Taking up the Cross of Christ, thou didst pass from royal glory to the glory of heaven, praying for thine enemies, O Holy Martyr Princess Elisabeth, and with the Martyr Barbara, thou didst find everlasting joy; therefore pray ye on behalf of our souls! - Troparion, tone 4
Hello, friends!
Please forgive my absence from the blogosphere over the past few weeks. I have been very busy with church stuff in the run-up to our move into the new church. There were practical matters to do with the building and lots of fun to do with things musical and liturgical. It all paid off. We had a splendid and blessed day on Saturday, with parishioners, friends, and visitors coming from Chester, Manchester, Oldham, Liverpool, Southport, and Stonyhurst, in addition to the local residents and visitors from the other local churches, and members of the local council, who came for various parts of the day.
It was really a joyous time in the life of our parish, and now that there is a little more canonical normality than only a few years ago, we were able to welcome Fr Pancratios of the Constantinople patriarchate and Fr Gregory of the Antiochian church, to concelebrate. Father Paul preached a very moving sermon about the life of St Elisabeth and our need to follow in her footsteps in giving of our time, our love, and our resources for others, especially in a time when the world teaches us to climb over everybody in order to get what we want. Daniel from St Aidan's gave up his day to be with us, for which I personally am very grateful because he was a great help. The Cross-procession went exceptionally well.
The building is still being worked on. The iconostas has yet to be finished and the floor sealed but we're slowly getting there. That should all be finished by this week. There are some photographs on the diocesan gallery. Please ignore the ones of the fat reader. :-)
Now we just have to prepare for the visitation of the relics of St Elisabeth on the 1st of August. What a marvellous way to start life in a new church!
Holy New-Martyr Elisabeth, pray to God for us!
