FROM Fr Christodoulos Visit by our Archbishop Gregorios on the 18th November.
We had a very good time with His Eminence and Fr Theophanes when they visited us. They arrived on the Saturday evening and were made welcome at the home of Gregory and Miriam Baker where we had a lovely evening meal together.
The following day His Eminence celebrated the Holy Liturgy at church and it was very encouraging for the 60 or so people present who welcomed him. As part of our ongoing establishment as a permanent church, before the start of the Holy Liturgy, His Eminence ordained Bob Kahn as Subdeacon (now Subdeacon Emmanuel) and Ephrem (Yew Han), Symeon (Jon) and young Michael as Readers.
Many thanks to all of those who brought food for the lunch afterwards which was excellent. Following lunch His Eminence spoke to a number of people and told us that he hoped to send a generous gift to us towards the repayment of our building loans. (More below from our treasurer about the finances!) His Eminence has since sent a very supportive letter to us all along with a gift of £5,000.
Work in our new Church!
The work of constructing and plastering the new Apse has now been completed and the result is very impressive. Following this the work of constructing the framework for the new level floor took place. The result was inspected by our Archbishop during his visit to us, and he was very impressed with the amount of work we have done since we moved into the church in July. The latest stage was the laying of the oak floorboards which has just been finished. This was quite a skilled job and has mainly been done by Gregory, Yew Han, Jonathan and John Briggs. John is a very good friend of Holy Apostles, travelling all the way from Barnsley to help us. The new floor has transformed a building site into a church.
Painting the Church
Decisions on this will need to be made in the very near future and these will affect the long term appearance of our church. In order to help us in our decisions Philip Shand, who is very knowledgeable in these matters, will tell us about the options available. This will be done after the Holy Liturgy on Sunday 9th December. Please do your best to be there to hear his presentation and to make your contribution to the discussion. Alternatively, please feel free to speak to him personally, or on the phone, 01254 773823.
From Presbytera Mary Children’s Party!
On Saturday 12th January we plan to hold a party at Church for all the children and grandchildren. It will be held in the afternoon, probably 2-4 pm, and it’s a Fancy Dress Party. Lots of help will be required with food, organising games, preparing the hall and clearing up afterwards. Contact Pres. Mary if you plan to bring some children. This will help us with catering. It’s important, too, that we need to know what help we have, for a fun but busy afternoon!
FROM GREGORY Financial Matters
Now that we have been in our new home for a few months and, after the visit of His Eminence, it seems an opportune time to take stock of our financial situation. As everyone knows it was an enormous task to raise sufficient money to get us this far but I believe God has blessed our efforts with an excellent building for our needs. We still have just enough money to finish the remaining work required on what I believe will soon be a beautiful Orthodox witness to the wider Central Lancashire area..
However we cannot rest on our laurels! Although we have an asset obviously worth much more than we owe, there is still a considerable amount in loans on the building – a total of £164,000. This is made up of a bank mortgage of £70,000, medium and short term interest free loans from generous individuals of £64,000 and a long term loan of £30,000 to the St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Educational Centre Trust.
Our average income is sufficient to pay our normal regular bills, including the bank mortgage, but it leaves very little to go towards repaying the loans. We are planning a major international fundraising campaign but we cannot rely on the generosity of donors from outside to help us.
We cannot escape the fact that it is our own church and we must dig deeper in our own pockets. So I ask everyone to prayerfully consider once again what they can give by way of a donation or in increased regular giving to the weekly collection or by monthly bankers order. If you are a taxpayer please remember to use Gift Aid. Remember that we are now all giving to pay for the house of God and that our commitment as Orthodox Christians often involves sacrifice.
