The Shepherd, December 2007
VISITORS
HIEROMONK JOHN (Smelic) from Australia visited Britain on his way to Odessa at the end of the month. He attended the Divine Liturgies at Brookwood on the feast of the Archangels and on Mother Vikentia’s nameday at the Convent on the Saturday. On Sunday 25th November, he concelebrated with us at St Edward’s, before leaving to visit Greece en route for Ukraine. Father John, who used to serve in the Holy Land, is a priest of the continuing ROCA under the omophorion of His Grace Bishop Agafangel of Odessa and Tauris.
On a more secular plane, and perhaps of more interest to our younger members, Jimmy Carter, former professional footballer, who played for Crystal Palace, Queens Park Rangers, Millwall, Liverpool, Arsenal, Oxford United, Portsmouth and then Millwall for a second spell, paid us a brief visit with his son on Sunday 25th November and met some of the parishioners at the end of the Parish Breakfast.
CHRISTMAS ARRANGEMENTS
EVEN THOUGH we should have the Old Mortuary Chapel refurbished by Christmas and the parish hall there in good condition again, we have decided that, because of the way numbers have increased over the years, it probably will not be big enough for our Christmas Parish Breakfast and Carol Singing after the Liturgy on the day of the festival. So, for the coming Christmas we have again booked the Lord Pirbright Hall on Pirbright Green. On the day we will have sketch maps prepared to show you how to get there, and we will ask parishioners to give lifts to those of you who will need help getting to the hall, which is about a mile from our church. All who attend church are invited.
BUILDING PROGRESS
THE DAMP PROBLEM in the Old Mortuary Building has caused considerable delay in our completing the work there, but at the time of writing the problem has been professionally dealt with and the rest of the work is underway again. In the new house, the ground level floor will unfortunately have to be replaced, and this will cause us a great deal of inconvenience although fortunately it will not be an added cost to the contract figure. It means though that we still very much need your prayers to sustain us in this difficult period when we are not yet really settled in the new house.
BUILDING FUND
THE FIGURE, so far collected or pledged in writing, now stands at £643,757.63, just £6,242.37 short of our aoriginal target
PRACTICAL TIP
THE CHURCH YEAR has its cycle of four fasts, and there is a tendency at the end of each of them to simply revert to “life as normal.” This is not the intention of the cycle, we are not supposed to live on a spiritual roller-coaster. Rather each fast should be used as a further step in our spiritual life. For most of this month all Orthodox Christians are keeping the Nativity Fast, but we should not on the feast day itself jettison everything and anything that we might have gained through that discipline. Be careful to hold on to it, and build on it, so that in February when we enter the Great Lent, we may be prepared to take a further step forward.
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