About Basile

The London Greek newspaper “Parikiaki” has kindly supported our Community and its fundraising endeavours, especially in regard to the Greek-American comedian Basile and his concerts in London.

Even after he has left for America Andrea Georgiou of “Parikiaki” stills writes on her column in support of our sacred project. Basile has certainly made an excellent impression on her and on all of us. He has assisted us publicising our project quite widely. His 3 shows, organised by our dedicated Youth, were attended by 600 people. A great success!

Bricks go up on the Bell Tower

Emphasis once more today is paid on the Bell Tower.

It is there where the bricklayers are working at the moment.

The bricks on the Bell Tower can now be seen even from a distance.

Our kind and hard working bricklayers are building what is going to be the trumpet of our Church.

So, each time the Bell will ring the eyes of all people will turn towards the Bell Tower; they will then look at it with admiration and prayerful spirit.

It is an automatic gesture of kindness and humility against this sacred part of the Holy Church.

Photo of the week - 41

The picture of the week today shows progress on the bricklaying on the Bell Tower as well as on the Dome. A protable "hand of God" assists in moving a lot of materials on the roof of the Church.

Chanting in the new Church

An important part of the Holy Services in the Orthodox Church is the chanting.

The traditional chant in the Greek Church originates from Byzantium. This is why it is called Byzantine Music.

In our Parish we are blessed with some excellent chanters, who chant in our Church on Sundays and on the major Church festivals.

Last Sunday, when we had the Service at the new Church our chanters had sung beautifully.

Around the... heavens, again

All our bricklayers and their assistants are working today around the... heaven, that is the Dome.

The heaven of our Church is being nicely bricked.

Going up there and looking the area around gives you a different perspective of life.

The Greek poet Sotia Tsotou has written a nice poem, on the idea of looking from above, which is sung by the famous Greek singer Costas Hatzis.

Some of the verses are the following:

“When you look from up on high the earth is like a painting...

the houses look like matchboxes, the humans look like ants...

and whatever has hurt you if you look at it from up on high

it will appear to you so unimportant that you will forget it in a moment”!

"Atlas" scaffolding

Scaffolding is a necessary element in all building sites.

Inside and outside the new buildings scaffolding is needed in order to facilitate the various works.

In our case the present scaffolding company, called ATLAS, named after an ancient Greek “God”, assists greatly the bricklayers who built the bricks around the new Church.

Sponsored walk

Last Sunday our Community, with the great assistance of Mrs. Mary Nicolaou and her family and friends (Mrs. Mary Papapavlou and others), organised a 3 miles Sponsored walk in financial support of our great Church building project.

About 80 people of all ages had voluntarily and joyfully taken part in the walk.

It was very touching to have so many kids from our St. Panteleimon Hellenic College taking part in the walk.

So far we have collected from 50 walkers about £10.000. There will be some more money coming in within the new few days from the rest of the walkers.

Our Parish Priest, Fr. Anastasios, had gratefully received excellent support by many people and his sponsoring money had reached the record amount of £3050.

We are very happy for this great success and very grateful to all people and families who supported this event in many different ways.

Photo of the week - 40

A very beautiful day today. The bricklayers are working around the Bell Tower. For first time we see on the Bell Tower the sign of ATLAS, the scaffolding company.

The very first Divine Liturgy

Today we celebrated the very first Divine Liturgy at our new Church.

Obviously the building it is not ready as yet. We still need to do a lot of works to make it properly usable.

But it was an excellent opportunity for our members to experience a full Holy Service in the new building.

Although the weather was not very complimentary, the atmosphere was very warm spiritually.

At the end of the Service the President of the Community, Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous, had greeted the congregation and reminded everyone about our duty to support financially the sacred project.

Then Mr. Demosthenous, accompanied by the Vice-Presidents, Mr. Andreas Georgiades and Mr. Petros Christofi, kindly thanked the Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios and his family for serving the Church and the Community for 18 years and they offered a very nice present to Fr. Anastasios and Presvytera Virginia.

The Service was attended by the Greek-American comedian Basile, who greeted the congregation with very nice words.

Basile, the big joker, is... here

The Greek American comedian, Basile, who is going to give 3 concerts (tonight, tomorrow and Sunday) in financial support of our great project has arrived from the U.S.A.

He is a “big” man in every sense of the word, physically, mentally, etc. He is a great joker too.

The Youth Committee of our Community is actually organising these concerts and all members are all very happy that have Basile here for a few days. We are happy too and look forward to attend his concerts and to laugh with his funny jokes.

Views of the facade

The facade is in every building the first element that anyone would normally look at.

It shows and displays the splendour of the building.

It also projects the spiritual and cultural significance of the Church, as it presents some of the important elements (like the holy cross, or an icon, or even a cultural symbol) that would interest in some way the passengers by, and attract them to visit the interior.

Electrics in our new Church

Electricians are working in the interior of our Church, both in the Nave and on the balcony.

They have been working at our Church for quite a while.

The company that has taken over this work is “Gregory and Co.”, owned by a Greek Cypriot called Gregory.

The traditional lighting in the Orthodox Churches is the candles as well as the oil candles.

In our monasteries this is still the case, but the Parish Churches are now using electricity.

Bricklaying progress

Today our bricklayers are working on the Kingsbury site on the building.

Day by day the progress is very visible and brings us closer to the completion.

This period the emphasis is on the bricklaying.

By the end of this month almost the whole building will be covered with bricks.