With the grace of God, the blessings of our Patriarch and your efforts, last September we finished the construction of the Church of Saint Charalambos in the town of Sangmelima in Southern Cameroon, which is 140 km from the capital Yaoundé. The construction had begun in 2007 with a donation from the Brotherhood. As I explained to you, the contractor made several mistakes and we had to stop the construction at the foundation level. We restarted in November 2013 with a new contractor and in September 2014 we finished the construction and added a small house for the Priest. On December 27, the Feast of the First Martyr and Archdeacon Stephen, I visited the parish with other clergy of the Holy Metropolis and celebrated the inauguration of the Church and the first Divine Liturgy.
We thanked our Lord for the new opportunity that He is giving us, with the establishment of this parish, to promote the apostolic work in one of the important cities of Cameroon with excellent prospects. We thanked the Greek donor of the land, Mr. Stefanos Kokkinidis, a resident of the area – who was present with his family at the divine service – and the former Presidents of the Brotherhood, Mr. Vaio Pranzo and Mr. Konstantinos Daoudakis for the adoption of the Church on behalf of the Brotherhood and the noble donors, living and deceased, for the bravery of their faith and their love for the forgotten commandment “walk ye evermore, and make disciples of the nations”. May the Lord give them a hundredfold of their offerings and grant eternal rest to those of them who have fallen asleep. We will humbly remember them at every Divine Liturgy. This, of course, is the beginning. A new field of struggle opens before us now: to organize the parish, to begin the catechetical classes, until Christ is formed in the hearts of our newly enlightened brothers and sisters, and until Christ, in return, educates them through His grace.
We are pinning our hopes on the continued presence of Fr. John, a young and active priest, who is also familiar with the local dialect and has settled in with his family, including his adopted children. For all these great and wonderful things for our local Church we ask for the blessings and prayers of all of you and we embrace all of you “in the holy spirit”, wishing every spiritual blessing in your labours and struggles. For the love of the Lord,
the Cameroon Gregory
