The Shepherd, November 2007
BROOKWOOD NEWS
BISHOP SOFRONIE’S VISIT
HIS GRACE, Bishop Sofronie of Suceava, of the Traditionalist Romanian Orthodox Synod under the presidency of Metropolitan Vlasie, visited Brookwood and served at St Edward’s Church on Sunday 24th September / 7th October, the feast of the Protomartyr among Women, St Thecla. Inadvertently His Grace taught us three important lessons. First, that we should not rely as much as we Westerners do on organization and planning. Except that he was coming on that day we heard nothing more, not even the proposed time of his arrival! - yet he arrived, served and everything went well. Secondly, having been schooled to expect a rather militaristic, imperialistic way of serving Hierarchal Liturgies, we had the “liberating” experience of having a Bishop serve who put all pomposity aside but celebrated reverently and prayerfully. Thirdly, and most importantly, although we had no common language, he showed us an example of kindness and gentleness. Plans were laid to greet him with bread and salt, with the assembled clergy and the Cross, but in the event, he was half-way up the length of the church before we realized he had arrived! He vested within the sanctuary, and came out for the reading of the Sixth Hour. Although we have an Apostle Book and Gospel Book in Romanian (never used), His Grace insisted that these parts need only be read in English. Our deacon, Fr Sabbas, had, however, learned some parts of the Liturgy in Romanian so that we could show a welcome to our guests. We are indebted to Irina Aldersley for her patience in teaching him these parts and in providing tapes to help with pronunciation. The Bishop also insisted that there was little point in his preaching in Romanian as more people present spoke English, and so he detailed Fr Alexis to give the sermon. After the Divine Liturgy the Bishop and our Romanian guests looked at the new house, before joining us at the parish breakfast. And in the afternoon, as the monks retired appropriately, the Bishop officiated at the wedding of two of the Traditionalist Orthodox Christians living in this country, Vasili and Florina. The following week, the bride and groom and a few of their friends attended the Divine Liturgy at the Annunciation Convent (which is nearer their home in Edgware) and had the eighth-day prayer read over them. They also presented us with the wedding candles to be burned in the church as a prayerful reminder of them. The Bishop left as he had come, without any fuss, and he presented the community with an icon of St Glycherie of Romania, and those who served with him among the clergy and the altar-servers with icon prints of the All-Holy Theotokos, but most of all he left us the example of his unassuming piety.
VISITORS
ABOUT 30 PEOPLE from the University of the Third Age, led by Monica Saunders, visited Saint Edward’s on Thursday, 11th October, and were given a talk and shown round the church by Fr Niphon. They stayed about an hour and a half, and some expressed a desire to attend the Divine services on Orthodox Christmas Day.
FATHER PATRICK (Ramsey), a rasophor monk living in St Ives, and presently under the direction of Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, stayed with us for four days at the end of October. Fr Patrick, a New Zealander, had visited us on several occasions before his monastic tonsure.
On 31st October, an informal group of people interested in the church, led by Val Pretlove, visited.
Abbess Evfrosinija of the New Stjenik Monastery in Serbia visited us on Friday 2nd of November. Her community is under the jurisdiction of the Synod of Archbishop Chrysostomos II in Greece. She was accompanied by Fr Gabriel Lawani and stayed for about two hours, explaining some of the problems in Church life in Serbia and, without pressuring us, trying to persuade us to take a more extremist line with regard to those Orthodox involved in ecumenism. We attempted to explain our position to her, parting on friendly terms but without agreeing. At the same time Fr Stavros Solomou from the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Nicolas in Shepherd’s Bush visited us - representatives of three Greek Orthodox jurisdictions together!
MEDIA INTEREST
EMILY JEFFERY of BBC Southern Counties Radio visited the church and the new monastic house on 25th October, and recorded an interview with Fr Niphon. The piece to be broadcast will last about six minutes, but Miss Jeffery stayed for about two hours asking questions.
In collaboration with Mr Erkin Guney, the managing director of the main cemetery, the fathers have also been helping three A-level students from Woking College, Carolyn, Abby and Sam, with a filming project in the cemetery.
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