Dear brothers and sisters,
How lovely it was to celebrate our Liturgy today with the anticipated return of Valentina Nikolaevna, our oldest parishioner, and to have a Wessex contingent swelling our ranks.
After Friday’s festal Liturgy in Llanelli, and yesterday’s Cheltenham Liturgy to belatedly honour St Nicholas, it was a joy to again honour the great Wonderworker with a litia at the end of our Liturgy.
After the Mother of God and the Forerunner, no other saint has captivated the Christian world so much as St Nicholas, and he is held up as the image and supreme example of Christian living.
Through his life of mercy, pastoral love and selfless service to his flock, he truly entered their hearts and consciousness, with the deep veneration having been passed down through the generations as the inherited love and devotion of the Orthodox people to St Nicholas.
On the Sunday after each of his feasts, it has become our custom to serve a litia, and I hope this will continue!
Many years to Kolya, and thanks for his contribution to parish life. Thanks also to our choir for their labours and to all who helped with furniture, cleaning and refreshments today.
May we remind parishioners that all food should be finger food and should not require cutlery. Someone has to do the washing up when instructions are not followed, and volunteers seem rather less than those eating at the table! In a few weeks time, during the building work, there will be no kitchen and no opportunity to wash up, so let’s please follow instructions. If it can’t be picked up with fingers alone, it shouldn’t be on the table!
As Father Mark announced, with Vladyka’s blessing, I will be serving in Birmingham next weekend, so he will be serving alone in Cardiff. Those who confessed to commune this weekend are blessed to also commune next weekend, and our Cheltenham faithful who confessed on Saturday will also be blessed to commune in Birmingham. However, as instructed by Father Mark, those who will brake the fast to celebrate western Christmas with non-Orthodox loved ones should refrain from communing next Sunday.
Let’s not forget that 25 December (New Style) is a special day on the Church calendar, being the feast of St Spyridon the Wonderworker, who together with St Nicholas is one of our most beloved bishop saints.
We are very pleased that our gofundme page has now raised £10,000 and we are extremely grateful not only to the 179 donors, who have generously supported our vision of a dedicated temple for the parish, but also to our social media team, who have been promoting and sharing the appeal day by day. Diolch yn fawr!
Just to remind you that our Nativity Liturgy will be in the Oratory Church at 11:00 on Wednesday 7 January, followed by trapéza in the hall. As the church will not be available the previous evening, we are awaiting confirmation of whether we are able to celebrate the vigil in St Philip’s on the evening of Tuesday 6th January.
Over the western festive period, the Oratory Church will be closed after noon, so our normal weekly services will resume after Orthodox Christmas.
Unfortunately, as I have to celebrate a service on the evening of Friday 9 January, and currently have no practical means of getting to Warminster for the morning service, it will not be possible to celebrate the Liturgy in the chapel of St Lawrence on Saturday 10 January. If this situation changes, I will be very happy to celebrate a festal Liturgy in Wessex!
Asking your continued prayers for recovery and better health.
May god bless you all.
In Christ – Hieromonk Mark
