The Shepherd, March 2008
VISITORS
THE NUN PAISIA of the Convent of the Birth of the Mother of God, Asten, in the Netherlands (Œc.Patr.) visited on Tuesday 6th /19th February. Mother came with her parents, and her sister and her niece, Alexia, who all live in London. She had been present some years ago, when, in Brompton Hospital, the Nun Elizabeth of the Lesna Convent in Normandy was tonsured. She came bearing gifts of incense and sweets, - but, to our dismay, no walnuts this time!
FUNERAL AT BROOKWOOD
NINA BALMAIN, one of our oldest parishioners, a lady born in Yugoslavia but of Cossack descent, was laid to rest with her late husband, Nicolas, after a funeral service in St Edward’s Church on Tuesday 6th /19th February. Although crippled by osteoporosis, for many years she attended most of the weekday Liturgies that we celebrated at Brookwood, sometimes being the only lay person present. After the interment, her grandchildren, Alex and Jennifer, provided refreshments for all those that had attended in the hall of the old Brotherhood house. May Nina’s rest be with the saints and her Memory Eternal.
BUILDING PROGRESS AND FUND
AT PRESENT, the new house is in disarray again, because it has proved necessary to replace the flooring in most of the ground floor rooms. This is being done at the builder’s expense as he has admitted liability for the troubles we have had with it. So that we can live around the work in progress, they have started with the three bedrooms and, when they are complete, the main hall and office will be re-floored. Some more work has yet to be done on the former Mortuary Chapel too.
Happier news regarding the Building Fund itself - it now stands at £658,653.18, just over £20K short of our present target figure. Once we have completed the building work on these two buildings, and set up the Exhibition Room, which we hope to open on the afternoon of the Orthodox Easter Day, we will take account of things and then initiate the last phase of the work: re-roofing the Church itself.
E-MAIL LIST
WE FORWARD interesting, instructive, and sometimes just amusing, articles to the people belonging to our Church in this country and to friends on a “SiR UK &c” list. If you would like to be included, please let us know and send us your e-mail address. Also we sometimes find that the addresses we have are defective and mailings are returned. If you have not received these postings regularly, please let us know and send us your latest e-mail address. Of course, if you would like to be removed from the list, please inform us. Our thanks to all those of you who respond to these mailings - it helps us to keep in touch with everyone and is reassuring.
PRACTICAL TIP
TRY as far as you are able never to be late for church. In the conditions of life today this is sometimes not possible, and some people have a reason for deliberately coming late - if they have small children or are sick and infirm, - but even so they should come as early as possible rather than contriving to come for just a short period at the end. Orthodox services are long, but that is for our benefit. It takes time for us to put away all worldly cares, and to begin to be still so that we can pray and be spiritually nourished by the services. Our coming late not only defeats this object for us but also disturbs other people.
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