Friday 31 July 2009

Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous

Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous has been a member of our Community Council, as well as a Trustee of the Community, for many years. Since 2005 he is the President of St. Panteleimon Greek Orthodox Community. He has always been instrumental in the organising of this project, namely the building of the new Church.

On St. Panteleimon’s Day (27th July 2009) he said about the project:

The Greek Orthodox Community in Harrow was established 34 years ago. We have been taking Services in the Church here over 21 years. And all of us we like to express our sincere gratitude to our fellow Christians from St. Mary’s Church at Kenton, for all the help we had since we met 21 years ago.

Today the Greek Orthodox Community of St. Panteleimon, with the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Gregorios of Thyateira and Great Britain, commence work to create an Ecclesiastical Centre for the reinforcement of Greek Orthodox identity, to built our new Byzantine Church and I like to thank firstly our fellow Christians at St. Mary’s for giving this Church to our Community and the Harrow Council for granting us a planning permission. We are very grateful to the local community for all the support.

Today it is a historic day. 34 years ago, 27h July 1975, the first Service had taken place in Harrow and in exactly 34 years we celebrate the last Divine Liturgy at the present Church. From tomorrow the builders will start demolishing it and then they will construct the new Byzantine Greek Orthodox Church, the first in Harrow and only the second one in London. The first one, namely the Cathedral of St. Sophia’s, was built in Bayswater 130 years ago by the Greek Community.

History has shown us that anything of real value will always endure the test of time. This wonderful monument will forever remind our young members of their roots and their claim to a rich tradition that goes back nearly 2000 years.

It is our cherished hope that the erection of this fine building will gather the hearts and minds of the entire Greek Community, and that all will find a place to make their valued contribution, and take a vital role in making this project a reality, to the Glory of God.

Thursday 30 July 2009

The view from... above

Preparations are well under way. The demolision of the present Church is set for Monday 3rd August.

Wednesday 29 July 2009

New (though temporary) Church...

The new Community Centre will serve as temporary place of worship for the time during the building of the new byzantine Church.

Today it was more or less transformed from an ordinary functions’ Hall into a Church.

Preparations are continuing for the demolition of the present Church. Various people, many of those volunteers, are assisting in transferring many of the important elements of the Community facilities.


The John Doyle people continued to prepare the site hoarding.


Tuesday 28 July 2009

Moving Church...

Today we moved everything from our present (old) Church into the Church Hall.




We also started doing some works in and ON our portacabins, which should be used from September by our Hellenic College.
The Vice-Chairman of our Community, Mr. Petros Christofi, had offered a fish & chips meal to the volunteers who helped today at the Church.

Monday 27 July 2009

The last Divine Liturgy

Today we commemorate the memory of our Patron Saint Panteleimon the Great Martyr and Healer.

In the morning we celebrated a pontifical Divine Liturgy in the Church.

Bishop Chrysostomos of Kyanea had presided over the Service.

Archmandrite Fr. Theophanis Petrou, the Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios D. Salapatas and Deacon Fr. Nikolaos Kokkinos had assisted the Bishop.

The Parish Priest and the Chairman of the Community Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous (who celebrates today his name day as well as his birthday) had offered kind welcoming words to all guests and the rest of the congregation.

After the Service the Community had offered lunch at the Community Centre.

Among the guests were the Consul General of Cyprus in London Mr. Evangelos Savva, the Mayors of Brent, Ealing (Cllr. Barbara Yerolemou), Enfield (Cllr. Eleftherios Savva), the Deputy Mayor of Harrow, as well as members of St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Kenton, Harrow.
The Service today was the very last one in this Church, which is going to be demolished next week.

St. Panteleimon Eve - Vespers

Last night we had in our Church of St. Panteleimon the Great Pontifical Vespers in order to commemorate our Patron Saint Panteleimon.

Bishop Theodoretos of Nazianzus had presided over Vespers.

Archimandrite Fr. Nectarius (from Athens), Archimandrite Fr. Theofanis Petrou, Protopresbyter Fr. Joseph Paliouras, the Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios D. Salapatas and Archdeacon Fr. Evangelos had taken part in the Service.

Community BBQ

Our Community organised on Sunday 26th July a big event, its Summer BBQ, in order to celebrate its Patronal Festival. Some photos from this event are the following:

Friday 24 July 2009

Colourful site hoarding

The front site hoarding had been completed today.

It is a colourful fencing with beautiful Greek colours, dark yellow and blue.

They are obviously the colours of the John Doyle Building Contractors. Their company sign was also put up.

The site hoarding on the other sides is coming up very nicely as well.

The new entrance at the back of the Vicarage was properly cemented.