ANNUAL CHARITY CHRISTMAS FAYRE 2011

Think of the average British parish ‘Christmas Fayre’. Double the size of it. Double it again....... Keep going until you have an event that fills a 1,000-seat Cypriot Wedding venue. To give some idea of the size of the event you may be interested in the following statistics:

Bottle Stall with over 300 bottles as prizes.
A Book Stall offering over 1,000 books.
A selection of hundreds of jars of Home Made Jams and Pickles, mostly made by one lady!!!!
About 100 Poinsettia plants, plus a selection of other plants.
All of this, plus hundreds of handcrafted items and cakes.
To this add groceries, bric-a-brac, nearly new clothes and a wide range of games and other attractions.

The ‘Fayre’s catering is legendary but some further statistics are certainly food for thought!

5 kilos of pork for pork rolls.
150 eggs.
100 rounds of sandwiches.
480 bread rolls for Burgers, Hot Dogs and Bacon and Egg Baps.
3 urns constantly in use.
250 Mince Pies
12 litres of Mulled Wine.

All of this is the result of months of planning by a small hard-working Committee of Church members. The congregations of all three centres of worship: Ayia Kyriaki, St Stephen’s and St Luke’s then join in with weeks of making, baking, collecting and sorting, and one day setting up everything, then the actual event for four hours on a Wednesday afternoon in early December.

And the result of all this? A wonderful example of outreach to both the ex-patriot and Cypriot community; a fun-filled afternoon with entertainment by the Cyprus Police Band, and almost €13,000 raised for Cypriot charities.

Flower Festival in Paphos, Cyprus

A few years ago I suggested to our Chaplain that maybe we should consider having a Flower Festival. I knew we had a number of flower arrangers within in the Anglican Community, so with his approval I put a notice in our Weekly Notice Sheet. I was inundated with offers from people who were willing to help and so our first Flower Festival took place and has since become an annual event.

For our worship we are fortunate to use a wonderful old church which stands on the Roman ruins by St Paul’s Pillar in Kato Paphos, just a few minutes walk from Paphos Harbour. The church, Ayia Kyriaki (St. Kyriaki), or A.K. as she is affectionately known, is an old Cypriot Orthodox Church which the Orthodox Bishop of Paphos, now Archbishop of Cyprus, gave permission for the Anglican Church of Paphos and the Latin Catholic Parish to use for their services a number of years ago.

A number of visitors to our Festivals said how much they would like to learn flower arranging so we set up a small flower club, not only to teach arranging but also to hold workshops to help and encourage those doing the displays at the Festivals. A number of our ladies now travel to Nicosia each month to see the demonstrations at their flower club. This means that the arrangers for our Festivals now not only come from the Anglican and Catholic Churches but also from members of the flower club. We have a wide range of skill and experience between us including one qualified demonstrator, two retired florists and a lot of enthusiastic amateurs, some of our ladies have only had a few lessons before helping with the Flower Festival. Some ladies work together as a group, others on their own.

FLOWER FESTIVAL AT AYIA KYRIAKI CHURCH, KATO PAPHOS.

The 9th Annual Flower Festival will take place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 2nd, 3rd and 4th May 2012 at the lovely old Church of Ayia Kyriaki, Kato Paphos by kind permission of the Cyprus Antiquities Department.

This very popular event, which is organised by members of the Anglican Church, the Latin Parish and the Paphos Flower Club, attracts visitors from all over the world, many of whom arrange their holidays to coincide with the Festival.

The theme of this year's Festival is "Glimpses of Heaven". Passages from the Bible as well as quotations from popular hymns, famous people's lives and the works of great artists and poets who have inspired us over the years, will be depicted in over 20 floral displays around the Church.

The Church will be open from 10 a.m. and each day will be rounded off with an evening of music. A wide variety of homemade refreshments will be available near to the Church throughout the Festival and all profits from the three days will be donated to local charities.

More information is available from Margaret Keeble on 00357 26422380/00357 99533704 or email keeble@cytanet.com.cy

We look forward to seeing you and assure you of a very warm welcome.

NEWS FROM ST STEPHEN'S

Rededication of St Stephen's Tala

Thursday, 16th June 2011, the Thursday following Pentecost Sunday, was a special day in the life of St Stephen's, Tala – it was the day that The Rt. Rev'd Michael Lewis, Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf came and rededicated the renovated building and a number of new items purchased on behalf of St Stephen's for the church by our chaplain, Rev'd Andrew Notere, including the altar, celebrant's chair and the new candles, silver chalices, paten and ciborium and he also celebrated the Holy Eucharist.

St Stephen's has had a major refit by taking out all the remnants of the taverna that it once was – the bar, the industrial kitchen furniture, the old bamboo roof and wiring, the toilets and even the front of the building – and building in its place a much bigger church area, a new social area including a small kitchen and a vestry: a very different building from the one which opened its doors 10 years previously.

The Bishop and all those in the procession robed up in the social area whilst the congregation gathered in the church ready for the 7 p.m. service. There were a number of specially invited guests who joined us including The Abbot of Ayios Neophytos monastery and the Rev'd Tony Jeynes. Everyone had an order of service which had been produced in house by our Parish Administrator, Helen Smith so that the service could flow without any announcements.

The procession went around to the front door where the Bishop started the thanksgiving service from outside and then sprinkled holy water on the door and the interior of the church. The hymns had been selected by members of St Stephen's and included 'Christ is Made the Sure Foundation' and 'The Church's one Foundation'. The offertory hymn was 'O Jesus I have promised' with 'As the Deer Pants for the Water' being sung during the Eucharist. The choir was on this occasion mainly from Ayia Kyriaki and they sang the anthem 'My Eyes for Beauty Pine'. The readings reflected Pentecost with the magnificent passage from Acts chapter 2 verses 1-21, Psalm 104 and 1 Corinthians 12: 3b-13 being read by members of St Stephen's and the gospel, John 20: 19-23 being read by the Rev'd Michael Ellis. The Rt. Rev'd Michael Lewis delivered the homily.

Following the Eucharist, Bishop Michael dedicated the new social area and before the end of the service Rev'd Marvin Bamforth the first chaplain of St Stephen's, Archdeacon John and Rev'd Derek Smith from Limassol each said a few words. Following the blessing and dismissal, the Bishop's procession returned to the social area to the hymn 'Lord for the Years Your Love has Kept and Guided'.

The Bishop joined the congregation for a buffet supper of delicious food which had been provided by members of the congregation. It was held at Stephanie Tavern with the kind permission of Savvas Kyriakou. Boards displaying photographs from various events in the past, the newly equipped church and the children's ministry were displayed in the Taverna.

Our thanks go to all those who helped prepare the service in any way, all those who took part in the service and also provided the refreshments but our special thanks go to Bishop Michael for his support and love.

NEWS FROM ST. LUKE'S

Heavenly Voices???

As part of the St Luke's "Outreach" programme Rev'd Kay, along with her intrepid team of volunteers, organised the annual Praise In the Park on Sunday 18 September.

Held once again at Ayios Andronikas Park in Polis approximately 80 people, including local residents, some from other churches in the area and some from our sister churches of St Stephens in Tala and Ayia Kyriaki in Paphos, sung to well-known hymns, interspersed with readings and poems. In addition, Bruce did an excellent job on the keyboard with his wife, Carole, acting as 'page turner' and Pat Hayward sung "Amazing Grace" magnificently.

We were particularly honoured and pleased this year to welcome Archdeacon John who led us in prayers of Thanksgiving and Peace and Blessed the collection, which raised €300 for Polis Charities.

The timing was perfect; the sun was setting just as the last hymn was being sung. The whole occasion was followed by an excellent meal at Moustakallis Restaurant and our thanks go to Andreas and his staff.

Thanks should also be given to the Mayor of Polis who gave permission for this event to be held and also Mr Demetres without whose assistance we would all have had to stand!!

The next Outreach programme is "Carols for Christmas" to be held at St Luke's Church on Saturday 17 December.