Be a Founder
"If there is a village with no church and it wants to build one, it requires hard work and diligence. Put not your trust purely in the financial forecast alone. Delays can spiral costs. Rather, put your love and trust in one’s Guardian Angels and the Saints and your efforts will be repaid and a church will be built.”
Although the above quote was garnered from the Internet it is almost worthy of the Holy Fathers and it is certainly worthy of us who seek a church building here in the North of England. We need only to look all around us at God’s bountiful munificence in providing numerous places of worship from the humble village church to the most magnificent of cathedrals. God goes before such foundations and God directs, protects and guides such Gates of Heaven. When asked by his disciples why God allowed his hermitage to be burned to the ground, Father Cleopas answered them:
"For our sins and to renew the foundations!"
So, from time to time buildings need to be renewed. God destroys and sets up where he sees fit. He raises a new church (or buy and repair one in our case), so that we might adorn and beautify the Bride of Christ and thereby hallow all those who come.
The new church is dedicated and consecrated by the actions of God but not only that. Also all those who helped to establish this new foundation, its helpers and benefactors are also remembered in the Church litanies. During the Litany of Fervent Supplication we pray:
“Furthermore we pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, visitation, forgiveness and remission of the sins of the servants of God: benefactors, trustees, members and supporters of this holy church.”
Blessed art thou, O my soul, for being great or humble, rich or poor, educated or simple, to be mentioned such as this!
For the acquisition of our church we set up a charity, " Saint Makarios The Great Ecclesiastical Trust" and opened a bank account with NatWest into which donations can be made. In order to learn how to make donations please visit the Charity page or contact one of the trustees directly at sfmacarie@gmail.com.
Diaspora Community
The needs of the Church amongst the Diaspora are manifold. It is not simply the sanctifying work of the Mysteries (which is Christ’s holy presence in our midst’s making us holy from cradle to grave). But, it is also the gift of being the centre of a community.
And this is beneficial, spiritually speaking, when the idea of “community” is not to be confused with that of a "club" that meets only on a Sunday but when the community is perceived as one large family grouped together around the church in common prayer and engaged seriously in the Christian life. Regardless of the reasons that led us to emigrate, even in the most hardened of hearts, one can feel our identity in such a community, despite living in a ‘strange’ land.
This feeling of alienation can be quite profound and within the folds or our church ones homeland can be felt. Through Divine Worship held in our mother tongue and in common prayer we can discover the true heart of much of which is ignored at home: the local parish, it’s priest, the monastery at the edge city, the veneration of icons, reading spiritual matter, the peel of bells on a Sunday morning and the celebration of Christian festivals.
For most part being the Church of the Diaspora requires effort: the effort to seek out Orthodox worship, the effort to integrate into the church community, the effort to travel many miles of motorway in order to seek out a parish, not to mention cost. But the price paid is always beneficial to our soul in the long run. We have all been called to work and worship in every place in the world.
"In every place of His Dominion, Bless the Lord O my soul" (The last verse of Psalm 102).
