The Shepherd, February 2009
CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION
DUE TO the lack of clergy, our Christmas celebration this year had to be divided between the Convent and the Brookwood Brotherhood. On the eve of the feast itself, the Royal Hours, Typica, Vespers and Liturgy of St Basil were served at the Convent, while only reader services were held at Brookwood. In the evening, the situation was reversed with a reader service at the Convent and a full Vigil at the Brotherhood. For this service, our congregation was joined by a group of visitors, led by the Reverend Philip Simpson, from the “sacred:space” group of Christchurch, Woking, who subsequently published a rather complementary piece about their visit on their website, although unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to meet them personally. On Christmas morning, the Divine Liturgy was at St Edward’s followed by the parish breakfast in the Brookwood Village Memorial Hall. In the previous weeks and days, many of our parishioners had been down at various times with colds and flu, and we were under the impression that this year’s celebration might be a rather modest affair. In fact we could hardly have been more mistaken. The congregation at the Liturgy was larger than ever before on this feast, - a rough indication of which is the fact that, despite the credit crunch, the freewill offerings left in the alms box at the back of the church were up by about 50% on last year’s figure. We were joined at the service and the meal by an old friend of our community, Father Philemon Heroditou from Cyprus, who used to live in Britain but now has a church in his native land. At the meal, our Sunday School children, under the direction of Mrs. Elizabeth Fagerlund, put on a short sketch, based on a Russian folk tale which emphasized the efficacy of prayer and how God sometimes answers our prayers in ways other than we had expected. Joanna Rotherham, one of the children, also sang us a Russian carol and did so very beautifully. Glynis Preshaw, our local councillor, attended the Liturgy and joined us at the reception, and reported later that she enjoyed it. The next day, appropriately at the Convent of the Mother of God for the Synaxis of the Mother of God, we joined Mother Vikentia and the sisters there for a celebration. After the Divine Liturgy and the festive meal, they had a full concert of music, carol singing, poetry reading, done by the children, the young, and the not-so-young, including a beautiful piece by a professional pianist. Unfortunately, even though he was introduced to us as “famous,” when we tried to check his name, no one could remember it! - a salutary lesson, we should always bear in mind: Sic transit gloria mundi. For the meal and this part of the proceedings, several Russians of aristocratic extraction arrived and joined us. At both churches, after the Gospel reading in the Divine Liturgy, the inspiring Christmas Message of His Grace Bishop Cyprian of Oreoi, the acting president of the Synod in Resistance was read. For the St Boniface Mission in Ryde we celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the Saturday within Christmas week, although happily several of their parishioners had also joined us at Brookwood on the day of the feast itself.
BAPTISM AT BROOKWOOD
ON THE SUNDAY of the Kinsmen of our Saviour, 29th December / 11th January, a new “kinsman” was added to His family at Saint Edward’s Church. His Grace, Bishop Sofronie of Suceava flew to Britain to baptise, on that day, Sebastian, the infant son of Vasile and Florina Pintile. The Godmother was Florina Padaruru, and Sebastian was named after the Holy Martyr Sebastian of Rome. The Bishop made a flying visit, arriving at Brookwood just before the ceremony and leaving shortly afterwards. He had flown in from Romania late the night before, and was returning on Sunday evening. For this reason, and because he had served at Saint Edward’s only a few weeks previously and did not want to appear to commandeer our church just for Romanians, he did not make plans to come for the Sunday morning Liturgy.
|
