The Shepherd, October 2005
BROOKWOOD NEWS
BAPTISM
CATECHUMEN Peter Budding of Guildford was baptised at Saint Edward’s Church on Tuesday, 31st August / 13th September, the feast of the Deposition of the Cincture of the Mother of God. Peter, a former Anglican, is named for the holy Apostle Peter, and his sponsors were Michael Woodrow of Sunbury and Anna Rotherham of Knaphill. Throughout the eight days in his chrism robe, Peter attended the Divine Liturgy and partook of the Holy Mysteries. May God grant that he keep that baptismal garment undefiled until his dying day and be granted the prize laid up for him.
SAINT EDWARD’S DAY
ON THE AUTUMN FEAST of St Edward, we were joined at the Vigil by three visiting priests, Fr Maxim Nikolsky (MP), Fr Stavros Solomou (Œc.Patr.) and Fr Dionysius Pozdnyaev from Hong Kong. Gabriel and Helena Lawani from the St Werburgh Mission in Congleton also joined us for the day, as did Thomas Loring who, though in his eighties, travelled up from deepest Devon to receive Holy Communion on the feast. Before the Hours and the Liturgy in the morning, the churching prayers were read for Joanna Russell, and her new-born son, Laurence, who is named after the Holy Martyr and Archdeacon Laurence.
MIRACLE OF SAINT EDWARD
THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE was sent on to us by Father Protodeacon Christopher Birchall in Vancouver and reached us on St Edward’s day by e-mail. It was forwarded from an Orthodox parishioner, L.J, who visited Brookwood a couple of years ago. She writes: “There is something I have wanted to write (or rather felt I have to write) to St Edward Brotherhood. As I cannot find time to write this account in nice and correct English in order to send it to Brotherhood, I will tell it to you. Perhaps you sometimes can tell this to Fr Alexis and his monks. And so there it is: I was suffering from terrible pains in my left eye. Nothing helped me, and all the specialists agreed that surgery is going to do more damage than help. One night, when I woke up from intense pains in my left eye, I, without thinking what and why I am doing, started to search for a tiny piece of cotton, which was given me at St Edward’s Brotherhood. I found it and put it on my left eye.” She explains how she called upon St Edward in a short prayer, and continues:“And immediately went to sleep. In the morning I thought ‘what a strange thing I have done in the night.’ I looked in St Herman Calendar and realised that it was exactly St Edward’s feast day - March 31! I thought, ‘If only I would have asked them to remember me in a molieben, my eye would have healed completely.’ Since March 31, or, more precisely, April 1, I have never again suffered from the pains in my eye, although it has not healed completely. I am writing you because tomorrow (today) is St Edward’s feast day. Somehow we have to give thanks for what we receive.”
HERITAGE OPEN DAYS
ON THE FIRST OF THESE, Thursday 8th September, Eadmund Malcolm Dunstall of Folkestone, a convert to Holy Orthodoxy and the founder of the English Companions, gave a brilliant talk on St Edward, which provoked many questions and which we have now posted on our website for those who were unable to attend the reading. Eadmund was photographed at the shrine of St Edward and his picture published in the Woking News & Mail. On the following Saturday, Annie Shaw of the Fellowship of St Luke was in the narthex throughout the afternoon and showed visitors some of the processes of painting the sacred icons, while in the Brotherhood house Fr Thomas spoke to visitors about bookbinding and showed them some of the materials and techniques. Of course throughout the year, we have many visitors coming to see the church and to pray at the Shrine, but during the Heritage Open Days (8th - 11th September) and the days that followed their numbers were significantly increased.
ICON PRINT SPONSORS
WE ARE INDEBTED to John Harwood of Edmonton and Peter Williams of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, who have provided the funds to have the icons of All Saints of London and of the Holy Martyr Varus respectively produced as prints, and to Helena Lawani of Broadbottom for taking this project in hand.
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PRACTICAL TIP
IT APPEARS that some people like leaving the church during the Divine services to talk outside, often using their children as their excuse for doing this. Of course, everyone is at liberty to do this if they so wish, but we would ask that, if you are talking outside when the Divine services are in progress, you move away from the doors and windows so that those in church are not distracted by hearing your chatter and wondering whatever can be so interesting.
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