What a difference a day makes!
Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 June 2005 05:14:56
Yesterday: a delightful musical, a wonderful dinner, seeing my niece...
Today: hearing our priest will be, unless something dramatic happens, be giving up being a priest at our parish.
Fr John, who works a full-time job as well as being our priest, has come to the (very reasonable in all of our opinions) conclusion that he can no longer serve as the sole priest of our parish when he needs to work full-time to support his family. For the past several years, our parish council and priest have tried to work things out with the powers-that-be, but to no avail. Our priest told us today that this will be his last month with us.
Fr John desires to be a full-time priest, but without the financial support he cannot. And we are only a small parish with very limited financial means.
One good thing has come of this - the parish has truly pulled together. We had a meeting after Liturgy to work out a plan of action, and our Parish Council will sit and go through the various ideas. And I heard many people tell of how much they value our English-speaking Mission Parish: both for themselves, and especially for their children. Although we are under the Antiochian jurisdiction, we have Serbs, Greeks and other ethnic groups attending due to the English service, and many are deeply concerned as to where they will go to ensure their children can be brought up in the Orthodox faith.
Might I ask for your prayers at this time for our parish? Please pray for our parish, those who are seeking a way to keep Fr John, and for Fr John and his family -- it was indeed a very hard decision for him to make: it showed in his face and speech when he told us. I know Sts Michael and Gabriel, the patrons of our parish, will be praying with Uriel and Raphael and the other archangels. Thank you.
Lord, have mercy!; Lord, have mercy!; Lord, have mercy!