The Shepherd, April 2009
VISITORS
BESIDES the many people who simply call by and ask to see the church while walking in the cemetery, we have had the following visits in the last month:
John Clarke brought a group of about fifteen people to see the church and exhibition on 1st March.
Dr Jonathan Conlin of the University of Southampton brought a group of about twenty of his students on 11th March.
Fr Stavros Solomou visited on 19th March and brought us more provisions, and talked with the fathers about various church problems.
Brookwood Women’s Institute organized a visit on 23rd March and were given a talk by Fr Niphon, who answered their questions about our Faith.
Rosy Laslett led a group of seven severely disabled children from the Pond Meadow School in Guildford on 26th March. The children, who were brought in two special vans, were accompanied by four members of staff, and they greatly liked the incense and candles, and also our two dogs, Perkin and Albert! They have since sent a beautiful card, they had made, to thank us and assure that they would come again.
On Friday 27th March, the newly appointed priest in charge of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Dormition, on Harvard Road, Father Nikolay Savchenko, attended the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts at the Convent. During the service, Fr Nikolay stood in the altar, and afterwards Mother Vikentia and her sisters showed him the Chapel and photographs, telling him about the history of their community. After breakfast, the fathers from Brookwood took Father Nikolay home, and he showed us the improvements being made to the church there.
On 28th March, about thirty parishioners of all ages from St Thomas on the Bourne Church in Farnham (Anglican) came on pilgrimage. They spent about two and a half hours here. First we provided them with coffee, then they were shown the church and the exhibition. They ended by having a light meal together in our main hall, and a period of recollection among themselves. They were led by Liz Powell. They asked many and intelligent questions about Orthodoxy and about our community, and kindly had a “whip-round” for the Roofing Fund, when they heard of our need (and saw the holes in the present roof). They collected £122.71, for which we thank them.
BUILDING WORK
WITH the installation of the brand new Jøtul stove in the Old Mortuary by the contractors D. S. Jackson Construction Ltd, on 27th February, and some repairs to the main church door by Rod Eagle (for which he generously only charged for materials), we can now say with certainty that the first two phases of our building project have now been fully completed. And glory be to our God! However, we now have to turn our full attention to the re-roofing of the Church - see Appeal above.
CHURCH ROOF PROJECT
AS WE GO TO PRESS, our architect, Irina Hoble-Aldersley is instructing Marshels Roofing Contractors Ltd of Farnham, Surrey, to undertake the church roofing project. It has been agreed that work will begin on Monday 18th May and will be completed on Friday 14th August (n.s). During this period we shall of necessity hold services in the main hall of the Old Mortuary Building, and we ask parishioners and visitors to bear with us during this period of inconvenience. Since issuing our email appeal a week ago, we have raised a further £3,010.36 & €25. God bless all those of you who have responded so promptly. May He grant you a Good Pascha and many more blessings.
PRACTICAL TIP
IN THE PIECE above, about the upbringing of children, Fr Shchukin speaks about the importance of getting young children involved in the customs associated with our Church life. Pascha provides a good opportunity to do this. When you are preparing your baskets of Easter foods to be brought to the church for a blessing on Easter night, have the children help you prepare the foods & decorate the baskets which you bring them in, so that they are nicely presented. This is a little thing but it will help them. Also explain to them why foods are specially blessed at this time; that we have been fasting & not eating these foods, & now that Pascha has come we may do so, & so we ask a blessing to do so. An elderly Russian priest in the States, who had acquired quite a bit of pastoral wisdom, once told me that in addition to teaching the children the religious truths, he always told them about the various customs connected with our Church calendar, such as making little pastry “larks” on the day of the Forty Martyrs. He did this not simply to perpetuate folk customs, but because he figured that, growing up in a non-Orthodox society, they would likely as not lapse in their teens. Perhaps later in life, something, through the mercy of God, would bring them back to belief. And this old priest, Fr Nicolas, figured that, if they only knew the strictly religious things, they might find refuge in a non-Orthodox church, which superficially believed much the same as the Orthodox, but if they could recall those folk customs and home observances, their hearts would never rest until they found them, and thus Orthodoxy, again.
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