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Parish Reports 2004

Visit of His Eminence Metropolitan Iosif of Central and Western Europe (Patriarchate of Romania) to the House of the Resurrection Crypt Chapel for an Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on Sunday 12th December, Fr. Gregory and other Antiochian clergy concelebrating.

Baptism of Eyob Sami on Sunday 28th November 2004

Cyprus 2004

The missionaries from St Aidan’s set out again this year for Cyprus where we have in the past noted their churches and their icons, their saints and their inner piety.

This year we were to discover something of the underlying devotion which makes it all possible by the abundance of the religious life of their monasteries

Most monasteries are hard to find, but Ron drives uncomplainingly and Peter navigates and eventually we arrive. We visited just two, one of them of nuns and the other of monks. We were directed to the first by a member of our congregation, Photini who spends a lot of time with the nuns at the Monastery of the Panagia Amasgou, Monagri, near Limassol. Photini had provided us with a bag-full of shoes and clothes as gifts for the nuns which was as well, because when we walked in the gate, a nun said "No visitors – we are closed" but the mention of Photini’s name changed all that and we were made very welcome with drinks and the gifts of icons in return. These were of a famous one in their Church of the Theotokos written in 1569. There were twelve nuns in that Monastery and all of them seemed young and one spoke fairly good English. They kindly invited us to stay to have some lunch but we thought it best to decline and came away feeling uplifted by the atmosphere of the House.

The other visit we made was on the Sunday to the Trooditissa Monastery which was again up in the hills. We were taken on the 75 kilometre trip by some friends of Rita-Mary and Peter and arrived about 8.30am after the Liturgy had started. The little church was packed with people from far and near with the monks out of sight behind the double sided choir. Before the distribution of the Holy Gifts there was a sermon by one of the monks who put in some English words. It was interesting in that the only ones who received Holy Communion were the children. After the service we were taken into a hall where drinks were served and we all greeted the Abbot. This allowed Rita-Mary to present him with the Icon of St Aidan (kindly prepared by Ken East) and Pam-Mary gave him the copy of the Synaxarion, or calendar, of British Saints, into which was placed the sheet previously signed by many of our congregation. In both monasteries we were not allowed to take photographs of members monks/nuns but we took some of the buildings.

There was one other connection with the congregation here at St Aidan in that we were able to visit Maria’s look-alike brother, Iannis, at his Patisserie in Kolossi near Limassol.

What a mouth-watering shop! What chocolates and the cakes! We were sat down and provided with a variety of very sweet cakes and coffee. While this was taking place a surprising thing, for Cyprus, happened – it rained ! And very hard – for a whole quarter of an hour and then it was back to normal – hot sun. Iannis was pleased to see us and sent some chocolates back for his sister and some 2005 diaries in Greek for distribution at St. Aidan’s. Thank you to Photini and Maria who made these visits possible, and also to Iannis. Our thanks also to Evangelos and Helen Kokkodis who took us to the Trooditissa Monastery on the Sunday, as well as giving us an icon for our Church and a book for the library.

These were the highlights of the stay though we made many more openings to tell the locals that the Orthodox church is spreading in England which they all find very hard to believe. But then, when has the mission of the Church ever been easy?

Wedding of Nicholas David Hulse and Olga Anatolyevna Medvedyeva, Friday 15th October 2004

Baptism of Nuod Mussie Brhane, Sunday 3rd October 2004


The Prayers of Exorcism	Prayer for Nuod	Consecration of the Waters	Censing the Font

Signing of the Waters with the Cross	The Blessing of the Oil	The Anointing of the Waters	The Anointing of Nuod

The Baptism of Nuod	The Baptismal Garment	The Chrismation of Nuod	The Procession Around the Font

The Reading of the Holy Gospel	The Offering of Hair	Nuod brought into the Church and then the Altar	Nuod's First Holy Communion