Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland
ABOUT US
Belonging, Believing, Living
The Parish
The Orthodox Community of St Aidan in Manchester was founded in 1995 and moved into its present premises in Levenshulme in June 1996, the church being consecrated in October.
We use English exclusively in all our services. For the Orthodox originally from other countries, English is everyone's second language if not a common first tongue. St Aidan's, therefore, has always attracted a diverse and multicultural community.
The mission of St Aidan's is to reach out to the people of Manchester and beyond with the proclamation of the gospel and community service. This is primarily energised by holiness of life and a good Christian education in the Faith which gives people great confidence in witnessing to Christ.
​
St Aidan's is funded by our registered Charitable trust: St Theodore Ecclesiastical Trust No. 1029085 (Charity Commission for England and Wales).
The Archdiocese
From humble beginnings in the early 1980's with the founding of our first and cathedral community of St George in London, then the reception of a handful of new church plants across the nation in 1995, the Church of Antioch created the Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland in 2013. Our first resident bishop, Metropolitan Silouan, was installed in February 2016.
​
The Archdiocese now consists of 20 parishes and two smaller missions. We also have a chaplaincy presence in His Majesty's Prison Service.
The Archdiocese supports its parishes in Safeguarding, helping out with large capital projects and in working with the bishop to ensure that we all work together well for the Kingdom of God.
​
The Archdiocese is an incorporated Registered Charity, governed by a Board and served by Committees.
The Church of Antioch
In Antioch (in Asia Minor, now southern Turkey), we were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). Antioch in antiquity was a major commercial centre in the Roman Empire for trade between Mesopotamia (Iraq), further east and to the west. It became a strategic hub and base for St Paul, St Peter (its patron) and other apostles evangelising both eastward and westward. Before the collapse of the Roman Empire in in the 5th century it had missionised from Georgia in the north to Arabia in the south and across the Middle East from Cyprus to the Fertile Crescent.
Antioch produced great luminary saints, bishops and teachers of the Church - John Chrysostom, Efrem of Syria and John of Damascus among many. After the servitude and constraints of the Ottoman yoke, the Church of Antioch breathed more freely again and in the modern era, it has seeded new communities right across the globe.
Antioch's primary directive has always been to preach and live out wherever the wind of the Holy Spirit takes her.