Church of St. Edward the Martyr, Brookwood facts for kids

The church from the southwest

St. Edward the Martyr Orthodox Church is a True Orthodox Church in Brookwood, Surrey, England.

The monastic Saint Edward Brotherhood was established at Brookwood Cemetery in 1982 to prepare and care for a new Church in a fitting grade I landscape in which the relics of Saint Edward the Martyr were eventually enshrined in 1988, the King of England who was murdered in 978 and who was succeeded by force by Ethelred the Unready. It has two communities:

• A small monastic community who chant the services of the church daily at the shrine
• Orthodox Christians who form a mission parish. These Christians supplement the congregation on Sundays and feast days.

St. Edward's is part of the Church of the Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece (GOC), a Greek Old Calendarists True Orthodox Church headed by Archbishop Kallinikos of Athens. It became part of this jurisdiction in 2014 following the merger of the Orthodox Church of Greece (Holy Synod in Resistance), of which it had been a part since leaving the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 2007, with the GOC.

Plaque on the exterior wall to John Edward Wilson-Claridge, who recovered the remains of Edward the Martyr

The church follows the Julian calendar and does not maintain communion with the mainstream Eastern Orthodox Church. This church is in communion with the Old Calendar Orthodox Churches of Bulgaria and Romania and that part of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia which did not unite with the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow. In May 2007 it represented nearly one million traditionalist Orthodox Christians.

This is a scholarly branch of Eastern Christianity which maintains it follows original doctrines of Christianity. The Brotherhood and church body look in their lives to the spiritual heritage and example of the Russian Orthodox peoples and the many saints of Britain, particularly those of the formative Kingdom of England who lived in the first ten centuries after the life of Christ.

Transport links

Rail

The church is 600 m south-east of Brookwood railway station via a main path.

Road

The church is 6 miles (10 km) south of Junction 3 of the M3 and is close to the gates of the country's largest cemetery, on the A322 road.

Gallery

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  The Shrine of St Edward the Martyr

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  The baptismal font

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  The iconostasis