Dear brothers and sisters,
Tomorrow evening, our parish book club will have its first meeting at the Wenvoe Arms, Old Port Road, Wenvoe, CF5 6AN, and will be commencing St Philaret of Moscow’s Sermons on the Spiritual Life, available on Amazon:
Everyone will be most welcome, and the first meeting will start with the first sermon in the anthology.
This coming St Demetrios Saturday will see our October parish pilgrimage to honour of St Cadoc in the medieval church on the site of his monastery at Llancarfan, in the Vale of Glamorgan.
We will celebrate the Hours and Liturgy at 10:00, followed by a general panikhida for all of the faithful departed, after which we will enjoy lunch and time together in the Fox and Hounds.
The Liturgy variables may be found at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ugbN-baM2N9aXv4S6-mBOZauLGsqpiU-/view
After lunch, we will chant a moleben to St Cadoc, and I will hear some confessions at the end of our visit. Those who confessed in preparation for Holy Communion last Sunday are blessed to commune at Saturday’s Liturgy, subject to proper preparation.
Many thanks to Tracy, our pilgrimage secretary, who organises and acts as the hub for our monthly pilgrimages. We very much appreciate the time and effort spent on emails, telephone calls and messaging – to say nothing of coordinating bookings and menus to feed hungry pilgrims.
Please remember that we turn the clocks back one hour on Saturday night / Sunday morning for British winter time.
At the end of Sunday’s Liturgy, we will welcome offerings for a second collection to support Bethany Orthodox Christian school in the Holy Land. Mother Maria, who is in charge of the school has expressed the need and crippling hardship of the conditions in Bethany to parishioners, and given the recent visit of some of our faithful to Bethany, we must try and support this unique and threatened Orthodox school – already struggling as a Christian institution before the outbreak of the current conflict, and now in dire need. Every pound will help, so please give if you are able.
Given the absence of Deacon Mark on Sunday, Father Hierodeacon Avraamy and I will gratefully appreciate help in a quick church set-up, after a constantly lengthening morning mass. I hope that our young brothers will be able and willing to arrange the front of church as promptly as possible. Sunday confessions will start at 10:15, at the back of the church.
May God bless you all!
In Christ – Hieromonk Mark