Report to the
Mission Committee Meeting on 20 May
2006
Fr Jacobus
van der Riet
Your Eminence
and fellow committee members
1.
Regular
services at the Chapel of Ss. Constantine & Helen have continued on a weekly
basis, with either the Divine Liturgy or the service of vespers. This limited
program has been necessitated by my having to serve also the parish of St
Basil’s in Springs for the time being.
Apart from Palm Sunday (at St Nicholas in Brixton) and the paschal
vespers of love, there were no Holy Week services for the parishioners of
Eldorado
Park
2.
I have
conducted compline with an akathist on Wednesday evenings at the same chapel,
and hope soon to be able to sing the paraclisis service in Afrikaans, the
translation of which is at present occupying my time. May God help me to finish
this task, through the prayers of the All-holy
Theotokos.
3.
The
attendance at the services in Eldorado Park have been reasonable in the unsettled
circumstances which prevail at present. Some parishioners attend on every
occasion and others on an irregular basis. Some of the young people baptized
years ago have never attended the chapel services. The young people attend the
services without parental involvement, which makes their faithfulness
remarkable, but there is sometimes a lack of liturgical piety during the
services, which necessitates at times a word of reprimand. They responded well,
however, last week when I related the Life of St. Herman of Alaska with the aid of a
picture book, after the end of the vespers service. I intend to invest in more
of these books.
4.
Among the
social problems with which parishioners have to contend include joblessness,
alcohol abuse and fetal alcohol syndrome, incarceration of family members, their
own developmental problems in their adolescence, extreme poverty and a desperate
shortage of adequate housing, teenage pregnancy, a tendency not to complete
education due to lack of motivation or funds, and the death of family members or
parents due to AIDS or other diseases.
5.
I have
continued to teach at the seminary on a weekly
basis.
6.
I am also
starting distance catechism for some Afrikaans and English speaking people in the Springs, Nigel and
Heidelberg
communities who are either married to, engaged to or befriended with Greek
Orthodox faithful. I refer them to Orthodox websites and then set them specific
questions and tasks, which they answer by e-mail.
I ask for the
prayers of Your Eminence and all the committee members for wisdom and
discernment to deal with the many challenges in the parish.
Yours in
Christ
The priest
Jacobus
