Bishop Ambrose of Methoni blesses the new Monastic House
ONE WEEK before the feast day of St Edward the Martyr, on Sunday 27th August /9th September, 2007 an important milestone in our community’s history was passed, when His Grace Bishop Ambrose of Methoni visited and blessed the New Monastic House at Brookwood.
On the Sunday morning, His Grace was greeted at the church door with the traditional bread-and-salt by Benjamin Waterhouse, one of our most prominent parishioners.
While he vested in the altar the choir chanted the appropriate hymns, before we began the reading of the Hours and the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, at which His Grace was a assisted by Fr Alexis and Fr Stephen Fretwell, with Hierodeacon Sabbas. After the Gospel, Bishop Ambrose preached about Christian love of God and of our neighbour, something which he showed us much more eloquently by his coming to visit us and by his obvious concern for all the people.
After the kissing of the Cross and the distribution of the antidoron, while His Grace took off his liturgical vestments, the choir chanted the Supplicatory Canon to the Mother of God. We then made our way to the New House, where on the patio at the front a lectern had been set up with the Afidnai icon of St Edward, and before it a small table with the things necessary for the house blessing.
This blessing consists of three essential acts: the sprinkling of the house with holy water, the anointing of the walls with blessed oil, and the censing of the rooms with incense. The Bishop sprinkled the house, while Fr Alexis anointed the walls and Fr Stephen censed each room in turn.
Afterwards, His Grace made a further
short address about the significance of the event and thanked all those who had helped, and in turn Fr Alexis thanked the Bishop.
After the blessing, as if to emphasis that the Mother of God herself was imparting her blessing to the event, Mrs Chrysanthy Lemos from London unexpectedly presented us with a most beautiful icon of the Theotokos, by the hand of the renowned iconographer Photios Kontoglou.
The icon depicts the Mother of God as the “Platytera” - she who is more spacious than the heavens, because she contained the God Whom they cannot contain.
For further information about the brotherhood please contact:
Saint Edward Brotherhood,
Saint Cyprian’s Ave,
Brookwood,
Woking,
SURREY,
GU24 0BL
01483 487763
or email us at info@saintedwardbrotherhood.org 
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