Dear brothers and sisters,
It is with sadness that we have received news that Marina, one of the pillars of Orthodox life in Little Walsingham, departed to the Lord yesterday evening.
Together with her husband Cennydd, Marina has devotedly and devoutly preserved Orthodox spiritual life in ‘England’s Nazareth’, supporting Mother Melangell in prayer and worship in the shrine and in Mother’s Skete chapel.
When serving in the shrine on behalf of ROCOR, on pilgrimage with Norman and Georgina – and of course the other parishioners whom we introduced to Walsingham – Marina has been a peaceful and prayerful presence, singing at the kliros, and praying with a thoroughness that is wonderfully summed up in her pomianik: the commemoration book for Liturgy.
Page after page records the names of hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and lay people from so many different Orthodox parishes across the world, from every Orthodox nation, every Orthodox jurisdiction and every pilgrimage that Marina and Cennydd have made – and their record of pilgrimage across the Orthodox world is formidable.
These pages of names, show that Marina was a woman of prayer, who embraced all whom she met as brothers and sisters, remembering them before the Lord with love and compassion.
Now is the time for all who have benefitted from her prayers to repay her, remembering her before the Lord, and praying for the peaceful repose of her soul.
We thank the Lord for her inspiring example and devout witness to the Faith, and pray for Cennydd at this time, knowing that he will be greatly comforted by Marina’s immense faith, and the peacefulness of her departure.
Eternal Memory!
In Christ – Fr Mark