Archimandrite John (Maitland-Moir) passed away on this day in 2013. Besides teaching nine hours a week, I was traveling on the last two weekends, to Washington D.C. and Erie, PA. This Monday was the deadline for my U.S. taxes. Accordingly, I am grateful to my “co-pilot” Walker (John) Thompson for stepping in and lending me a hand in writing several recent reports. St. Herman’s Calendar is one of my sources for commemorations and events. It was from it that I learned about the topic I am covering here. In 2008, after the International Byzantine Greek Summer School at Queen’s University, Belfast, I went for an intensive session in New Testament Greek offered by the University of Edinburgh. I stayed there at St. Andrew’s Orthodox Church (Ecumenical Patriarchate). I expected to meet up there with Archimandrite Avraamy (Neyman), who used to be a brother of St. Job of Pochaev Monastery in Munich and then the Mid-American Diocese of the ROCOR, but he was off traveling somewhere. I mostly interacted with Fr. Raphael (Pavouris; who is now an assisting bishop with the title of Ilion of the Archdiocese of Thyatira), and briefly with Archimandrite John. Fr. Raphael, a native of Cyprus, was there with his mother, Kyria Themis. When he was giving me a ride to the airport, we talked about the practice in some Orthodox Churches, where laypeople are required to go to confession each time before receiving the Holy Gifts. Fr. Raphael said, “Laypeople often live a purer life than we clergy. How can we require them to do something that we do not ourselves?” (By this, he meant that clergy confess when they feel this is necessary.) This parish impressed me with its Pan-Orthodox ethos. The clergy and chanters conducted services in English, Greek, Romanian, and Church Slavonic. I remember Fr. John praying during the litany after the Gospel for people suffering in the various corners of the world. He also mentioned to me that the wood pews in the church had been carved by the future monk Isaaky (Schotter), my mentor at Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville. Fr. John was born in 1924 into the family of a Scottish aristocrat. Throughout his life, Fr. John suffered from weakness in his knees. His education in Classics facilitated his conversion to Holy Orthodoxy later in his life. His interest in the Orthodox Church developed during his studies at Christ Church and Cuddesdon Theological College in Oxford. For decades, Fr. John served in the Scottish Episcopalian Church. At the age of 27, he became a honorary chaplain at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Western Edinburgh. He also served as a canon of St. Andrew’s Cathedral. There, he was reprimanded by his bishop for wearing a kilt underneath his cassock. In 1981, Fr. John joined the Orthodox Church at the monastery of Simonopetra on Mount Athos. In Edinburgh, he brought together two communities who served in Church Slavonic and Greek. The article in Wikipedia, which I am using as a source here, contains the following information about Fr. John’s ascetic feats: “In private life he followed a regime of prayer and fasting. He ate only once per day. He would often be found sheltering or feeding the homeless. He avidly wrote in opposition to torture and imprisonment on religious grounds. […] In 2001 he hit the national newspaper headlines, when (against a court ruling) he aided an 8 year old child and her mother escape a violent father, finding them secret accommodation in Greece.” May his memory be eternal! Source: Auld Reekie Sailtír, Orthodox Christian Faith and Life. | 
