First floor beehive

A lot of hard work is being done today on the first floor of our Community building.

Carpenters, decorators and others are working intensively like bees in order to prepare the three new rooms that will be used by our Community’s Educational Institutions.

Costas Soteriou, Dinos Zorbas, his son Christos Zorbas and Andreas Kazamias, are some of those offering us their good services.

One of the main works is the fixing of the laminated flooring.

The materials for the floor were offered in cost price by Steve Keyes, Manager of Howdens Joinery Co.

We are very grateful to him and his company for their valuable offer to our Church and Community.

St. Phanourios Day

Today our Holy Orthodox Church commemorates the memory of the Great Martyr Saint Phanourios. We had Matins and Divine Liturgy in the morning in our new Church. According to a popular custom people bake a special pie / cake in honour of St. Phanourios and bring it to the Church to be blessed. Many families had brought these cakes. Actually, after we had taken the picture there was many more cakes offered.

In regard to the Saint, little is known of the holy Martyr Phanourios. His holy icon was discovered in the year 1500 among the ruins of an ancient church on Rhodes, when the Moslems ruled there. Thus he is called "the Newly Revealed." The faithful pray to Saint Phanourius especially to help them recover things that have been lost, and because he has answered their prayers so often, the custom has arisen of baking a Phanouropita ("Phanourios-Cake") as a thanks-offering.

Wardrobe / Bookcase

The Wardrobe and Bookcase for the new big room on the first floor of our Community building is now being prepared.

The carpenter Andreas Kazamias is in charge of this work, assisted by Marios.

Timber taken upstairs

Today we had taken some timber upstairs on the first floor of our Community building.

Fr. Anastasios, Neophytos Constantinou, Demetris Salapatas & Nikos Salapatas had assisted in the process.

Andreas Kazamis, who is our Church’s Senior Chanter, is a carpenter by trade.

He will spend a few days working in the new rooms of the Community building in order to make some necessary carpentry work.

Floor mosaic

We are very pleased to announce that the long awaiting floor mosaic has finally arrived and was today placed at the centre of our new Church, right underneath the dome.

It is a mosaic which depicts the double headed eagle, which is regarded as the main symbol of the Byzantine Empire (which was the longest ever lived Greek and Christian Empire) and the emblem of our Greek Orthodox Church.

It symbolizes power as well as ministry over both the Eastern and the Western worlds (one head looks towards East while the other looks towards West).

The artist of this magnificent piece of art is Constantinos Christou from Nicosia, which is the capital city of Cyprus.

The mosaic was sponsored by the brothers Mr. Stefanos Stefanou and Mr. Stelios Stefanou.

Works continue...

We still have various works to complete before we declare the end of our sacred and great project.

The drainage needs some attention; thus certain specialists are looking into it.

The columns in various parts of the exterior of our new Church need cleaning as well as filling in some gaps.

The extension of the first floor of the Community building is also being in the last stages of getting ready for use.

Dormition of the Holy Theotokos

Our Holy Orthodox Church commemorates the most important event of the Dormition of the Mother of God on 15th August.

Concerning the Dormition of the Theotokos, this is what the Church has received from ancient times from the tradition of the Fathers. When the time drew nigh that our Savior was well-pleased to take His Mother to Himself, He declared unto her through an Angel that three days hence, He would translate her from this temporal life to eternity and bliss.

On hearing this, she went up with haste to the Mount of Olives, where she prayed continuously. Giving thanks to God, she returned to her house and prepared whatever was necessary for her burial.

While these things were taking place, clouds caught up the Apostles from the ends of the earth, where each one happened to be preaching, and brought them at once to the house of the Mother of God, who informed them of the cause of their sudden gathering.

As a mother, she consoled them in their affliction as was meet, and then raised her hands to Heaven and prayed for the peace of the world. She blessed the Apostles, and, reclining upon her bed with seemliness, gave up her all-holy spirit into the hands of her Son and God.

In our Parish we respect the Holy Mother of God very highly. On the eve of her Feast of the Dormition we celebrate Vespers and we chant Lamentations in her memory.

This is what we did this evening. Then at the end of the Holy Service we went around our neighbourhood in procession carrying her holy icon.

Mr. Stefanos Stefanou on site

Today we had the honour to welcome Mr. Stefanos Stefanou, the owner of John Doyle Plc -the Construction Company that built our new Church, and Mr. Mark Taylor, the Managing Director of IBEX.

They actually came to meet with the President of our Community Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous and Fr. Anastasios, to talk about some details regarding finalising the works on our site.

Two of Mr. Stefanou employees who are specialising on drainage were also on site, working to sort out a little issue that we had with drainage.

Works on the 1st Floor

The extension on the 1st Floor of our Community Centre is almost ready. Hopefully at the start of the new School Year (beginning of September) it will be ready for use by our Educational Institutions (Nursery and Hellenic College).

Mimis, a Greek man from Consatntinople, works hard to ensure that the walls will be nicely decorated and will look perfect!

Meeting with the Ladies

Last night, after the Holy Service of the Supplicatory Canon dedicated to Virgin Mary, the Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios had a meeting with the Committee of the Ladies’ Sisterhood of Saint Agatha.

The Ladies always have admirable dedication to our Church and Community. They assist in all things needed for the Church. Thus, we are really thankful and grateful to all of them.

This meeting’s agenda had many items. The main ones were the preparation for the forthcoming Consecration of our new Church as well as the Elections for a new Committee to take place on 4th December 2011.

The names of the Ladies as they appear on this post’s picture are:

From left (to the right of Fr. Anastasios): Anna Anastasi, Mary Nicholaou, Despina Georgiades (Treasurer), Helen Georgiades, Anastasia Vassiliou.

From right (to the left of Fr. Anastasios): Myrofora Shiambourou, Lela Vazania (Vice President), Eva Christou (President), Androulla Constanti, Alexandra Constantinou (Secretary).

Steve Keyes honoured

The great sportsman Steve Keyes who cycled the whole country, from Cornwall to Scotland, in support of our Church’s Fundraising Campaign was yesterday at our Church.

Fr. Anastasios, Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous and Mr. Christos Orthodoxou honoured him by presenting him with an honorary plaque and a book. They also congratulated and thanked him on his great achievement.