Protection Parish Newsletter - June 2011

Baptised: 

Svetlana, Arkady, Nikita

Weddings: 

• David Giles & Anna Pollock (6/5/11); 
• Amedeo Bartolini & Veronica Link (8/5/11)

Laid to rest: 

Valerija Johansen (+4/5/11), Xenia Degrel (+18/5/11), Irina Perekrestov (+24/5/11)

The Rector and Parish Council extend condolences to matushka Elizabeth, Tanya, Dr Helen Kouzmin and their families on the recent loss of their brother, Alexander Kouzmin (Murwillumbah, NSW) and to the Honourable Alex Chernov and other members of Perekrestov/Chernov families on the death of Irina V.Perekrestov

Upcoming Events

• Holy Trinity Parish (Collingwood) patronal feast – Sunday 12 June.
  Rector of HT Parish Fr Igor Filianovsky extends his invitation to our clergy and parishioners to attend their festivities: 10.00 am liturgy, vespers and festive lunch.
• 6th Liturgical Music Conference at Our Lady’s Protection – 13-17 July 2011
  We are looking for people to billet interstate visitors attending the choral conference. As conference delegates will be provided with lunch and dinner, we are looking for people to provide just a bed and maybe breakfast. Please let Inna Smith know if you can either accommodate 1-2 people or can drive them to the church for the conference.

Interested in joining the Sisterhood? - contact Luba Cowall on 0411090550

Protection Parish Newsletter - May 2011

Christ is Risen!

Baptised: 

Nicholas, Victoria, Phoebe, David and Artem

Laid to rest: 

Galina Petrovna Shelamov

Congratulations

...to Fr Nicholas Karipoff for 30 years of service (7/04/81) in the priesthood. May God grant him many years and good health.

The Sisterhood 

...would like to wish the clergy, Parish council, choir and parishioners a very joyous Easter. Thank you for your help and ongoing support.

Thanks to: 

• the 40 people who came and cleaned the church before Easter;
• all the rostered teams plus volunteers (especially Jill and Tania) who provided buffets during April.

If you wish to join in the making of piroshki at some time during the year, contact Luba Cowall on 0411 090 550.

Church murals project:

Since Tonia Ganin’s visit to Melbourne at the end of March she has re-drawn all the designs according to her own exact measurements, mixed all the paints for the entire project from colour-matches of existing murals and has prepared working drawings of the western wall for transfer to canvas. Actual painting on canvas will begin very soon.

Past Events

ROCAM Community Association Ball held on 6 May was a resounding success. ROCAM advertised this as a fundraising event to help our Saturday Russian school and $3,300 was handed to the school.

Thanks, ROCAM committee – Igor, Nick and others.

Upcoming Event

Warrnambool parish feast day on June 5.

Timetable and newsletter items checked and published by the Rector, HPCathedral.

Protection Parish Newsletter - April 2011

Please note: 

Holy Unction Service is on Tuesday 12th April at 6pm.

Choir practice: 

Thursday 7 April, 7pm.

The Sisterhood 

...would like to thank Tatiana for her generous donation of produce.

Interested people who like to join the Sisterhood and work in the church please contact Luba Cowall , Head Sister on 0411 090 550 or speak to her after the church service.

Samosa flavoured piroshki have appeared on the menu. These proved popular on debut.

Thanks to Nick, Irina, Amelia, Elena, Michael, Igor, Chris, 4 more Nicks, and Al for mowing, weeding, cleaning and tidying the grounds and basement on March 26. They filled a 6 cubic meter skip within an hour.

The next church working bee will be held on Saturday 9th April at 9.30 am

for Easter preparations. All welcome to come and help prepare the inside of the church.

Wardens and treasurers conference 29/03/11.

This conference in Sydney was attended by three people from our parish: Fr Nicholas Karipoff (who presented a talk on Normal Parish by-laws), Michael Stirkul (warden) and Alek Bialocerkowski (treasurer). Talks also covered topics of financial reporting (GST, PAYG and ATO rules and expectations), risk management, insurance, police checks and working with children checks for relevant people in the Church. This conference, as well as a meeting for sisterhood workers is envisaged as a regular annual event.

Iconography: 

continuation of mural work. A special hoist was hired from Friday 25 March to enable iconographer Antonina Ganin to reach existing vault murals. She prepared a full colour reference system by matching the colour scheme on pieces of canvas.This is needed because the work will continue in her studio in NSW on canvas. Completed sections will be glued to upper walls.Tonia met with our parish council to discuss the project and to show her sketch designs for all four upper walls. The work which has now started will take two years to complete.

P.S. While we had the hoist it was used on Saturday 26 March during the working bee. Men used it to reach the vaults including the cupola drum to dust off and vacuum cob-webs: up to 17 metres above floor level

University Chaplaincy. 

Fr Kyril is the Orthodox Christian Chaplain to Melbourne University (Parkville Campus), available Thursdays 10am – 2pm, 3rd Floor Union House, and RMIT (City Campus), available Wednesdays 10am – 2pm at the Spiritual Centre. For more info please visit: ascensionorthodox.org

Weddings: 

No weddings (lent!)

Baptised: 

Maxim, Anna and Sienna (Sylvana)

Laid to rest:

Ilya Samovsky

Timetable and newsletter checked and published by the Rector, HPC

Protection Parish Newsletter - March 2011

News: 

• We were fortunate in being allocated a Sunday date (27/02/11) for the visit of the holy relic from Russia – the icon of the Mother of God “The Softener of hardened hearts”.
• New Governor of Victoria: Our community is excited about the selection of Alex Chernov to this high public office. Alex has been our parishioner for most of his life. In the 1960’s he helped the late Bishop Anthony in church services as a subdeacon. His successful legal career lead to a number of high-profile positions in the legal and educational spheres. We wish Alex Chernov blessings from God for his new public role which is to begin soon.
• Over $1800 was raised at the buffet and collection on February 20 in support of the Indonesian Orthodox Church. Thanks to all who supported this worthy cause. Vera, Nadia, Larissa, Alina, Nick, Marina, Ksana, Jonathon, Priscilla, Jim, John, Lucy and one of our local neighbours, Ruth Green, all helped prepare and serve food on the day.
• What is the pile of sand doing next to the church? The heavy rain in early February caused the Merri Creek to flood. As a precaution, a load of sand was delivered in case the water rose high enough to threaten entry to the basement below the church. Fortunately it did not get to that stage but the sand is there just in case. Thanks to Nick, Vlad, Larisa and Sergei.

Events:

• A concert with Cossack songs and traditional musical instruments was held on February 24.
• “Kazachiy Krug”, a group of 13 performers in Russia was represented by their musical director and three other people. They captivated the audience of over 120 people with their energy, soul and musicianship.

Coming Events:

• Great Lent services. This month’s timetable had to be published on two pages – Russian and English separately, due to the sheer number of Lenten services. Plan ahead so you can participate in at least some mid-week services.
• Youth meetings @ 6.00 pm; Theology -@ 7.00 pm at Church community centre the last Sunday of the month: 27/02/11; 27/03/11.( See next month’s newsletter for further dates).
• Group booking to see “Dr Zhivago”: if you interested in attending this musical on Thursday 19th May at 8.00 pm, please contact Inna Smith( Parish Secretary) on 0411 039 625. The group booking cost is $90 (otherwise $100) and payment needs to be made to her by Thursday 24th March.

Baptised:

Melania, John, Roman, Zlata and Christina – all infants.

Laid to rest:

• Nikolaj Willman, +10/01/11

Timetable and newsletter items checked and published by the Rector, HPCathedral.

Protection Parish Newsletter - February 2011

Thanks to:

• the 75 volunteers who cleaned and prepared the Church and hall for Christmas. This was record attendance at a parish working bee. January is a busy month because of all the festal services in the Church calendar, even though some of the other activities, such as study groups, parish school and buffet lunches stop over the school holidays.
• the Russian School parents and teachers who prepared the Christmas party (“Yolka”) and organised the children’s performances. “Tsar Saltan” play (Pushkin) was received with enthusiastic applause. Our school children performed for the first time on the new removable stage. 83 children attended with parents and relatives. Thanks to Galia Ivanenko (Sisterhood) who headed the catering effort.

News

The triennial Diocesan Assembly met in Sydney on December 26 and 27.

Representatives of the Melbourne Parish included Fr. Nicholas Karipoff, Deacon Alexander Abramoff, Alek Bialocerkowski, Luda Cowall, Kiril Kozulin, Inna Smith, Dimitri Souprounovich, Michael Stirkul and Nicholas Wirubov.

Chaired by His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, the meeting passed many progressive proposals, including extensive additions to the “Rules for clergy”, thus bringing many facets of Church life and governance in line with the realities of the world.

Fr Nicholas Karipoff and Alek Bialocerwski were re-elected to Diocesan Council for another three years. Luba Cowall was elected reserve member for the laity.

Baptisms: 

Ten infants: Yulia, Bernice, Alexander, Andrew, Daniel, Maksim, Vincent, Adam, Leonidas and Vladimir – and one adult, John were baptised in our church in January.

Bookshop

Olga welcomes all parishioners to visit the bookshop which has been relocated to the first floor of the hall (up the stairs and to the right). It has also expanded and now has a large selection of literature, icons and crosses.

Sunday school: 

From 10.00 am every Sunday, except on Sundays with 2 liturgies (conducted in English).

Coming events:

• Sat 5 
• 9.15 am – Russian school begins
• 9.30 am – liturgy, St Xenia (not Sunday)
• Sun 6 
• 11.45 am – Back to school prayers
• Buffet, Pensioners’ club
• 1.30 pm – wedding: Vesta & Sebastien
• Sun 13 
• 1.00 pm - wedding: Alisa & Athansios
• Sun 20 
• Buffet, fundraiser for Indonesian Missions.
• Volunteers needed to help prepare (contact Inna Smith 0411 039 625);
• 1.00 pm – wedding: Svetlana & David
• Sun 27 
• 6.00 pm – Youth meeting.
• Theology groups, English and Russian: to be announced, subject to Rector’s availability

Timetable and newsletter checked and published by the Rector, HPC