendar calculates Easter according to the Jewish Passover, whereas the Western Church uses a different method of calculation to work out when it will be . This means that sometimes the dates will coincide but often they may be a number of weeks apart. This year, they are only a week apart: our Easter Day is their Palm Sunday!

Holy Week in Orthodox Romania promises to be a real experience, a journey similar to our own triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day: culminating in a divine liturgy vigil of Easter which begins at midnight on Easter Day and continues the celebration of the resurrection through the whole day with worship, with feasting and with lots of liver-punishing homemade spirit known as tuiça (pronounced sve-ka).

Like many poor nations, they are generous of spirit, rich in faith and full of the life that God generously gifts to us (John 10:10).

What can we do? Well, we can do something, look beyond our own preoccupations, squabbles and anxieties; look beyond our own building appeal and start working with the wider body of Christ. I plan to once again be able to take some funding out with me, and we have a mechanism to keep money flowing into Romania. We will not therefore be holding the Bishop’s Lent Appeal this year, but channelling our generosity towards Eunoia.

The Sunday School have a special collection which they hope all the grown-ups will join in with as well, and we can make a difference to their lives, through our funding, and our prayers.

If you want to see pictures of Alios, Fr. Daniel has a Parish Blog at http://alios.blogspot.com/

It has lots of images of the village, but unfortunately the text is in Romanian. Maybe we can do something about that when we get there…

Whatever we give will make a difference. You will hear lots more about the Eunoia project  throughout Lent, and I want to encourage you to keep them in our prayers. We have much to learn from them, from the Orthodox understanding of Christianity and from their lives; and they have much to benefit from us, and our prayers.

Fr. Simon

If you really want to know, it is (deep breath) The first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the Spring equinox more information for the mathematically minded can be found at: http://www.ortelius.de/kalender/east_en.php