Patronal Festival - July 2014

The Hymn of Kassiani

The Hymn of Kassiani, also known as the Hymn of the Fallen Woman, is a Penitential Hymn that is based on the Gospel reading for Holy Wednesday morning (Matthew 26:6-16), which speaks of a sinful woman who anoints Jesus' feet with costly ointment. This hymn is chanted only once a year and considered a musical high-point of the Holy Week, at the Matins and Presanctified Liturgy of Holy Wednesday, in the Plagal Fourth Tone.

Tonight this Hymn was chanted in our Church by the Senior Chanter Mr. Andreas Kazamias, accompanied by the Lambadarios Dr. Panayiotis Procopiou.

Palm Sunday by 3

A). Palm Sunday morning

Our Lord has entered Jerusalem. He also entered our Church and our hearts and we welcomed Him by holding palms and olive branches.

Following the Cypriot liturgical order we had a procession around our Church; we had prayers at the back of the Church as well as in the front.

Then we gathered inside and the Priest after he had read a relevant Gospel he blessed the palm crosses and the olive branches.

At the end of the Service all members of the congregation received a palm cross as a blessing.

B). Palm Sunday afternoon

After the morning Service in our Church many of the Community members had gathered at the Golden Kitchen Fish Restaurant in North Harrow for a lovely fish meal, according to our Religious and Cultural Tradition.

Petros & Anastasia Christofi, the proprietors of the Restaurant, with the assistance of their son Yiannaki, welcomed everyone and offered a delicious meal.

The Priest, the Chairman of the Community Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous and the Teasurer Mr. Soteris Constantinou thanked the Christofi family and offered them a present.

C). Palm Sunday evening

“Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the midst of the night and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching”!

At the beginning of Holy Week (Palm Sunday evening) we held at our Church the first Sacred Service of the Bridegroom.

The icon of the Bridegroom Jesus was taken by the Priest around the congregation and then it was placed in front of the icon-screen, for everyone to see it and venerate it!

Holy Week 2014

The Programme of the Sacred Services at our Church for this year’s Holy and Great Week is as follows:

The true Holy Cross in our Church

We were truly blessed to have received on 5^th December 2013 in our Church a true fragment of the Holy & Precious & Life-Giving Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It came from Jerusalem where it is kept and preserved by the Holy Fathers of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem. While in London it is kept overnight at the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain.

The President of our Community Mr. Pantelis Demosthenous brought it in his car in the morning of the 5^th December together with the Deacon Charalambos from Jerusalem and arrived early in the morning in front of our Church. In the evening the Holy Cross was returned to the Archdiocese in the car of the Treasurer of our Community Mr. Soteris Constantinou and his wife Alexandra, who is the President of St. Agatha Ladies Sisterhood of our Community.

Thousands of worshippers flocked to our Church of Saint Panteleimon and Saint Paraskevi to catch a glimpse of the very Cross on which Jesus was crucified and to venerate it.

A series of Sacred Services were held throughout the day by Fr. Anastasios and visiting Priests, while worshippers travelled from as far as Kent to touch, kiss and pray in front of the Holy Relic.

The visit of the Holy Cross had generated a lot of interest and emotions amongst the members of the Greek and Russian Communities in England.

There were many people with disabilities and illnesses who had come to touch the Cross, hoping for a real and quick answer to their fervent prayers.

The True Cross had been discovered by St. Helen, when she travelled to Jerusalem in 327 AD. A number of fragments exist in Churches and monasteries in Jerusalem, Greece and Cyprus.

A Greek Orthodox pilgrim and a Romanian Orthodox member of our Community had talked to an English journalist who came to see and experience this great event and said:

“It is not every day you get a chance to see a part of the Holy Cross. It is a great honour and a great opportunity to pay our respects” (Marios Minaides, chairman of the Association of Greek Communities in Great Britiain).

“It is the most holy object in the world. That word «holy» is almost not enough to describe it. To touch something that Jesus himself has touched it is like we have touched him. This is a great opportunity in my life. I’m very happy” (Marius Ionescu).

Various newspapers and web-sites dedicated space for this historic moment in the life of our Community. Some of them are these:

Harrow Times

Harrow Times

Get West London

The Holy Cross in our Church

The Holy, Precious & Life-Giving Cross of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ

in our Church and Community

Following the request of our Sacred Archdiocese of Thyateira & G.B., and that of the Russian Orthodox Church in Britain, His Beatitude Theophilos the Patriarch of Jerusalem and the Synod of the Holy Sepulchre, have agreed to bless the visit of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross to the United Kingdom for our people to venerate.

The Holy Cross will be in our Holy Church of St. Panteleimon & St. Paraskevi on Thursday 5th December 2013 all day. There will be Matins and Divine Liturgy, 9.30 - 11.30 am, and afterwards there will be other Services in front of the Holy Cross.

We invite all Orthodox Christians to come to our Church to venerate the Holy Cross, to be blessed and edified by it, and to find through the grace of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross health, happiness, forgiveness and remission of sins, the guidance and protection of their children, the strengthening of their family, and divine enlightenment of young and old.

With profound theological poetry, the Church invites the people of God to venerate and pray before the Precious and Life-Giving Cross: “Come, all ye nations, let us adore the blessed Tree, through which everlasting justice hath come to pass...”.

With great joy we expect to see you all come to our Church with devotion and holy humility to pray and bow down before the Holy Cross! Come with faith and the desire to find redemption and the salvation of your souls from Him who was crucified and suffered for us, our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be dominion, glory and boundless mercy for ever and ever. Amen.

Honouring George Stylianou

Last Sunday (10th November 2013) the Church Committee honoured four important members of our Community.

Amongst them was Mr. George Stylianou, ex Treasurer of our Community and one of our present Trustees, who could not be there, as he is in old age and ill. He is lately hospitalised at our local General Hospital, Northwick Park Hospital.

Yesterday, Wednesday 13th November 2013, His Eminence the Metropolitan Bishop George of Paphos, accompanied by our Parish Priest Fr. Anastasios and the President of our Community Mr. Pandelis Demosthenous visited Mr. Stylianou at the Hospital and presented him with the commemorative plague. He was very happy to receive this honour!