Columns on the Facade

The foreman Mick and the employee Adrian are working the last few days on the Facade.

They are filling in the small holes and gaps on the columns, in order to complete their final presentation.

Adrian loves being photographed.

Gates and Metal Railings

New Gates and Metal Railings are being fixed today in front of our new Church.

The Metal Railings are being fixed on the brick wall and they certainly provide a nice and decorative touch to our front yard.

They will most probably finish by tomorrow and they will add to tiding up of the outside area of our magnificent Church.

They will also help with the security of our Church yard.

Facade unveiled

Some of the workers with their foreman were today working in our new Church.

The scaffolding company ATLAS has moved during the afternoon all of the scaffolds from the front of our Church. The Facade has now been unveiled and looks splendid.

A clean face for our new place of worship to welcome the Clean Monday (the day after tomorrow), which is the first day of Great Lent in our Eastern Orthodox calendar.

This is certainly going to be the most joyous Great Lent ever, for our Community and for our very supportive Parishioners.

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.

Sanctuary... live!

Although it is a snowy day today, our Church is filled with various kinds of experts working in different projects here and there.

Arches are being fixed on the Facade.

Electricians have put about 1000 tubes in place. Carpenters are organising the Solea.

A video shows how the various works are progressing around the Sanctuary area.

Inside / Outside

I visited our new Church a few times today. It was really very busy everywhere.

In the front some workers where fixing the arches on the Facade.

On the top of the roof a roofer was fixing a part of the roof in order to put there the red tiles.

At the back of the Sanctuary a copper engineer was fixing his materials on the small semi dome.

Moving inside I spoke with the plasterers, who said that in two days I shall “see the back of them”!

Because of the fact that plastering has almost been completed other workers were dismantling the scaffolding.

It was really quite emotional to see how it looks now in there. The Dome appears in its splendour and the whole of the interior in front of us, in white colour, symbolising purity. A really fantastic sight.

Facade - change by the hour

Every day and even every hour in the last few days we notice some kind of development at the Facade.

Now, as the grey of the cement moves behind the bricks and the stone it really shows!

The arches, the columns, the designs of the bricks, they all contribute to the beautification of the Facade.

These works are credit to our properly trained, highly equipped and committed staff; but above all they are a gift from above, a present from the heavens, a charisma that our Great and Holy God has granted us; for that we are thankful and grateful to Him.

St. Andrew’s Day and snow

Our Orthodox Church commemorates the blessed memory of St. Andrew today. According to the Greek culture St. Andrew is “an angel of winter”; the weather from today becomes stronger and colder.

We welcomed the snow today in Harrow, but we are conscious of the difficulties that it brings, especially in our case, when we are trying hard to complete as soon as possible our sacred project.

But, when I got up to the highest point of our Facade this afternoon I found there a joyful Adrian (one of our Romanian workers) who said to me that this weather brings Christmas closer!

Progress on the Facade

The bricklaying is continuing on the Facade of our new Church.

Red bricks, yellow bricks, white stone, brown windows are covering slowly - slowly the grey cement.

Apparently this whole process is being developing like an interesting game of colours!

Facade bricklayed

Rich sunshine today in our area. The time has now come for the facade to get bricklayed.

An English proverb says that “the eyes are the window to the soul”, while a similar Greek proverb goes “the face is the mirror of the soul”.

In any case the face is extremely important; not just the face of a person but of a building as well. It definitely tells you something (if not a lot) about the essence and the character of that place.

And if a building is a place of worship then you would expect the face (or facade) to tell you at least something of the faith that is professed by the people worshiping there. In time this will become very obvious.

All kinds of works

Amazing! So many different specialists are working today at our new Church.

Bricklayers are working on the facade. Others are up there on the Bell Tower, where the Holy Cross has now been fixed.

Copperlayers are working at the back of the Church, putting copper on the central Sanctuary apse. Plasterers and electricians are inside the Church doing their own work.

A really busy workmanship beehive!

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.