Today’s photo-reportage

Mik the foreman and Adrian in front of the Dome:

The main gallery floor level has now been marbled:

Marble tiles are nicely placed on the floor of the main Church:

The first electrical control panel has now been fixed in the Sanctuary area:

Some “toys for the boys” in the car park area:

Looking out and arranging the next steps, by Trevor the Project Manager and his work aides:

Good co-operation amongst our staff and their hard work has produced some real miracles in our sacred project.

Marble tiles in the main Church

The floor of the gallery has now been fully marbled.

The marble specialists have now been moved to the main Church and they are placing the marble tiles there.

Site hoarding off

In July 2009 the site hoarding was raised up around our building site for obvious reasons of health and safety.

This has now been taken away, from various sides of our site, as it had served its purpose well.

The clearing of the parking area, in front of the Vicarage, has now started. The photos of this post show the parking area as it looks at the moment from the entrance of the Vicarage.

The GREAT Announcement

We are now in a position to announce formally and publicly to all our members and friends the Official Opening of our new Church.

The Announcement in English:

The Announcement in Greek:

This is an historic moment in the life of our Church and Community and we invite everyone to attend the events that are announced on the Programme.

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The Facade is now completely bricked. One by one all the various issues are solved. The building started from week looking complete.

Small Domes

One after the other all small as well as big elements on our new Church are being completed.

The two small Domes of the Church’s Facade have now been coppered.

The copper leaves had been prepared in the interior of the Church and then were taken up there and were fixed nicely on the little Domes.

Fr. Stephen Platt

Today we received to our Community and in our new Church a good friend and significant & distinguished member of our Holy Orthodox Church.

He is Fr. Stephen Platt, who is the Parish Priest of the Russian Orthodox Parish of St Nicholas in Oxford.

He also serves as General Secretary of the Inter-Christian Fellowship of Ss Alban and Sergius, an important Organisation with 85 years of history.

Meeting and Marbles

A meeting was organised today in order to clarify various details of the building process.

The meeting was attended by leaders of our Community, members of the building company and some of our professionals.

In the meantime the marble specialists had progressed with the making of the marble floor on our new Church’s balcony.

Marbles in

A lot of marble tiles have now been delivered to our new Church.

They have been stored in the interior of the Church together with some other relevant material.

The marble specialists have now started working in the Church in order to form a marble floor.

Today the gallery is being marbled and it really looks very shiny and stylish.

Today’s videos

Very busy today at our building site. Many lorries brought a lot of materials.

Workers were found in all sides of the building.

These videos show some of the work being done in the front area, as well as on the Kingsbury side of the building.

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The facade is looking really good this week. The bricklaying has continued. The brick fence on the left hand side area is almost ready. The front little domes are getting coppered.

Saturday works

The weather was quite good today. Therefore various kinds of works were actually taking place, both inside and outside our new Church. The plasterer was working in the Church office. He has nearly finished there.

Paddy and his group were building the brick fence; they have almost completed it.

And finally, our foreman Mic was “playing with his mechanical toys”. Only joking!!!

Our new Church by night

From last night our new Church and especially the Dome is being illuminated.

This is certainly an extraordinary sight, which makes us all very proud of our new place of worship.

The illuminated Dome can obviously be seen from far away and it stands there as a real Christian beacon, projecting to all the area around the values and traditions of our Eastern Orthodox Faith.

Fr. Irvin Hamer

A VIP had visited our new Church today and was shown around by Fr. Anastasios.

He is the Anglican clergyman Fr. Irvin Hamer, Vicar of St. Martin’s Church in Cardiff.

Fr. Irvin was very impressed by the progress of works at our Church, which he has been following through this blog and facebook.

Then Fr. Irvin was offered traditional Greek hospitality at our Vicarage by Fr. Anastasios’ family.

St. Agatha D. & D. - Raffle Draw

Last Sunday evening the Ladies’ Sisterhood of our Community, chaired by Mrs. Eva Christou, organised its Annual Fundraising Dinner and Dance in commemoration of its Patron Saint, St. Agatha, whose memory we commemorate in our Church on the 5th February.

Among the special guests of the event were His Eminence Chrysostomos the Metropolitan Bishop of Kition (Larnaka - Cyprus), His Grace the Bishop Nectarios of Arsinoe (Paphos - Cyprus), the Consul General of Greece in London Mr. Makis Pantzopoulos, members of the clergy, as well as Chairmen of Greek Communities and other Organisations.

The Secretary of our Community Dr. Panayiotis Procopiou welcomed everyone and then the Consul General of Greece and His Eminence had offered their kind greetings.

The event was well attended and supported by about 150 guests, who enjoyed delicious food, prepared by Andreas Georgiades and Yiannis Kyriacou, and nice live Greek music, played by George Gregoriou and Nikos Savvides.

During this D. & D. we had the Raffle Draw with a Smart car as its grand and only prize. The Raffle was greatly and widely promoted by the Chairman of our Community Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous.

The lucky ticket was drawn by His Eminence and the winning number is 219.

Winner of the car is Dr. Serafim Kiriakidis, who is the Chairman of the Parents’ Committee at our St. Panteleimon Hellenic College.

Metropolitan of Kition

Last Sunday we had to honour to welcome at our Community His Eminence Chrysostomos the Metropolitan Bishop of Kition (Larnaka - Cyprus).

His Eminence celebrated the Episcopal Mass at our temporary place of worship, assisted by our Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios and Fr. Theophanis, a visiting Priest.

During the Holy Service His Eminence offered to Fr. Anastasios an icon of St. Lazarus, who is his own Patron Saint.

The icon was offered in order to be displayed at the new Church and venerated by our congregation.

Then the clergy and the people moved to the new Church where His Eminence presided over a short prayer Service.

At the end he congratulated the Parish Priest, the President Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous, as well as all members and friends of our Community who have taken the initiative to build such a magnificent place of worship.

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The interior has progressed greatly. In the front side of the Church we can see works being done on left hand side area where there is a new brick fence now.

The brick fence continues

The brick layers are here today progressing the brick fence on the Harrow side of our new Church.

The Irish Paddy and the Romanian Vasile, accompanied by the foreman Mic are doing a good job there.

They estimate to complete the building of the fence in the next few days.

Tomorrow our congregation will have the chance to enter the new Church and have a look at the interior, after the morning Service, which will be celebrated at our temporary Church, and will be presided over by His Eminence Chrysostomos, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kition (Larnaka - Cyprus).

Doors in our new Church

Our new Church building has now doors. Doors that they can close and even lock.

These are obviously temporary doors at the moment, but they were definitely needed for security and protection from the elements.

Thus, the Church gives now a sense of enclosure. Soon these doors will be replaced by the wood-carved and permanent ones, which are being at the moment prepared in Cyprus.