About
Our bishop
A bishop is the chief shepherd of the church across a whole region, and every Orthodox parish belongs to one. Ours is Metropolitan Silouan (Oner) of the British Isles and Ireland.
Metropolitan of the British Isles and Ireland
Metropolitan Silouan (Oner)
Metropolitan Silouan was born in Latakia, Syria, in 1970, and was an engineer before he was a theologian — taking a degree in mechanical engineering before studying theology at the St John of Damascus Institute at Balamand in Lebanon, and completing a doctorate at Thessaloniki in Greece.
He served for fifteen years as priest, pastor and preacher in Latakia, worked from his youth in the Orthodox Youth Movement — the great renewing force of modern Antiochian church life — and was abbot of the Patriarchal Monastery of St George al-Humayra. Consecrated a bishop in Syria on 30 August 2015, he was enthroned as Metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of the British Isles and Ireland at the Cathedral of St George, London, on 27 February 2016.
What a bishop is
In the Orthodox Church a bishop is not an administrator at a distance: he is the successor of the apostles for his diocese — the regional family of parishes in his care — and the Church in each place is simply the people of God gathered around him. (“Metropolitan”, “Archbishop” and “Patriarch” are all bishops: the titles mark seniority, and the Patriarch is the most senior of all.)
The bishop ordains the clergy, teaches the faith, and knits each parish into the one Church: through Metropolitan Silouan we belong to the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch under Patriarch John X — and through Antioch, to the Orthodox Church throughout the world. When he visits us, the fullness of the Church is gathered in one small building on Staveley Street.
“Where the bishop is, there let the people be; just as where Jesus Christ is, there is the catholic Church.” — St Ignatius of Antioch, martyred c. AD 107
(“Catholic” here keeps its original meaning: the whole, universal Church.)
More about the parish
Our priests
Father George, our Parish Priest, and Father Thomas, our Assistant Priest.
Our patron saints
St Columba of Iona and St Kentigern of Glasgow.
Our history
Thirty years of Orthodox life in Doncaster.
In memoriam
Remembering the departed clergy of this parish.
The Church of Antioch
The ancient church family we belong to.