The Shepherd, April 2005
BROOKWOOD NEWS
NEW CATECHUMEN
On the Sunday of St Gregory Palamas, which was also the festival of St Benedict of Norcia (14th/27th March), the prayers were read for a new catechumen at St Edward’s. His name was drawn from eight by lot, and it came out as Benedict for the saint of the day. We ask the prayers of the faithful for the newly enlisted warrior of Christ, Benedict Lee, who is a native of Singapore and came to this country to study.
MONASTERY BUILDING FUND
At the time of going to press, the total amount raised for this fund stands at £212,017.25. In addition to this we have already spent £10,176.30 in various professional fees, and so the grand total raised (in hand, pledged & already spent) is £222,193.55. This is approx. 34.2% of our target figure of £650,000. At the last meeting of the Appeal Committee, we decided to ask whether when His Eminence Metropolitan Lavr, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, comes to England at the end of May to consecrate the lower church at Harvard Road, he could also visit Brookwood and bless the site of the new monastery house. Our own ruling hierarch, His Grace Archbishop Mark responded swiftly to this request by emailing, “I will try to fit the Metropolitan’s visit to Brookwood into the program, depending on the health and energy of the Metropolitan.” We ask all to pray that we might receive this blessing for our new work.
CHILDREN’S VISIT
On Tuesday 22nd March and Wednesday 23rd, two groups of children visited St Edward’s Church from the “Pre-School at St Saviours,” which assembles in St Saviour’s Church Hall in Brookwood village. Each of the two groups came accompanied by parents and carers and comprised between 25 and 30 infants, with about a dozen adults. At the church, Fr Niphon spoke to them about some aspects of our worship and introduced them to our pets. Because of their tender years, the week before these planned visits, Sally Wells, who organised the visits, invited Fr Niphon to meet the children at St Saviour’s hall so that they could first see him in familiar circumstances, lest seeing his ravaged ascetical appearance in the unfamiliar environs of our church they become alarmed and their hearts set aflutter.
NEWCOOKBOOKS
Svetlana Morgan has now produced a second range of cookbooks concentrating on fish recipes. Proceeds, as with the first series, will go towards the Monastery Building Fund.
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PRACTICAL TIP
THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, but particularly during Great Lent and as we celebrate the Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour, the Church reminds us again and again of the need (for our own salvation and spiritual health) to give alms. We should never neglect the practice of this virtue. But also remember it in writing your wills. To write a will should be considered an essential duty for every Orthodox Christian living in a society such as ours, and it should not be neglected. Traditionally people would leave provision for the poor and for the Church, and sadly that is something which in our more materialistic society is often forgotten. The giving of alms is also a traditional way of commemorating the departed and of benefiting them, but can one be sure that those we leave behind will be generous with what we have left them? The custom of giving alms for the departed on their anniversaries and namedays is almost now completely in abeyance and so it is even more imperative, that we make provision for the poor and for the holy churches of God ourselves in our wills.
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