By the grace and mercy of our Saviour and by the intercessions of His holy and glorious Apostles, whose holy assembly our holy Church celebrates today, I write to you from our missionary house to tell you:
- That with God’s help we celebrated the first consecration, the first I. Eucharist and the first Divine Liturgy. Mass in a suitable place, with holy martyr relics brought from our Holy Metropolis. Immediately the atmosphere changed. A grace and an inner contentment and joy filled our souls.
- We talked it over with Pastor Albert and his wife Mila, and not only do they agree that Sime and his wife Louisa should be baptized and become the first priest here, but he himself wishes to be baptized and ordained, and regrets that he will not be the first. I told him that he will take the name of my holy old man Amphilochius and after his ordination he will receive the officiate of the protopresbyter and he will be the head of all, after the bishop, as he is now, as the head of the Pentecostal Community. That he will indicate to me who will have their turn for Holy Baptism, and after all have come, because they listen to him, at the end he and his wife, who wishes to be called Mary, will be baptized. His desire is to be baptized in Jerusalem and his ordination will take place in Patmos after he takes the name of the Elder of Patmos.
- We said that we will baptize the children of the Orphanage and from now on it will be the Orphanage of the Orthodox Church, which will take care of it.
- These days I am dealing with my Elder Amphilochios of Patmos, to dedicate the 2010 calendar to the 40th anniversary of his holy burial, and his invisible presence opens paths and makes the difficult easy. Have his blessing.
- Today, on All Saints’ Day, Albert brought a contractor from his company, we made the plan, measured and by Thursday we hope to have the Baptistery ready so that on Friday the baptisms of Sime and Louisa can take place, so that he can attend them too, because on Saturday he is scheduled to go to Australia.
- On Thursday we will be in the country’s capital city of Suva, where Albert has arranged to see the Minister of Foreign Affairs to arrange our residence and missionary work permit.
- On Friday the dear Fr Christodoulos and a little later the dear Fr Paul and his elder mother will arrive from America to help in the beginning of the Mission.
- After the payment of the house, in 1-2 weeks, we will start building, in the courtyard, the Church of St. Paraskevi with the help we expect from Aspropyrgos.
After all this, how can we not be happy and thank from the depths of our souls our Christ for his blessings, the Virgin Mary and the Saints for their help and you for your prayers? Thanks be to God for all things. Amen.
With His love
The New Zealand Amphilochius
