Saint Sophrony Fundraiser Night – A Great Success!!
The newly established parish of St Sophrony of Essex, located in Hectorville, South Australia, held a large fundraiser on Sunday 30 July that attracted over two hundred supporters to a fun-filled, community focused Quiz Night. The event was blessed by the presence of His Grace Bishop Silouan of Sinope, who represented His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia and conveyed His prayers and blessings to the attendees, as well as clergy from around Adelaide including Fr Barnabas Jellings, priest of the only other English-speaking parish in Adelaide, whose wisdom and enthusiasm for missionary work has inspired many at St Sophrony Parish.
Heavily supported by the Greek Welfare Centre of South Australia, CEO Fr Jeremy Krieg honoured St Sophrony Parish with his attendance, as did Fr Panagiotis Kouvoussis, parish priest of the Holy Monastery of St Nectarios who generously donated the use of their hall for this significant event.
The evening was a resounding success, raising $11,152 which will be put towards the purchase of the St Sophrony church building. During an intermission, His Grace Bishop Silouan provided attendees with an overview of the direction of St Sophrony Parish and presented architectural plans for the renovation of the church building.
These developments will involve removing modern additions to the building to restore the heritage high arched ceiling and wooden flooring, while also increasing the capacity of the church by reinstating the back rooms into the sanctuary of the church, as was their original purpose.
Fr Daniel Bradshaw and the parish committee expressed gratitude to all the volunteers and businesses who supported this important fundraising endeavour. The dozen benevolent businesses owners who donated vouchers and prizes to assist the fledgling parish of St Sophrony were promoted numerous times throughout the night as an expression of appreciation for their gracious support. Furthermore, this event would not have been possible without the tireless help of so many volunteers; the kind-hearted and generous people who spent days seeking businesses to sponsor the evening, assisting with preparations, and running the events of the night.
Notably a team of volunteers from the Philoptochos of the Holy Monastery of St Nectarios worked tirelessly to prepare all the hot food available on the night, facilitating the sale of hundreds of servings of hot chips, pizza, and hot dogs to keep all attendees well fed and content.
May God reward these selfless and charitable individuals for their valuable work towards establishing one of the first English speaking parishes in Australia, founded for the glorification of His name.
