Dear brothers and sisters.
Despite fewness in numbers, Sunday saw was a great collaboration in Cardiff to keep parish life going over the quiet holiday period. Thanks to Joanna and Nataliya for their impressive preparation of trapéza on the trolley, given the lack of volunteers with certification to use the kitchen. It was an impressive shared lunch, and we are grateful for all who kindly made offerings.
After three trips to London over the past month, it was good to be back in Cardiff, having been in the cathedral for Kolya and Victoria’s wedding the previous weekend, and for the marriage of our former student Jelena and husband, Laurinas, a few weeks before. We congratulate the newly-weds and pray that God may grant them many, blessed years of married life, together.
The visits to London have allowed some very welcome time with Vladyka, and I am very pleased to announce that he has blessed us to be freed of the obligation to submit last year’s diocesan dues, allowing us to add £1,296 to our building fund, boosting it considerably. Additionally, in the last few days, Father Paul’s parish have donated 20% of a donation they received, adding another £300 to our steadily rising total, which now stands at £106,286: meaning that we have raised 89% of the total goal. This is an amazing achievement, and we are happily in the home-straight!
Please continue to spread the word, as we’re not there yet and still have a short distance to go, needing us all to promote the fundraiser and support it in any way possible.
Thanks are due to Joanna, Sasha and Joseph, who spent much of the feast of the Kazan Icon moving donated furniture and church equipment from Treherbert to Pontypridd, and were are indebted to the Pontypridd Methodists for storing things for us, even paying insurance. The kindness and generosity we have received, thus far, is humbling and truly inspiring.
Further to committee discussions, we have decided that in the current quiet summer season, with so many people away, we will concentrate our services around the feasts that fall in August.
As you will be aware, we face transport and accommodation costs each time we have back to back weekday services, and all obviously adds up. As with Sunday, the costs remain the same whether we have five people or forty people, and we need to balance pastoral provision and practicalities as we look forward to our new place of worship, and try to save funds to add to our moving costs.
As I have to travel to Warminster on Friday, we will have our usual 15:00 service in the Oratory, but there will be no Thursday evening service this week. Our Warminster Liturgy will be celebrated in the chapel of St Lawrence at 10:30 on Saturday morning.
As we are in such a quiet period, I will take annual leave from Monday 10th until Friday 14th August, though I will explore the possibility of a Liturgy for the feast of the All-Merciful Saviour in Father Luke’s chapel on the Friday. Father Luke will be away in Italy, so we ask your prayers for him and his family on their travels.
Father Sebastian is India and the moment, but I will ask for provisional use of the Lady Chapel in the Oratory Church for the Transfiguration on Wednesday 6/19 August and the Dormition on Friday 15/28 August. We will seek to celebrate vespers on the eves of these feasts.
Should our much-anticipated church move happen in the meantime, we will announce any necessary changes.
Thanks to everyone for their prayers and for checking how things are going with my shoulder and arm. Praise God, all is improving very well, which I am sure is largely through the prayers of Saint Winefride. My left arm and shoulder remain very weak, so I am somewhat limited in movement and practical activities, for the moment, but with God’s help and exercises from the hospital, things will improve.
Given the constant movement of people and so much travelling at the moment, may I remind you all that we need to be spiritually prepared for our holidays, as well as being materially prepared. An icon, a prayerbook and a a prayer-rope are just as important as our travel documents, clothing and holiday supplies. We need to plan in advance, realising that our usual prayer-rule may be a challenge, and we may need to prepare a spiritual contingency plan, so that our prayers and spiritual life continue, even if this necessitates some modification. We should check for local Orthodox parishes, if we are travelling somewhere with an Orthodox presence.
The crucial thing is that holidays are NOT an excuse to stop praying and being an observant Orthodox Christian. We need to do our best to maintain the spiritual life, even if we still fall short of what we would like to be doing. Whether at home or travelling, we must do our very best.
Asking your prayers, and forgiveness for Christ’s sake.
May God bless you.
In Christ – Hieromonk Mark