ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the spirituality of the Orthodox monastic tradition as it is practised in the monastic community of St John the Baptist in Essex. Any visitor who enters the refectory of the Monastery will, without fail, notice a large mural painting representing the Holy Trinity, which is based on the celebrated Rublev’s icon of the three angels at Abraham’s table. The fresco was painted by the founder of the monastery – Fr Sophrony Sakharov. He spent over 20 years as a monk on Mt Athos in Greece and then moved to Europe and finally to the UK, where he established the monastery in 1959, and then spiritually nourished the community until his death in 1993. In this painting there is a remarkable detail: the inscription that quotes the Book of Genesis (1:26): ‘Let us create man in our own image and after our likeness’.
