Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings for the Dormition of the Mother of God and the feast of the icon of the Saviour ‘Not made by human hands’: the Holy Mandylion.
Many thanks to all who made the weekend’s services so joyful – the latest of our summer festal celebrations, which unlike the previous ones also included a baptism.
We congratulate the newly-enlightened handmaiden of God, Mary, named to honour the Mother of God and her Dormition.
Saturday afternoon’s baptism and celebratory tea preceded the celebration of vespers of the feast, and the beginning of the nameday for our newly-baptised sister.
We pray that the Lord will grant Mary and her sponsors, Melangell and Peter, many, blessed years!
Our Sunday Liturgy was blessed with the presence of Father Luke, who heard many confessions, and when we counted we reckoned that we had heard at least thirty confessions between Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.
Our Dormition Liturgy was very joyful, with around forty adults, plus the children, with most staying for the lovely festal lunch at which we broke the Dormition Fast.
Many thanks to our singers and servers, to the sisters who cooked and catered and to all who brought flowers and herbs for blessing – including the Marsh children who – with Grandma Georgina – made lavender bags to be blessed and distributed as evlogia from the feast.
The feast will continue until its octave, next Sunday, when we will celebrate the icon of the Mother of God, the ‘Giver of Reason’: Pribavlenie Uma.
Wishing you a joyful ongoing celebration of the feast!
In Christ – Fr Mark
