The Shepherd, February 2010
SAINT BONIFACE MISSION, RYDE
WE HOPE TEMPORARILY we have lost the use of the Cemetery Chapel in Ryde, because the local council are undertaking necessary renovation work on the building. However, during the period of exile from the chapel, Martin and Melanie Swan have kindly offered us the use of a room at their home in Newport, and so services will be held there in the interim. Thanks are due to those who helped to dismantle the chapel and store those things we cannot accommodate in the Mission’s new temporary home, and especially to our Carpenter-cum-Secretary, Mrs Elaine Waterhouse, and to the Church Warden, Mrs Barbara Woodford, for dealing with the situation on hand. All enquiries regarding the service schedule there to the warden, Mrs Barbara Woodford:
11, Ratcliffe Avenue, Ryde, IOW, PO33 3DN; Tel: 01983 565 805.
PLEASE remember the St Boniface Mission in your prayers
at this time of trial for them.
MEDIA COVERAGE
BETH WOODGER of the “Woking News & Mail” reported in their 14th January issue on the sum (£12,016.92) we raised last year for our Orthodox Aid Fund, which we reported in our last issue. Her article was accompanied with a picture of the interior of Saint Edward’s Church by Grahame Larter. Another article, in the same issue, about the snows in the area also had a picture by Grahame of our snow-covered church. The “News & Mail” also carried a short reference to our efforts to raise funds for the afflicted mission in Haiti in their 28th January issue.
The “Surrey Herald” sent a photographer to the Blessing of the Waters at Chertsey, and included a picture and quite informative article in their 21st January issue, explaining the significance of the blessing.
The prestigious “Brookwood Express” (Feb. 2010) carried a long article with pictures of the Reopening of the Glades of Remembrance & Blessing of the Lake, on which we reported in our December issue.
VISITORS
BILL ANDREWS, of Camberley Study Walks, led two groups to see the Church, one of 26th January and the other on 28th. Both spent about an hour looking at the church and asking questions about our Faith and worship.
Fr Samir Gholam and his Preoteasa, Petronilla, visted on St Antony’s day, to bless the Cross, erected on Preoteasa’s aunt’s grave. They were given hospitality at the Brotherhood, and repaid it much more abundantly by giving us provisions and a delicious”pre-lenten” cake.
Fr Gennady, one of the clergy of the Sourozh diocese, who is expecting to be appointed to their parish in Glasgow, visited us on Tuesday 2nd February in the early afternoon. He was accompanied by another pilgrim from Russia, and they were shown around by Fr Niphon, and venerated the holy things which we are blessed to have in our care. In our visitors’ book, Fr Gennady generously wrote: “I was greatly impressed by this little spot of Orthodoxy kept here with love and kindness.”
PRACTICAL TIP
GREAT LENT is upon us, and during the weekday services of this period we make many more prostrations in church than throughout the rest of the year. It may, therefore, be appropriate to reiterate how best to make prostrations. Many unused to them fall to their knees in one fell movement, and then flop forward until their heads hit the ground. This is ungainly; it can be hurtful, and it leaves one with difficulty in getting up again. A better way is: after making the sign of the Cross, to bend forward from the waist, with the hands hanging freely from the shoulders, and then bending the knees slightly bring the hands down to the floor. One can then bend the knees more until they rest on the floor while lowering the forehead to touch the ground. You will then find it easier to stand up again because your hands will be properly placed for you to push up on them. You can raise your head, push up on your hands straighten the knees, and thus smoothly reverse the procedure. This way the going down (dying to sin) and the coming up (rising in repentance) can be done smoothly in what amounts to one complete movement, without any ungainliness, and, more importantly, without any danger of hurting oneself.
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