Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, Hail in the Lord! We praise God and thank both the Brotherhood and the friends and associates of the Foreign Mission for the fact that, despite all the critical period we are going through, you have not ceased to strengthen and encourage us in this blessed work of our Church. In the midst of difficulties we too are tested, since our faith is being tested. A short while ago I was reading in the Acts of the Apostles the sufferings of the Apostle Paul. Of course, there is no comparison, but we take many examples from the First after the One that the way of Salvation and Mission is not flowery. We continue our struggle, having reduced the charitable work and several expenses that we could. The people and the priests protested but it could not be otherwise. To this end, according to the instructions of His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodore, who foresaw the coming crisis years ago, we are trying to create small works for mission income. We are at the beginning, but with God’s help we hope they will bear fruit.
Thanks to the sensitivity of your Brotherhood’s expatriate donor from Canada, the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Diego will soon become a reality. After several years, the Christians of the city will have a Church of their own to celebrate the Holy Services and especially the Divine Liturgy. Also, thanks to your care, we have begun the drilling sponsored by a friendly donor from Athens.
The fight continues
The struggle continues, albeit reduced in terms of activities. What we are particularly concerned about is the work of the orphanage which has almost stopped. Please, if there are any donors for this project, it would be a blessing to continue it slowly. The work that has been done covers 70%. We hope to find donors to complete it. The seminary classes ended with five graduating students, some of whom wish to become priests. Our schools, elementary, middle and high schools, finished for this school year with satisfactory results. In fact, the high school sponsored by your Brotherhood in Tulear is among the first. It has 450 students with many successes in higher institutions. This year we are going to fill more classrooms because we have a large number of students. The clinics continue to offer their services and alleviate the suffering of the poor people. Two Temples that we had started last year are coming to an end. At the same time, we are repairing 4 Temples that were badly damaged by the weather and were not usable. Finally, there is a need for a water tank in a village in Tulear. The people are suffering and as usual they are carrying the water with jerry cans from a nearby village. The capacity will be 25-30 m3 and the cost will be about 9,000 €.
Missionary visits
Recently we were visited by two excellent clergymen from Greece. One was Fr. Gregory Papathomas, professor of Theology at the University of Athens, and the other was Fr. George Fragiadakis, theologian, philologist and lawyer. During these intervals they organized a seminar for the clergy and catechists of our Metropolis, spoke to the faithful and helped many people with their advice. Fr. Gregory visited Reunion Island and gave a lecture on “St. Gregory Palamas and mental prayer”. ¾ of the audience were French Catholics. Orthodoxy is constantly gaining ground and becoming more and more known in today’s world. Let us pray that God will present workers in the vineyard for more fruitfulness. For indeed the labourers are few. With the love of Christ
† Ignatius of Madagascar
