The Shepherd, September 2005
BROOKWOOD NEWS, 2
ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL
ONE OF OUR PARISHIONERS, Elena Matthews, has suggested that we have an Adult Sunday School as well as one for children. We do have the Saturday evening catechumen talks which anyone, Orthodox, catechumen or neither, is welcome to attend, but it is appreciated that some people who live far away cannot come on both Saturday and Sunday. Also we have noticed that some of the teenagers are no longer appropriately helped in a class with small children, and so we are making plans to start such adult classes. Anyone interested in joining them or in helping, please contact Fr Niphon, Fr Thomas or Elizabeth Meade.
GIFT OF NEW VESTMENTS
ARCHIMANDRITE BENJAMIN, the abbot of the Nativity of the Theotokos Monastery in Gorecha (Ukraine), a guest in this country of John and Ekaterina Harwood, very generously donated to our Brotherhood a set of priestly vestments, Russian style, in a rich red and gold brocade.
FUNDRAISING INITIATIVES
JANET WATERHOUSE of Yorkshire, the mother of Ryde parishioner, Benjamin Waterhouse, has kindly made for us some painted silk greeting cards with Russian church designs. These are on sale at the back of the church for £2.50 each, and all the proceeds will go to the Building Fund.
THE ICONOGRAPHER, Aidan Hart, very kindly volunteered to paint an icon for us as a blessing for the Appeal, and we have chosen one of the holy Great Martyr Eirene, as she is the name-saint of our architect, Irina Aldersley, on whom so much of the present project has rested.
ANNA SHAVILA’S sponsored slim continues to generate income for the Building Fund; the total raised so far is an enormous £494.
WE HAVE TOPPED £300,000! At the time of going to press (31/8/05) the total pledged and given stands at £304,394.59, approx. 46.83% of our target figure of £650,000. This does not include tax rebates due us, interest accrued on the accounts recently, or monies simply promised but not pledged in writing. God’s blessings be granted to all who have helped us and contributed. 
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PRACTICAL TIP
WHEN WRITING lists for commemoration in the Divine Liturgy or at other services of intercession, or when writing commemoration books, there are a few rules that one should bear in mind to help the clergy. First of all, one should write the full baptismal or monastic name of each person, and not a shortened or pet form - thus Mary, Constantine, Elena, rather than Marsha, Gus, or Nelly. For clergy and monastics one should write their rank rather than just putting Father or Mother So-an-So - thus: Archpriest Theodore, Nun Polyxenia, Deacon Barnabas, and so on. There is no need to put their surnames - the Church always prays for people using only their Christian names, which are the names which She has given them. If you are also listing non-Orthodox people, you should list them separately because the Church wisely prays for them in a different way, because their needs are different and the healing they require is different. Among the Russians there is a custom of sometimes indicating something about the person, - such as “the slain” Joseph, “the infant” Michael, “the soldier” Catherine, - although there is no real necessity to do this. (This custom is particularly inappropriate when people do not bother to keep their commemoration books up-to-date, and so one commemorates the infant Boris in the proskomidi, and at the same Liturgy imparts Communion to a strapping six-footer, Boris, because the book has not been up-dated for twenty years!). Also in some languages, one needs to write the names in an oblique case, because the names follow an introduction phrase, either, “for the health and salvation of…,” or “for the repose of…” In English we do have have to worry about this as our language is not inflected in the same way. Lastly, always write clearly. This last point is particularly important nowadays. More and more these days, we find that Orthodox congregations are of mixed ethnicity, often the priest or deacon may not even be fluent in the language in which you are writing your list, and can perhaps only just pick out names. Your writing clearly will greatly help them in this, and is a courtesy which you should extend them, when they are serving for you.
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