Altar & Icon-screen

Today the wood-carver Mr. Eugenios Amanatides with his associate Costas came from Thessaloniki, Macedonia, North Greece in order to help us put all the wood-carvings in place.

We started with the Holy Altar, a very beautiful piece of ecclesiastical art.

All the little pieces were assembled and made up what is the Holy Table for our new Church.

Then we started gathering together the many pieces of the huge icon-screen.

It is really like a very complicated puzzle of an enormous size.

Many members of our Community were gathered there in order to assist.

Both young and old, strong and weak, male and female, they all came to help and thus get the great experience of making up a real place of worship.

This is obviously quite a big job which is going to take a few days to be completed.

More doors, marbles and wall

The works are continuing intensively, as we are reaching the final week, before the official opening.

The three carpenters from Cyprus are working hard fitting doors in their places.

Both outside as well as inside doors are being put in place.

The little Church Office has now its own door leading into the main Church.

The marble specialists are still working in the interior, producing some real pieces of art.

The Irish bricklayers are working outside, preparing the new front wall.

Sanctuary door

The wood-carved doors for our new Church have been made in Cyprus and brought over here a few days ago.

Now we have here three carpenters who actually came from Cyprus in order to put those doors in their place. It is a hard but valuable work, which is going to take a few days to complete.

The first door to be fitted in place is the external door that leads into the Sanctuary. This door will be used by the Priest as it is the nearest one to the Vicarage.

Photo of the week - 73

This week's photo shows progress on the front wall. Many other works are being done inside the building.

More furniture arrived today

Today we celebrate the National Day of Greece.

We also commemorate in our Church calendar the Annunciation of the Mother of God.

After the morning Services at our temporary place of worship we had delivery of some more furniture.

They came from Thessaloniki (Macedonia, North Greece).

It was mainly chairs for our new Church, as well as a new Altar and some other woodcarvings.

Many volunteers came to assist to transfer all those pieces of furniture from the lorry into the temporary and the new Church.

Some of those were members of our Church’s Youth. We are really proud of our Youth.

They have been very supportive in all our Community endeavours.

Front wall and drains

It is time for the front wall to be erected.

Bricklayers have started working and they are hoping to complete it by next week.

At the same time plumbers are working on the side and at the back of the Church sorting out the drains.

The good thing is that the weather is really complimentary to us, although some of us have got the spring flu and we are hoping to get over it soon.

Columns in the front

The works are continuing in our new Church.

One of the elements in the Facade that make the Church look very nice is the columns.

These are nicely prepared by our dedicated workers and soon will be ready.

Photo of the week - 72

There no much difference between this photo and the last photo of the week. The main reason being that most of the work (marble floor and electricals) is being done inside the Church.

New wood-carved doors

Today we had a really full day, from early in the morning until late.

Paddy and Vassile were involved in preparing the steps for the Sanctuary.

Then a lorry came and brought wood-carved doors from Cyprus.

Although not a lot of pieces they were very heavy and we were less people than the other day, when the lorry brought the icon-screen from Thessaloniki.

So, it was quite a big job to unload the lorry and store the doors inside the new Church.

It was mainly young members of our Community who had help on this.

Nicos, Vassilis, Marios, Adrian and Dan, accompanied by Fr. Anastasios, as well as by some members of the older generation, had worked hard.

It is worth noting that all those people they helped on a voluntary basis.

Therefore we are really grateful to them for their valuable assistance.

In the evening Fr. Anastasios (behind the camera) and Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous, the President of our Community were invited to talk on the London Greek Radio about our sacred project.