For the fourth Salutations to the Theotokos, our little parish had a visit from a busload of pilgrims from Volos, specifically retired nurses from the Red Cross who act as auxiliary nurses in times of emergency. For fellowship, they organize various excursions and this time about 50 of them came to us. They came about an hour early to the service, so we treated them to a coffee and I spoke to them a bit about our parish and how I ended up in Portaria.
The next week, for the full Akathist Hymn, one of our diocese's preachers, Fr. Pamphilos, came to serve with me.
For years, he has come about twice a year (once during the Great Fast and once during the fast for the Panagia) to hear confessions from his spiritual children. After the service, we set him up in my office where he heard confessions of about 20 people. Here is a lovely photo of him hearing the confessions of two four-year-old cousins.
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